The Top 5 Pay-Per-Call Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

The Top 5 Pay-Per-Call Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid

If done properly, mobile affiliate marketing can be a thing of beauty, and a big moneymaker too. But before you get blinded by those dollar signs, be sure you’re aware of the pitfalls.

Pay-per-call (PPCall) mobile affiliate marketers often fail to maximize their commissions because of rookie mistakes.

Ron McKinney, Director of Business Development at MobileFUSED, offers some great suggestions to help mobile affiliate marketers maximize their earnings by avoiding costly mistakes.

1. Misunderstanding the Offer

One rookie mistake seen all too often in mobile affiliate marketing is failure to take the time to understand the offer. If you don’t research beyond the keywords, you might misunderstand the type of customer that offer is targeting.

McKinney warns, “Lots of people don’t look at the offer, and miss details, and therefore kill their conversion rate. So they send potential nursing students to information about a business degree, etc.” The fix is simple: do your homework.

2. Not Knowing Your Potential Customer

The most successful mobile affiliate marketers are able to get into the mindset of their potential customer, to know what the customer wants, and to understand what factors make the difference between an inquiry and a sale.

McKinney advises marketers to, “Get into the head of the customer, think like the customer.” Choosing the right keywords and phrases is essential. McKinney notes, “Someone may just search ‘go to school for website design.’ That can be generalized, not just ‘IT tech degree.’”

In another example, McKinney notes that someone searching for ‘auto insurance’ “could be searching for claims, customer service, or a direct company,” so he suggests “auto insurance quote” as a more focused keyword string.

3. Failure to Test or Optimize

McKinney emphasizes that mobile marketing doesn’t mean “keyword = money.” The watchwords are test and retest. You need to properly test a campaign before launching. “You need data, so you need to test campaigns, don’t be afraid to overbid, and don’t just wait for the money to roll in,” says McKinney.

Money spent on a failed campaign is only wasted if nothing is learned. An unsuccessful campaign can be a great learning opportunity, and can be the key to successful efforts in the future. Don’t be afraid to retest and revise!

4. Not Thinking Through the Offers

Again, this is why testing and retesting is so critical; you not only need to make sure you have the ideal target audience – you also need to have the right offer. By carefully analyzing the data in your testing you can see what type of offer is going to appeal to your potential customers.

McKinney says, “Most people who are very successful may run an offer for a week and lose money, but they use that data to determine how to make the campaign work.” Only the right offer made to the right people will bring you the best profits. Take time to determine what is right for whom.

5. Targeting Only Feature Phones

By knowing the devices most often used by your potential customers, you can optimize your message and increase PPCall volume. WAP (short for “wireless application protocol”) phones are still used by millions, especially in countries outside North America and Europe.

Because WAP phones don’t have full web browser capabilities, presentation of images and graphics is problematic. WAP phone users will see ads basically as text only. To maximize the reach of your marketing program, be sure that the ad designs you choose are effective both as Smartphone ads and as WAP phone ads.