The API enables marketing firms to create their own programs that access Ingenio's pay-per-call functions, including ad creation and geo-targeting, along with auto-scheduling and customizable reports in several different formats, including XML, PDF, and Excel.

Although the initial target for Ingenio's pay-per-call ads was small and medium businesses, larger companies have also begun to use pay-per-call, and the API release is largely aimed at the search engine marketing firms and interactive agencies that serve them, said Ingenio Chief Marketing Officer Marc Barach.

"[Pay-per-call] targets small and medium businesses, but not surprisingly, a lot of national businesses find it drives customers to them as well," Barach said. "This was never meant for the end user advertiser--an electrician or a mortgage broker--because they work directly for our system. The APIs are specifically created for ad agencies and search engine marketing companies who want to work with our interface."

According to Barach, Ingenio's release of the API is in response to a larger search-industry trend. "We viewed a larger industry trend that really kicked off in the pay-per-click world this year, where major search engines like Yahoo! and Google opened up their APIs," he said. "The state of the art in the pay-per-performance business is now such that this is a mandatory tool."

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