In the pay-per-call (PPCall, also known as cost-per-call) advertising model, the number of phone calls made by ad viewers determines the rate that the advertiser must pay. Pay Per Call companies charge by the number of calls, impressions, or conversions. Though it encourages the viewer to call rather than visit an external website, it is comparable to online pay per click (PPC) advertising. Pay Per Call campaigns are advantageous for local and regional businesses as well as enterprises seeking to reach specific locations because they enable customers to speak with the seller prior to making a purchase. Pay-per-call advertising vendors claim that the model lowers the costs of online click fraud and credit its growth to the widespread use of smartphones [1]. [2]
Premium-rate phone numbers are not the same as pay-per-call advertising.[3] The opposite of a premium phone number, pay-per-call charges the advertiser who answers the call rather than the caller. The rates are higher than those for toll-free phone number service because it is cost per lead advertising. Generally speaking, the advertiser only gets charged for calls that are at least one minute long.
The duration of interactions (since callers spend more time interacting with the business on the phone than looking at their website) and the probability of fraud through calls is significantly reduced are factors that might increase Pay Per Call pricing, but also increases its effectiveness.