In 2011, RingRevenue shared the story of Justin Elenburg, a performance marketer who earned over $500,000 in a year. Before it was mainstream, Justin conquered the mobile channel with a simple but solid strategy: drive mobile phone calls with pay-per-call programs.
It’s two years later. Mobile has grown at a meteoric rate, and Justin’s success has grown with it. In late 2011 he co-founded MobileFused, a performance marketing network that specializes in mobile search. Today MobileFused is “killing it” with phone calls and driving over $32 Million in annual revenue for advertisers.
Lucky for us, Justin sat down again with RingRevenue to share his mobile insight.
Why Mobile? Why Search? Why Phone Calls?
As marketers we’ve been beaten over the head with the message that mobile is here and should be fully entrenched in our marketing strategy. We’ve seen the headlines, “It’s All About Mobile,” “It’s the Year of Mobile,” but what does that mean? Justin shares his views and why he sees so much opportunity combining mobile search with pay-per-call.
- Mobile search is an engaged activity
Justin explains that advertising with mobile display is challenging because you’re trying to make a passive user take action. You’re pulling them away from a game or whatever they’re doing. But mobile users conducting a search are engaged. They are looking for an answer to their question, a solution to their problem.
- Mobile is a phone
Justin saw great conversion potential with phone calls, and what better way to drive calls than targeting people already on a mobile phone? His network is currently generating 10-20,000 phone calls per day. With click-to-call links consumers have an easy access point that may be more appealing than surfing the web for information on a small(ish) screen. Justin emphasizes the point that it’s all about the customer experience, and a good customer experience means including the option to call.
- Phone Calls Convert
MobileFused publishers see conversion rates anywhere from 30 – 40%, and advertisers also see rates as high as 40%. The reason? These calls are exclusive leads from highly interested consumers. Once a consumer is on a phone call there is no back button. Justin also points out phone calls perform especially well for service-related offers such as home services or insurance. Because these types of shoppers don’t need to see a product, they’re ready to take action to get information and solve their problem.
What Makes You So Successful at Mobile Search?
Justin’s years of experience on the mobile front have come with big victories and valuable intelligence. From our conversation I walked away with three key takeaways for mobile success:
1. Deliver quality leads to advertisers
2. Know your market and what advertisers want
3. Use analytics to understand your audience
Know What Advertisers Want and Deliver Quality
Driving tons of low quality or the wrong kind of traffic doesn’t make anyone happy – not the advertiser, publisher or consumer. Phone calls provide a great way to weed out low quality calls. Justin explains how using quality filters and call routing ensures that advertisers are only receiving the kinds of calls they want, whether that’s callers from a certain state or that fit a certain profile. Calls can be filtered or routed based on any criteria that makes sense for that advertiser.
To better understand an advertiser and what they’re looking for, Justin recommends calling them and experiencing the sales funnel first hand. By speaking with the advertiser’s sales representative, a publisher will know exactly what kinds of questions they ask and who their prime customer is. They’ll also see if that advertiser knows how to make the most of a sales opportunity.
Using Analytics to Understand Your Target Audience
By driving calls from mobile search, you have the ability to get to know your target audience better -not to mention how well your marketing campaigns are performing. Justin uses RingRevenue’s patented RingPool technology to capture key data on each caller.
Use your analytics to understand which keywords, search campaigns and landing pages are translating into phone calls. Don’t be afraid to test, and lose a little money to gain data that will ultimately mean a higher ROI. Justin also uses RingPool technology and analytics to see what mobile phone model callers are using and which mobile carrier they have.
This information is hugely valuable and will help you optimize mobile campaigns and make smarter mobile media buys. Justin reveals that each mobile carrier has a unique demographic and customer profile, and the same goes for mobile phone models. If you find most of your callers are Verizon, iPhone users, you can make sure you’re targeting those consumers.
Find out how you can drive more mobile search phone calls with RingRevenue’s technology. Request more information today! (We promise it’s easier than you think.)
If you’re an advertiser or publisher interested in joining the MobileFused network visit mobilefused.com.
