Jun 5 2006

Dont Click Me, Call Instead!

By Jeremy Schoemaker 17 comments

Listening to Strikepoint withDaveN and Mikkel they were talking a bit about click fraud and one thing led to another and they talked about saying “don’t click my ad but call me” in your adwords and wondered if 1) it would go through. and 2) How long it would last.

So I did it. The one thing I noticed was that it would not let me use the word click. It also would not take c|ick or c!ick so I had to do “c lick”

Click Here to See the Ad

So far Adwords reports 2 clicks but I have had 5 calls! Interesting!

Thomas said on June 5th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

When I looked at the fourth result I noticed there’s a typo in the META description of your forum :p

“Place to discuss in private search engine markeiing“

[Reply]
Alan said on June 5th, 2006 at 7:39 pm

The guy above you used the word clicks.
I wonder if that would work if you used “Don’t waste your clicks. Call me.”

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Kevin Boyer said on June 5th, 2006 at 8:16 pm

Interesting that Google filters Click. I’d assume they’re trying to rid the horrible “ZOMG CLICK HERE!1″ ads that plague other advertising companies.
Unfortunately this method of advertising cheats webmasters with adsense that truly aren’t cheating anybody. :/

It’s odd you got five calls. I certainly wouldn’t call a number on an ad I saw online. What did the caller’s say? “Uh.. just calling… uh, I saw your ad. Yeah.”

[Reply]
ShoeMoney said on June 5th, 2006 at 8:26 pm

Actually 4 of the people I knew from the SE world but never had talked to them on the phone… the 5th saw my number and asked me for some ppc tips.

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Bulbboy said on June 6th, 2006 at 3:17 am

What did you say to them when they called?

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Pex Cornel said on June 6th, 2006 at 8:12 am

Jeremy. Is this against Googles terms & conditions, to list a phone number?

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Dave Starr said on June 6th, 2006 at 9:51 am

I think this is a masterful idea. have some ideas on how ro avoid the “C” word too. My perspective is as abusinessman who happens to dabble in AdSensde as opposed to an AdSense publisher who happens to dabble in business. The number one thing my business needs is to have propects call. Onece I am taling with someone, I have the opportunity to convert them … but I don’t sell re-hashed eBooks and other items that can be bought with a click and PayPal.. A phobne call can literally be worth thousands. To get 1 “sutomer” … in Jermey’ s a person askking for PPC help, is a fantastic ratio,

RE: the folks who sya “wouldn’t call a number from the web” … . great if that’s your preference, but my target customers … brick an dmorttar buisness owners overhwlmingly will call rather thna email.

RE: the time zone thi8ng … they have this wonderful technology called an answering machine/voice mail … you can answer your phone only when you wish to.

Neat idea Jeremy

[Reply]
Peter said on June 7th, 2006 at 2:09 am

this would work when folks are just looking for numbers for companies, restaurants, couriers etc

As we know, many times you are not listed for your name and this is effectively a free ad; so long as you have limited competition and your ad doesnt disappear because of no clicks

[Reply]
Aaron Rosenthal said on June 7th, 2006 at 7:40 am

Interesting idea,

I think when Adwords reviews the ad, they will remove it for the “click” language not the number. It is an interesting test nonetheless.

We tested something similar for an “Internet Marketing Blog�?

{KeyWord:Free Marketing Research}
Lousy Marketing Ideas.
Don’t Come to our Site.
http://www.*****.com

It actually improved CTR over “well written�? ads. Many times, telling someone not to do something (like click), sparks their curiosity and actually encourages a response.

I’d be curious to see the results of this test and how it compares to a “well written�? ad.

Aaron

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Bazkaz said on June 7th, 2006 at 12:53 pm

If your ad is taken down after review you could always reword it to something like, “Don’t vist, just call.” or even “Call me at:” and have your number on the second line still.

I like Aaron’s option above of “Don’t Come to our Site.” The real test when you try reverse psychology is how targeted your prospect is. Did they come to your site just because they like to be a rebel and you told them not to, or are they interested in what you have to offer and clicked because your ad was different than the other 5 cookie cutters up there.

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Eugeniu said on June 18th, 2006 at 11:49 am

Actually now lots of people know your phone number . Don’t be surprised with calls … Can you help me with ranks ? Why my site is not #1 and so on

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ShoeMoney said on June 18th, 2006 at 12:41 pm

its a good thing I am not a seo! I will tell them to call aaron wall =P

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Adam Moro said on August 25th, 2006 at 7:55 pm

Looking at the big picture, how could Google be okay with advertisers circumventing the fees? I can see how it would be okay on site-targeted ads but not keyword ads.

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Lea said on September 6th, 2006 at 1:07 am

No, it *&^% isn’t - complained about an ad on one of my sites with a phone number in it the other day and Google replied that it was not currently against Adword rules

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Directory said on December 31st, 2006 at 10:07 am

Nice, shoemoney has that much popularity, good luck

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Directory said on December 31st, 2006 at 10:15 am

It is nice if you have static pages, not dynamic. You would get more members.

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Target-Traffic: blog said on June 16th, 2006 at 3:19 am

Adwordskosten reduzieren ohne auf Kunden zu verzichten !?…

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