Pay Per Call Marketing: Adoption by Financial Services Industry

Earlier this morning a new RingRevenue press release has hit the wire. It covers how financial services marketers are benefiting from call performance marketing, and also introduces a white paper case study on financial services. The white paper is an interesting read, discussing the challenges facing financial services marketers today and detailing how Progrexion Marketing increased Lexington Law‘s affiliate program performance, improving their distribution and increasing sales with call performance marketing.

RingRevenue provides their pay per call solution for nearly every major affiliate network out there (Commission Junction, LinkShare, Google Affiliate Network, ShareASale, to name but a few). The above-quoted press release quoted LinkShare’s Vice President of Lead Generation:

“Financial Services is one of the top performing verticals that we specialize in,” said Russ Pechman VP Lead Generation at LinkShare. “Fully integrated campaigns that combine online lead generation with the ability to let consumers connect live through a phone call far outperform those that only provide consumers one option. This combination gives advertisers the opportunity to really impact their bottom line revenue with incremental sales.”

So, we reached out to Russ to ask him a few questions about call performance marketing in general, as well as its adoption by the financial services industry in particular. Below you may find the interview (where “GP” stands for “Geno Prussakov”, while “RP” for “Russ Pechman”):

GP: First off, how is the LinkShare Lead Advantage network different from the main LinkShare network?

RP: LinkShare Lead Advantage focuses on high-quality customer acquisition, typically for verticals like financial services and education (CPA or CPL). Our platform is multi-channel, and we manage our lead quality closely. The main LinkShare network is open to all affiliates, and lends itself to a rev share of sale commission structure. So, Lead Advantage might promote an offer like Allstate, while the main network would run Macy’s.

GP: Call Performance Marketing is certainly gaining momentum in the affiliate space.  What trends are you seeing around the adoption of pay-per-call?

RP: We’re seeing a more Publishers now that are educated about ppcall than say, a year ago. We spend less time introducing the concept, which I  think is due to the efforts of the affiliate networks and Ring Revenue in getting the word out.  So the rate of application by Publishers into ppcall programs has been growing rapidly. Same goes with the Advertiser side. It’s an easier sell now.

GP: Does the LinkShare Pay-Per-Call publisher base differ from the traditional LinkShare publisher base? If so, how?

RP: We’ve seen a new type of Publisher that promotes Advertisers through new channels. I wouldn’t be surprised if the biggest use of mobile by affiliates right now is with pay-per-call campaigns. But we’re also now seeing more of the “traditional” Publisher, who realizes they can use the same types of banners or text links but will see improved conversions because the call adds a new action.

GP: How does call performance marketing or pay-per-call improve or compliment a financial services firm’s existing online lead generation activities?

RP: One is tracking — an Advertiser can now better identify which inbound calls came from which online sources. So they’ve got transparency into their online sources. It also creates efficiency. Online lead gen used to be mainly about outbound calls and everything that’s entailed with it — lead scrubbing, calling, trying again… But inbound calls typically convert higher and eliminates the resource drain of the outbound process. Plus, conversions are typically higher on inbound.

GP: What types of financial services firms are starting to leverage inbound calls and seeing results?

RP: We’re seeing it across several types — insurance and lending are the two biggies right now. But credit cards and other credit services are also looking at it.

GP: Thank you for your time, Russ.