Marchex Does Calls Deal with Skype

Marchex has announced a significant distribution deal with Skype for its pay-for-call (PPCall) ads. This is similar to the deal that European Directories previously did with Skype and represents an expansion of Skype’s “click & call” monetization efforts.

Consumers with Skype installed (nearly 500 million on a global basis) will see “activated” phone number buttons for Marchex PPCall advertisers wherever their phone numbers appear online, whether in the Google map-pack, Yelp, YP.com, organic search results or elsewhere online.

According to the release out this morning:

Click & Call Advertising with Skype supported by Marchex commences with an initial group of customers, including agencies like Razorfish, national advertisers like DISH Network and Extra Space Storage, and channel partners like PRIMEDIA. The program is available to all advertisers, agencies and marketing services providers, including companies that have a large number of local and/or national business advertising customers, such as Yellow Pages companies, Certified Marketing Representatives (CMRs), independent local advertising services providers, direct marketing providers and newspapers.

According to the Marchex release here’s how the program works:

• Advertisers agree to pay a fixed amount per call, along with a budget. Rates are determined based on advertiser categories.
• Users with Skype software installed on their PC and Skype’s browser plug-in enabled see participating advertiser phone numbers graphically highlighted as a blue “Free Call” button across the entire web.
• Users who see the blue “Free Call” button respond by placing calls to the advertiser by clicking on the “Free Call” icon.
• Advertisers pay only for completed phone calls.
• Consistent with its privacy practices, Skype is not sharing personally identifiable information about its users with the advertiser or Marchex. Only standard call metrics are provided.

The local SEO implications are fairly obvious. Those Marchex (or AT&T) advertisers whose phone numbers are “activated” will visually stand out, resulting in more clicks/calls. I asked Marchex about this and they said that there’s empirical evidence showing higher response rates but they didn’t share specifics with me.

A video demo of how the program works is here.

After years of false starts, PPCall is finally taking off online and in mobile. However the Marchex program also utilizes traditional media placements as part of its PPCall network.

Google also said on its last earnings call that its Click2Call ads were increasingly popular and successful in mobile.

See related coverage in AdAge.