JumpTap integrates mobile search and pay-per-call
Pay Per Call advertising company Ingenio has partnered with mobile search and advertising company JumpTap to provide pay-per-call ad listings within JumpTap search results.
While Ingenio's pay-per-call offering began in a desktop environment when the company launched in 2004, momentum has been growing for mobile implementations, according to Marc Barach, Ingenio's chief marketing officer.
Prior to September, Ingenio had two mobile partners: AOL Mobile and Go2. In the past few months, Ingenio has inked mobile distribution deals with Microsoft's Windows Live Mobile, Mapquest and JumpTap.
Ingenio has 105 employees and top shelf investors such as The Carlyle Group and Benchmark Capital.
How does it work?
When a user sends a search query to JumpTap’s custom branded system through their mobile phone, they are presented with pay-per-call ads along with the search results, letting carriers like Alltel, a JumpTap partner, generate additional revenue if the user calls that particular business from their phone. Pay-per-call only charges the advertiser for the ad if the user initiates a call.
The press release contains some interesting statistics and market research, for example Jupiter Research rates mobile ad spending in the U.S. at $1.4 billion in 2006, projected to grow to $2.9 billion in 2011. The Kelsey Group estimates the market for pay-per-call advertising will more than double each year for the next five years, with revenues reaching $3.7 billion by 2010. So both mobile ads and pay per call are rapidly growing markets.
"Consumers are starting to be mobile information consumers. As a result, we're seeing hardware and services providers cluster around that need, providing better ways for consumers to use their devices to get local services and information," Barach told ClickZ.
"We believe pay-per-call as a business model will be the primary monetization model for mobile search, bringing more advertisers to that environment and serving useful content to consumers."
The ClickZ article also had these great statistcis and observations:
Barach says advertisers understand that the value of a phone call is higher than that of a click, and that's reflected in Ingenio's per-call prices. On Ingenio's system, the average advertiser bid for a call is between $8 and $10.
He also notes that the nature of mobile searches is changing. While the majority of searches continues to be at-hand or impulse searches for things like taxis, restaurants or flowers, a quarter of mobile searches are now made in more "considered purchase" categories, like financial services, travel, or cable and satellite TV.
That's good news for Ingenio, since keywords for those categories tend to fetch a higher price in Ingenio's auction, as much as $6 to $30 per call compared to impulse buys, which tend to be in the $2 to $4 range, Barach said.
Good news indeed!
Is there a mobile search item that you think we should feature? Email tips@goobile.com. Thanks!
Subscribe to GoobileSponsored Links & Partner Sites: > TelecomWeb: Global Business News, Market Research and Competitive Analysis. |
Call, for strategy, business and partnering advice. | 
| Email Walter Adamson | Call (Australia) +61 403 345 632.
i-mode Strategy offers independent audits, analysis, project reviews and mobile strategy business advice, seminars and round tables, conference chair and speaking, magazine articles and press comment centered on the mobile content and mobile services ecosystem and DoCoMo's i-mode mobile internet system. Walter Adamson and Pascal Lorne also operate the i-mode Contents Forum, more details here. Walter Adamson is Founder and President of Digital Investor which helps fund, grow, expand internationally and buy and sell IT, wireless and mobile-related early-stage companies. Contact: adamson [at] digitalinvestor.com.au