One health products company spent millions annually for online marketing. But the results weren’t great. Less than 3 percent of those who clicked on the online ads went on to place an order.

They discovered that the percentage went up considerably if the prospective customer spoke with a person who could explain a product and how it was used. Those calls resulted in 20 percent of clients placing an order.

The company signed up with Marchex, an organization selling mobile advertisements that automatically connects smartphones to a call center.

With this program, and others like it, cellphone customers can instantly go from an online search engine ad to a human being.

With the human connection, browsing customers turn into paying customers who order more in the future.

Google also has an ad program for cellphones. The click-to-call program evolved from a stepchild project into a major initiative. An estimated 500,000 customers now use it, say technology experts at Bloomberg Businessweek.

When a smartphone user visits a website with advertising, or searches Google, the ad or website can include a phone number. When the user clicks the number, their phone dials the seller. Marchex and Google only charge advertisers for calls that are of a certain length, filtering out telemarketers and wrong numbers.

Some companies are increasing their number of such ads, but the plan doesn’t work out for everyone. Other companies didn’t like it and quit using the system.

Both Google and Marchex sell similar ads for desktop PCs, but customers have to pick up the phone and dial instead of clicking. Both companies are now working on a way to route PC-based calls so callers speak directly through their computers.

Could this be something your business finds useful? If so, please be sure you post your findings below in our comment section.

Cheers to all,
Carmen, “The Publicity Diva”