In one of the best marketing combinations since "dinner and a show," Ingenio is offering a toll-free phone number and a sponsored link for consumers to call advertisers on one of the largest subscriber-based search engines in the world - AOL.

Consumers can call Realtors and other marketers directly from a pay-for-call ad that operates like pay-for-click, only the highest-bidders get calls instead of anonymous click-throughs. Considering that 74 percent of all consumers conduct online searches for local merchant and service provider information (Kelsey Group, 2004), the new technology could very well meet the needs of smaller advertisers as well as large.

Going live early this week on AOL, Ingenio will be providing Pay For Call(tm) advertising which the company says will provide more targeted advertising as an alternative to pay-per-click models.

Ingenio has spent five years and $50 million building a telephony solution that includes assigning a toll-free phone number to the advertiser who is paying for a sponsored link. The consumer can click through, but there's no billing until s/he picks up the phone and contacts the advertiser. As Ingenio provided the phone number, it can track when the advertiser was contacted by the consumer. Calls can be forwarded to the agent's cell phone at no extra charge.

So how does it work? Advertisers bid for placement on the sponsored ad site in an open bidding process where they can see what others are bidding for 'top billing.' Advertisers are stacked according to what they are willing to pay per call. If the highest bidder is $3.00 per call, you can trump them with a bid of $3.15, for example, and be king of the mountain until another bidder knocks you off the throne with $3.25.

Consumers find the ad by putting keywords into the search feature. For example, a typical procedure might be to visit www.Bizjournals.com, click on San Francisco and then search for a topic like "sunglasses." Lo and behold, the sponsored link page appears, and you have several eager sunglass vendors ready with their phone numbers to serve you.

Interestingly, the company says that in the focus groups it conducted, Realtors were willing to pay quite a lot for "live leads," as much as $50 to $100 per call.

Through the focus groups for the "Finance, Insurance and Real Estate" industries, Ingenio found:

1. Fifty percent of this market said they were very likely or likely to use Pay Per Call if it were available to them.

2. Forty percent said that they would be very likely or likely to allocate new advertising dollars to this product if it were available to them.

3. Thirty-six percent said they would be very likely/likely to shift money into Pay Per Call from other advertising products.

4. This segment prefers calls over clicks by a ratio of 3:1 (as compared to the average of all businesses 2:1) When placing online advertising, 50 percent of this segment would rather get a call compared to 18 percent who'd prefer a click.

"There's a sense of immediacy," explains Ingenio CMO Marc Barach. "The Realtors say, 'a click doesn't tell me anything. I don' t know why those people contacted me.' This is a relationship business, and clicks don't communicate. When they take out an Ingenio ad, they get the call directly. It's 'action now' advertising."

There's also a benefit on the consumer's end -- an equal sense of immediacy. "A lot of Realtors work within a larger company. It might be 10 clicks deep or you get a voice message directory, dial one to get this person or that person. These are consumers and advertisers who want a relationship now," Barrish says.

At first glance, the sponsored links didn't appear very robust. They look like other sponsored ads, with an all-text format which makes them appear very much like classified or directory listing ads. There are no links to the advertiser's website, but consumers can click on a square icon which brings up more detail on the advertiser -- art, maps, logo, or whatever the advertiser chooses to supply.

On the other hand, this can be very effective for the Internet-hesitant Realtor, especially one who wants to be found with a phone call instead of an email inquiry.

Published: April 11, 2005

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.