Advertisers now showing "Call this number"

in my site.... I thought this was over.

[loanuniverse]

A funny thing happened today. Two of my “top-thirty” adsense advertisers {I have sent each of them dozens of visitors. Actually #7 and #28} are now showing ads with the following:

Call toll free 800-XXX-XXXX

Or simply

212-XXX-XXXX

The funny thing is that telephone numbers in my adsense ads are a rarity, but these two appeared at the same time. Could it be that they are related by common ownership or maybe they have the same SEO person/firm.

I do not mind the guy with just the numbers, but the guy calling for action as in “Call toll free” is in my opinion getting something in return that I do not think is what the whole program is about. I really want to put him in CPM :)

What do you guys think?

[Rodney]

is it against the AdWords TOS to put phone numbers in the ads?

[Jenstar]

Phone numbers are allowed in Adwords/AdSense, but they must maintain CTR or else they will be disabled.

They are possible clues to some sort of connection, whether it be same company, or perhaps using the same PPC bid management team.

[ogletree]

It is not against TOS. We have been doing it for some time. If you don't like to see phone numbers ban their ad from your site. I think it is a very smart way to save some money on adwords.

[loanuniverse]

Yeph, I figured it was ok with the adwords TOS if it got through their editorial process. I am going to wait to pull the trigger on the URL banning. Hopefully, they won't be able to keep the required CTR and get those ads stopped.

I would not be so forgiving if the "Call toll free" guy wasn't #7. Pull that outside of the top thirty and action would be swifter.

[europeforvisitors]

This was discussed last summer in the thread:

[webmasterworld.com...]

Key quotes:

We have 800 numbers displayed in some clients' ads. Tracking actually doesn't show any significant difference in the clickthru rate whether the number is there or not

I really don't this is a major issue. Surfers' natural instinct/psyche would be to click on the ad - not pick up the phone. Most surfers, if not all, would be interested in finding out more information about the offering before picking up the phone.

We've run our telephone number in some of our AdWords before, and it *increased* our click-through rate. I think a lot of consumers are increasingly nervous about making a purchase and then finding out they can't contact the company when something goes wrong, and having the phone number up front breeds a higher sense of trust.