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use of toll free numbers in adwords..

by sunday silence
4 replies
  • SEO
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Hello I am new to advertising on the internet so maybe this is a dumb question. but I dont quite get this part.

Am I able to run an adwords ad with say a toll free number in it? wouldnt that defeat the purpose of having per click or pay per conversion as the business model?

Going from memory, I can recall seeing certain ads for consultants that were on a forum I visit. I dont know if they were adwords ads or just some sort of other affiliate agreement with that particular forum. So trying to use my own personal experience to reason this out is just confusing me more.

A related question would use of an 800 number in a series of related ads or websites cause any problems with google adsense or adwords. Liek lets' say I had a large portal type of site say Giantwebsite.com and then I set up a number of websites and landing pages all of them using the giantwebsite, each one a different business but htey all use the same toll free number. Would this cause any sort of banning or other problems?
#adwords #free #numbers #toll
  • Profile picture of the author John Callaghan
    Yes, you can run an adwords campaign with a toll free number in it. As long as you stay within the 35 characters per line limit, you won't have any problem.

    The only downside is that it will skew your ad performance results. You will be able to track the number of people that clicked on the ad but you will also need a way to track the callers to your 800 number that saw the number in your ad.

    In general, having a phone number in the ad works best if you are selling an emergency related service. For example, if you are marketing a local plumber than having their phone number in the ad makes a lot of sense because the prospect really just needs someone to fix their broken pipe asap.

    If you are not selling an emergency related service than you might include your phone number if it is part of your brand (e.g., 1-800-FLOWERS).

    Not sure if I understand your related question....but using an 800 number in your ad will not get your banned. I'm not sure why you would send all of the callers from different business to the same 800 number. That sounds confusing for the caller and 800 numbers are so cheap these days I think you'd be better off getting separate numbers for each business.
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      It does not need to be an 800 number. It may be valuable, in some cases, to
      include a phone number. Will people write it down? Then call later?

      But remember, every time your ad shows without a click, your CTR
      goes down, and so may your QS. It's a two-edged sword.

      I would probably not put a phone number, unless as stated above, it
      was part of your business name.

      If you are new to adwords, one of the mistakes you can make is thinking
      too much and not concentrating on the ad's tagline, but jamming more info
      like a phone number. The people that call from the ad showing would be
      slim to none, and you have cluttered up your ad. People online are clickers
      and surfers, not dialers.

      The most effective "looking" use of a phone number I've seen, is when
      they put: "Call us today at 1-800-whatever"

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author sunday silence
    Hey thanks for those responses, this question had been bugging the hell out of me and i called one of my friends who has done a lot of programming as well as advertising. He wasnt familiar with Googles programs, but suggested that they might insist on making it pay per impression rather than pay per conversion and/or click.

    In response to above, yes indeed it is more of an emergency service, people would call me if they need help at that particular time.

    what the heck is QS???

    in response to this..

    >>"I'm not sure why you would send all of the callers from different business to the same 800 number. That sounds confusing for the caller and 800 numbers are so cheap these days I think you'd be better off getting separate numbers for each business. "

    Maybe I am not explaining it well. Lets say there are a number of businesses that are all being listed on a portal site. I dont know if a lot toll free numbers work this way, but once in a while you dial an 800 number and they answer 'services" or some generic name. They are answering the phone for a whole bunch of companies. I dont know if it's done often, but it is done...

    And yes, 800 numbers are fairly cheap but finding a nice memorable one is not easy at all. I spent about 3 or 4 hours last week trying to find one that looks nice and then turns out they didnt get the order and I had to start all over again. This time it took the better part of a day just to find one with a few digits that repeat. So it's not that simple as buyng another number.

    I dont quite understand why you think callers would be confused (other than the generic answer "services") You see an ad for fishing, you call 800 1234567. someone else sees an ad for Boats and they dial 800 1234567 Someone sees an ad for flowers and dials 800 1234567. it's not as if any of these people see the other ads. They just see one ad, one phone number, one business.

    Anyhow the basic issue is if all these businesses share an 800 number and they are linked together. Forget the portal site, lets say there is no portal these are individulal websie. Each site links to the other, not reciprocal links, but say in a wheel pattern, would google see a connection among these businesses that are lnked together and share the same toll free number?
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  • Profile picture of the author sunday silence
    okay QS=quality score. I get that much. Will a low QS hurt me? How does it hurt me? Thank.

    Isnt it possible to run it as a sort of loss leader? Ie I make the money from a few people dialing the toll free number, but I still get a good percentage of people who click on the ad; head to the website, read it and do nothing. If they dont covert then I guess it still hurts QS. But what if I just run it as pay per click, I pay x amount for people to click on the ad. These people generate no revenue, but the people who dial up the toll free do pay for the ad.. Is this a viable model? Thanks
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