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In late January our office was visited by a couple representatives from a major Yellow Pages publisher.\u00a0 They make these trips periodically to keep us up-to-date on new products and allow for face-to-face meetings to discuss client programs.\u00a0 During their general presentation, they encouraged everyone to include call tracking lines on their Internet Yellow Pages placements, as it really helps us measure the full value of the product.\u00a0 The publisher rep even said that often you\u2019ll see Internet Yellow Pages programs draw more calls than clicks, because people use the IYPs much like a phone book\u2014they look up the number they want and call it without even needing to click for more information.<\/p>\n
Upon hearing this, I became curious as to how this dynamic was playing out among our testing.\u00a0 When we project results for typical U.S.-based IYP programs, we estimate that 10 clicks equal one call\u2014meaning, that for every 10 clicks to an IYP listing, you can expect one qualified lead.\u00a0 In many cases this would be a call at the time of reference, but it can also be someone who contacts the business another way\u2014perhaps in person or via a non-tracked phone number they retrieved later from another source.<\/p>\n
In looking at some programs we\u2019re currently testing, I was pleased to discover that the 10 clicks-to-one call ratio is actually quite conservative.\u00a0 I focused on four programs we have running where all listings have an associated test line (meaning the click\/call potential should be proportionate), and in each the number of clicks it takes to produce a phone call is often considerably less than 10.<\/p>\n
For example, we have a large IYP program running on YP.com<\/a> for a major hotel client.\u00a0 On average in 2012, the program drew nearly 150,000 clicks and over 30,000 calls per month, meaning that the program drew one call for every five clicks.\u00a0 Another national client, this one in the Auto Repair category, has a program running on DexKnows.com<\/a>, a major IYP site whose strongest usage is in the Rocky Mountain states and Pacific Northwest.\u00a0 Their current corporate-level program has only been active for the past seven months, but during that time, they\u2019ve averaged seven calls for every 10 clicks!\u00a0 I also looked at franchise-level programs for a client in the Home Health Services category, across a variety of IYP sites (the two sites above, plus Superpages.com<\/a> and Yellowbook.com<\/a>\n