Search leaders Google and Yahoo! have confirmed they are now testing pay-per-call, a form of online advertising where advertisers only pay for the phone calls generated by their search engine
listings. As opposed to the pay-per-click model, where advertisers pay each time a user clicks on their sponsored listing, with pay-per-call, advertisers only pay when users call a contact phone
number that appears on the advertiser's listing. Google is testing a new model where consumers enter their phone number, and Google connects them directly to the merchant. Calls are free for users,
but can be quite costly for advertisers: search providers charge advertisers $2 to $10 or even more per pay-per-call, significantly more than regular pay-per-click ads.
Read the whole story at Associated Press »
