For many of us, the Marchex story has been a difficult one to understand. But now the fog is lifting.
Today, Marchex announced it is pursuing a split into two companies. The move spins off the company’s domains and clicksbusiness from its true core, mobile products.
Now, pay-for-call and call analytics, which has made Marchex one of …

Telmetrics, a call measurement provider, has released pay-per-call best practices designed to optimize the number of quality, billable calls delivered to advertisers. “With mobile it is all about being there at the time of action — whether it is a new or existing customer, asking for basic info from store hours to driving directions — …

Before there were Meetups, Great Courses, TakeLessons.com and online dating services, The Learning Annex held sway. Launched 30 years ago in New York City, The Learning Annex provided classes on everything under the sun, and a way to meet people. Major topics have included self improvement, personal growth, entrepreneurship, wealth building, health and spirituality.
The company, …

While pay-per-call usage is growing across all local search media channels, Telmetrics reports today that mobile advertisers and SMB programs are the real drivers of a more than three-fold growth in adoption. The call measurement solutions provider is tracking 348 percent more pay-per-call ads in Q1 2012 than in Q1 2011.
Mobile experienced the highest gains as …

Call measurement ad provider Telmetrics released its 2012 local search trends today, with a heavy focus on the role mobile is playing in local search and ad performance management. Here are Telmetrics’ top four trends/predictions this year in mobile innovation:
1) Pay Per Call Goes Mainstream With Mobile: An increase in mobile adoption rates has lead …

Capping off the first day of DMS ’11 and the Performance Media SuperForum was a one-on-one session with David Read, director of Pay for Performance of AT&T Advertising Solutions, and BIA/Kelsey moderator Charles Laughlin. Read talked specifically about how AT&T has integrated pay-per-call into the local sales channel. While it has been successful, Read said …

“Write once, read everywhere” concepts are popular ones with so many platforms to serve. Agendize is probably the king of these for listings and appointments, serving more than 66 unique platforms. Localeze and Universal Business Listings are other key players that come to mind for managing name, address and phone (NAP) information.
Other companies are specializing …

Today, RingRevenue announced it has raised a $4 millon Series B round led by GRP Partners and Rincon Venture Partners. This brings the company’s total funding to $7.6 million since its 2007 founding.
The vote of confidence was based on the value behind its call performance platform, which companies use to augment online ad campaigns. As we’ve written, driving and …

Google announced today that it will add trackable numbers to AdWords campaigns. Known as AdWords Call Metrics, this will offer advertisers analytics on call activity such as total calls per campaign, origin, time of day and duration.
The underlying technology will be Google Voice and unique numbers will be assigned to businesses. These will be inserted …

ZipLocal, the U.S. independent directory publisher, has launched a new “hyper local” leads-based advertising model called Local Leads that taps into a distribution network featuring 18 properties and 80 billion monthly impressions, according to ZipLocal execs who briefed us last week. The main players in the network are CityGrid, SuperMedia, Chitika and DiscoverOurTown.
ZipLocal is the publisher …

Tomorrow I will participate in a webinar sponsored by Search Marketing Now on the topic of “call mining” along with John Busby, VP of advertising platforms at Marchex Call Analytics.
The whole idea is to take the content of calls (obtained through recording and transcription) and “mine” them for information that allows advertisers to better …

Yext CEO Howard Lerman, in the first of several keynotes at BIA/Kelsey’s DMS 2010 in Dallas, says that “dozens of winners” will emerge in the local marketplace. Noting how fast technology has swarmed around local marketing, “it is basically the Jetsons we are looking at right now.”
Lerman used the keynote to throw out 10 predictions. Among …

You probably heard today that Google launched a voice dialing feature within Gmail. This isn’t necessarily Google Voice (which is basically a call connection service), but rather a voice over IP client, akin to Skype, right within Gmail.
The thing that sets it apart besides integration with browser-based Gmail, is free domestic and long distance calls. …

As the demand for dependable call-tracking tools intensifies in the SMB marketplace, WebVisible — the Irvine, California-based local online marketing provider — has unveiled upgrades to its portfolio of services to enable more focused ad geotargeting and greater call-tracking capabilities for businesses.
WebVisible has boosted its Geneva Platform to serve locally targeted ads for its clients across all …

G5 Search Marketing is poised to further leverage its growth in several high-yield verticals after announcing a $15 million investment from Volition Capital to close out its first round of financing.
CEO Dan Hobin told BIA/Kelsey that the company plans to use the proceeds to “enhance the current content management system and search products” in its …

Last year we broke a story about Skype’s new initiative with local pay-per-call. Given its half a billion global users, the company began to monetize the calls made to businesses, large and small. These calls usually cost the user, but under this new program, advertisers interested in receiving calls would pay instead, on a per-call basis.
The company …

Prompted by my writeup of Google’s new mobile pay-per-call program, I had the chance today to speak with the executive team at RingRevenue.
The company provides a platform for partners to monetize incoming calls. It private labels the platform for publishers to integrate trackable phone numbers into their ad units. This of course is nothing new …

I had the opportunity to speak with Brad Reynolds, CEO of Mongoose Metrics, a Cleveland, Ohio-based call measurement and conversion analytics company. Reynolds was quick to point out that it is not simply a call tracking company, but rather it is dedicated to linking online and offline conversion so clients can better understand what leads …

Telmetrics President Bill Dinan wrote an interesting piece in MediaPost this week that offers some practical advice on building pay-per-call programs.
One of the more interesting topics he covers is whether it makes sense for publishers to place a cap on a pay-per-call program. The question involves a real dilemma for publishers. With a cap, publishers …

Call measurement firm Telmetrics has issued an announcement detailing its predictions for how pay per call will evolve in 2010. We think it’s a pretty good list. Here is our summation of what they say, with some commentary of our own. Here is the original document.
Agencies will embrace PPC. Telmetrics expects advertisers to pressure ad …