For affiliates (also known as “publishers”), selling calls is an easy way to monetize their ad space and drive new revenue through high payouts. Many affiliates who sell calls choose to do so by working either directly with an advertiser, or indirectly through the network. In this scenario, the affiliate applies to an advertiser’s offer, and once approved, receives a tracking number so they can send the calls they generate to that advertiser. For each call that meets the specific quality and duration requirements of the advertiser, the affiliate is paid a fixed price specified in the advertiser’s offer. This kind of campaign allows affiliates to apply to the offers with the best payouts for their traffic and gives them the most control over their earnings.
However, the fixed payout model is not necessarily the best choice for all affiliates. For affiliates with a greater volume or broader variety of call traffic, it can be challenging to manage multiple direct advertiser offers, especially if those offers are paused by the advertiser for reasons outside the affiliate’s control such as exhausting the campaign budget.
Additionally, with direct offers, advertisers often set geographic and hourly limitations as well as category requirements. For example, a pest control brand’s offer may look like this:
Bid: $55 per call that lasts 90 seconds
Category: termite control services
Service Area: NY and NJ
Hours: 8:00-5:00
In this example, an affiliate who sells pest control calls may be tempted to apply due to the high payout. However, any calls they generate outside of NY or NJ or outside the hours of 8:00-5:00 would be wasted.
For affiliates looking to sell their residual call traffic at scale, selling calls programmatically via an API might be a better option.
To sell calls programmatically, you will need to join a programmatic pay-per-call network that offers access to their API. A programmatic pay-per-call network has a database of advertiser offers that they offer to their network of affiliates. Affiliates that want to sell calls programmatically advertise a singular tracking number that is associated with the network’s API.
When a call is generated, the network’s algorithm identifies the caller information including their location, the time of the call, and the caller intent. Simultaneously, it searches its pool of advertiser offers for the offers that match the call and identifies each corresponding offer’s bid and duration. Based on this information, the API automatically connects the caller to the advertiser with the most competitive offer.
If you’re on the fence about selling calls with API, here are three benefits you may wish to consider:
Because their call traffic is automatically connected to a wide database of offers, affiliates who choose to sell calls programmatically via an API have the advantage of selling calls at scale. This enables the affiliate to focus on maximizing their amount of call traffic, without the need to manage a handful of direct offers and to constantly try to find offers to accommodate all their unfulfilled traffic.
When a call is generated through an API request, the network’s algorithm will consider the bid of each advertiser offer that matches the caller information. The offers are then individually scored to determine which offer has the highest likelihood of yielding a conversion, taking into account the bid price (the amount the advertiser is willing to pay for a qualified call) and the duration requirements (how long a call needs to last before it is considered billable). This ensures the affiliate receives the highest possible payout available at the time of the call.
Related: Real Time Bidding and Ping Post Explained
As mentioned above, with an API, calls are seamlessly connected to the advertiser with the offer that has the highest likelihood of yielding a conversion.
For example, a network’s API identifies three advertiser offers that match the caller information:
Offer 1 - $50/120s
Offer 2 - $40/120s
Offer 3 - $40/90s
In this example, offer 3 is actually the most competitive offer since it is most likely to fulfill its duration requirement and become billable.
However, in another example, a network’s API identifies three advertiser offers that match the caller information:
Offer 1 - $50/90s
Offer 2 - $50/120s
Offer 3 - $40/90s
In this example, offer 1 is the most competitive offer because it is both likely to fulfill its duration requirement and it yields the highest payout.
This process works to increase the probability that the affiliate’s calls will convert, thus increasing the probability that the affiliate gets paid.
CallThread by Soleo is one of the largest pay-per-call networks in North America, with access to offers across hundreds of business categories – including pest control, home security, home services, financial services and more. Our Local Search API (LSAPI) solution enables publishers to sell calls at scale, capitalize on dynamic pricing, and unlock higher conversion rates.
To learn more about our Local Search API, visit https://developer.callthread.com.