Cost Per Call vs. Cost Per Lead
As an advertiser in the lead generation space you probably on a continual basis are feeling the daily pains of bitter competition. Whether you are advertising on pay per click networks like Google, Yahoo, and or Bing or have an offer running on one of the many CPA networks you understand that competition is one of the driving forces behind rising lead prices. With a main goal in mind of cutting your customer acquisition costs, has it ever occurred to you that cost per call might be a viable source to generate a sky high ROI?
In comparison of the two metrics of purchasing performance-based media, cost per lead is, in most cases, the most popular metric currently being utilized. The main reason being that most companies just don’t understand cost per call as well as they don’t have the call center capabilities to handle the large volume’s of calls on a daily basis that arise from most cost per call campaigns. What companies don’t understand is that cost per call is not as complicated as some make it out to be. As far as the issue of over working the call center with unqualified calls, that could be easily mitigated with a simple voice answering service that acts as a filter in only letting the most qualified calls through to your reps. If you have ever done a cost per call campaign you have most likely experienced the large amount of unqualified calls that come in and the voice answering will save you valuable call center man power.
The next thing to look at is competition, which is the main driver of the price that you are paying out on a call. Cost per call is still a rather new metric so the competition has yet to pick up on monetizing this form of media buying. So, in essence, because these campaigns are still quite scarce you will most likely be able to dictate terms of what you agree to pay for i.e. call time, price per call, and tracking methodology. An advertiser does not have this type of buying power in most cases in the lead generation space mainly due to competition.
The next thing to look at is tracking. Tracking for cost per call is a lot more simplistic in comparison to online lead generation campaigns. The reason being that you could track all your conversion statistics right down to the specific phone number or multiple phone numbers that you give out to a particular affiliate.
In conclusion, if you are an advertiser looking to generate qualified leads and want to lower your acquisition costs, cost per call is a growing niche that could very easily lower your acquisition costs and be a long term viable source of revenue.
