Miva launches pay-per-call ad service a week after Yahoo!

by Emma Rigby, Revolution UK 17-Aug-05, 15:00

LONDON - Miva, formerly known as FindWhat and Espotting, is launching its pay-per-call advertising model in the UK on September 13, where advertisers bid for phone calls received rather than website clicks.

The Miva service will let advertisers bid on keywords to have results listed, using the same model as its pay-per-click advertising service, and is aimed at attracting businesses without websites and those who prefer phone calls from customers rather than visits to a site.

It is launching with i-level, MediaCom, Diffiniti, All Response Media, The Search Works and Latitude. This follows Miva's rollout of the service in the US last year last year.

Seb Bishop, chief marketing officer at Miva, said: "I think it has the potential to be bigger than pay-per-click."

Yahoo! UK & Ireland's rival service also launched this month. It lets advertisers track calls as a result of being listed in search results, charging them a fixed rate for calls that are made in response to their listing.

The service lets advertisers to display a partial telephone contact alongside the offer in the search results page, and users can click on the link to view a landing page with the phone number.

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