Google Advertisements and Phone Calls

The companies that have been interested in advertising through mobile services are having a lot of success when they have the users of smartphones do something out of the ordinary. These companies are having the smartphone users make phone calls and it actually seems to be working.

Mobile advertising has become the next big thing in the world of advertising, especially as an increasing number of people own a smartphone. In fact, smartphone usage has done more than doubled within the past two years alone. Just about 44% of mobile phone users own and operate smartphone. And, the vast majority of smartphone users are going on the Internet every single day. More than half, approximately 69% of smartphone users in the United States, get on the Internet on a daily basis. It is expected, that by the end of 2012, $2.61 billion will have been spent on smartphones alone, which is an increase from $1.45 billion that was spent during 2011.

With such huge growth in the number of people who own and operate a smartphone, many companies are competing with one another. Google is at the top of the list, due to its Google search engine and the Android, which has beat out Apple with a deal of acquiring AdMob for about $750 million. The deal took place in 2010 and at the same time, Apple established its own advertising network, called iAd, which lets advertisers place media advertisements on specific iOS applications. And, even the popular social networking platform, Facebook, is trying to find a way to get in on the mobile advertisement spectrum, hinting towards preparing for mobile advertisement space.

With all of the competition, one may find it kind of strange that certain companies want smartphone users to make calls. But, it makes sense. As Google is the leader of mobile advertising right now, the company allowed advertisements to be displayed, which could easily be tapped by the smartphone user, to instantly make a phone call. And, since doing this, the Google advertisements have managed to rake in millions of calls each month.

And, this type of approach has been useful for companies that have already relied on call centers as a means of creating new business. Esurance, for example, claims that the click-to-call advertisements have helped with the company’s campaign, by nearly 25%. The company also said that the calls that came in from these advertisements often led to sales. There are still a lot of people who prefer to do transactions through the phone and this is why the Esurance Director of Online Marketing, Tolithia Kornweibel, believes that the click-to-call advertisements are a fantastic idea.

Other companies are following in the lead, including 1-800-Flowers and Comcast, a popular cable provider. With these click-to-call advertisements, both companies claim to have seen a large surge in mobile sales.