Phone numbers in ads

[internetheaven]

Not really fair is it? I've written to Adsense help but haven't heard back yet. I have 2 120x600 banners on some pages and 50% of the ads had phone numbers in them.

[The Contractor]

Nope, not really fair to AdWords or other AdWords Advertisers.

Why would a PPC company allow phone numbers to be shown :)

Now, if they are banner ads/CPM, who cares.

[edited by: The_Contractor at 8:23 pm (utc) on Feb. 15, 2007]

[europeforvisitors]

This has been discussed in several previous threads. According to some people, phone numbers in ads increase clickthroughs by suggesting that the ads are for legitimate brick-and-mortar businesses.

I think we can safely assume that Google wouldn't permit phone numbers in ads if phone numbers lowered clickthrough rates, since Google (like us) gets paid by the click, not by the phone call.

[loganz]

i dont think people actually call a number on a tiny little text ad, i would more than likely click to check it out first.

[rj87uk]

i dont think people actually call a number on a tiny little text ad, i would more than likely click to check it out first.

I agree here, and i feel it does add some weight to the ad. I use phone numbers in ads that are selling high priced items.

[martinibuster]

AdSense Ads with Phone # in Them
Good or Bad for Your Earnings?
[webmasterworld.com...]

The consensus was that AdWords allows advertisers to place phone numbers in ads and that it generally results in higher clicks.

[koan]

i dont think people actually call a number on a tiny little text ad, i would more than likely click to check it out first.

I agree with most of them, but I've seen ads looking like this "First phone consultation is free! 1-800-NY-LAWYER". I think these ads could actually get away with many calls without clicks, because the "product" is actually a free phone call and the number is very easy to remember.

[internetheaven]

Well, I put all the phone number sites in my "don't show" adsense list and 24 hours later my CTR is up from the 2.7% AVG I've had all month to 9.3% AVG.

Don't think I'll take all that advice on "it demonstrates a better business so I would click on it". Has anyone else ever banned them and noticed an increase/decrease in CTR?

[bobothecat]

Has anyone else ever banned them and noticed an increase/decrease in CTR?

I add every one I see to my ban list, and don't buy into the more click theory either. I haven't really checked to see if there was an increase in clicks, but I do know there hasn't been any noticeable decrease.

[jomaxx]

24 hours later my CTR is up from the 2.7% AVG I've had all month to 9.3% AVG.

You TRIPLED your CTR by banning phone number ads? That sounds implausible to me. Maybe your CTR is higher today than yesterday, but more likely it's due to simple intraday statistical variation.

[internetheaven]

You TRIPLED your CTR by banning phone number ads? That sounds implausible to me. Maybe your CTR is higher today than yesterday, but more likely it's due to simple intraday statistical variation.

I promise to give the week average in 6 days time to be sure, I am also not one to jump on single day statistics but this jump is pretty phenomenal.

Check my first post though, 50% of the ads showing on my pages had phone numbers on them. It wasn't just one ad, there were several numbers to choose from instead of clicking anything at all.

[Scurramunga]

I usually block phone numbers as many of the advertisers cunningly incorporate a call to action with an incentive for the visitor to use the pohone rather than click the ads.

[PCInk]

I think it attractes the eyes of more people - "if i can't find what i want on the site or have a problem, i can always phone".

For me, I would never, ever, phone a company on a AdWords/AdSense advert alone. I would always click, have a quick look and maybe then phone.

I think 99.9% of people would do the same, wouldn't you?

[internetheaven]

I suppose it really depends on the site. We are an informational site (help/news articles) on an industry. All the ads say "Call our free helpline 0800-whatever". If you're on a site looking for information and you see some text saying "free helpline" why click the ad? The number is probably all you're looking for anyway.

[europeforvisitors]

I suspect that the clickthrough rate for AdSense ads is nearly always much higher than the "phonethrough" rate for telephone numbers.

Again, Google doesn't earn money from phone calls either, so it's unlikely that Google would allow phone numbers if the numbers meant a loss of revenue.

[netmeg]

Hmm, well, I use phone numbers for one particular client, and we get plenty of clicks on that ad. If people want to block it, that's fine - it still runs on the search pages, and we are paying up to $25 per click for it, so there are plenty of others who are very happy to get their share of that epc.

[internetheaven]

Okay quick update:

CTR has remained high with an average of 8.9% for the week once the phone number ads were removed. I'm going to let them back on again and check another week just to make sure but if the CTR drops back down to under 3% then surely that is some indication that phone ads are just bad business for publishers with my content?

[alephh]

internetheaven,

Thank you for "public test". :-)