Verizon Testing Pay Per Call in Print Yellow Pages

Verizon Testing Pay Per Call in Print Yellow Pages

Verizon is taking a page from the Search Engine Marketing handbook and applying it to the traditional Yellow Pages as Pay Per Call ad auctions are sending phone calls to the top paying bidder in the Boston Area.

Peter Svensson of the AP has covered how Boston’s SuperPages are giving top print Yellow Pages space to a generic ad which lists a local phone number. The caller is then connected to whichever business is paying Verizon top dollar for those calls. Calls are averaging about $3 each with some bids topping off at $15.

In the latest edition of Boston’s SuperPages, an ad under the “Taxi” heading reads: “Need a Lift? 24 Hour Service. 7 Days a Week … Reliable and Professional.”

If you call the local number attached to it, the cab company to which you end up speaking depends on when you’re calling: The one paying Verizon the most on a given day will be the one answering.

In fine print, the taxi ad notes it is “dynamically assigned.” Similar ads in the directory are for travel agencies and locksmiths.

Svensson writes that after initial tests in the Boston area (which always seems to be a hotspot for local marketing), Verizon is planning on expanding the ads to 500 Yellow Page directories with generic local ads for Florists, Chiropractors and Hair Salons.

“One of our challenges, of course, with the print medium, is that once it’s printed, it’s there for a year,” Robyn Rose, vice president of Internet marketing for Verizon Superpages.com, told the AP. “By doing this, there’s actually an update daily of who will receive the calls based on the top daily bid.”

eStara is handling the call centers for the Pay Per Call services. eStara currently works in the online world by managing Click-to-Call for Verizon Online and Amazon.com.