E-Commerce Doubles Down on Pay Per Call

Despite the huge growth that Internet search has shown this year, it still remains a cold, impersonal affair. That's why a lot of search-related companies are getting serious about a simple but increasingly accessible technology known as pay per call.

Unlike the pay-per-click model in many Internet searches -- in which an ad's cost is calculated by the number of people who click on it -- pay per call lets shoppers talk to retailers through a voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) program by clicking on a phone icon next to a search result. The retailer pays more for a call than for a click, since the likelihood of a sale is expected to be much higher. After all, any salesperson knows that a human voice capable of answering a question or warming up a consumer's cold feet can increase overall sales.

Nobody imagines that every Internet search is going to wind up in a phone call or that the online transaction that Amazon (AMZN Quote) and eBay (EBAY Quote) have polished into a relatively painless process will go away. Instead, the promise of pay-per-call ads lies in opening up new areas of online advertising that have yet to reach their potential -- local and small businesses, high-end luxury retailers and service providers such as lawyers, restaurants and home repair businesses. ...