Google launching “Pay per Call” mobile ads

Google is upping its mobile advertising game.

Search Engine Land reports that notifications have been sent to AdWords advertisers telling them about a new way of charging for mobile ads – Pay per Call.

Most smartphones allow you to select and call a phone number from within the browser. Under the new scheme, if a mobile ad contains a phone number which you select and call from your phone Google will charge the advertiser.

With a phone call often being the most convenient way of responding to a mobile ad, this is a smart move for Google; pay per call, instead of pay per click. As Search Engine Land notes, “This is a version, effectively, of “pay-per-phone call” but the cost per call is the same as a click — a bargain (generally speaking) for the advertisers to receive a “warm lead.”

This is a variation on Google’s discontinued ‘Click to Call’ service and the ‘Pay per call’ model offered by companies such as MIVA. By taking the service to the mobile web, Google is allowing users to connect directly to advertisers by phone instead of having to input a phone number manually.

This move is the latest in Google’s strategy to capitalise on the mobile web. With the recent acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob and an increasingly aggressive promotional push on the Android platform, Google is taking mobile seriously.

Next up for Google’s mobile strategy? A certain major announcement in a few hours’ time.