SECTION I OVERVIEW
Mobile Consumers Click-to-Call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
SECTION V ROBOCALLS
How Spam Impacts Click-to-Call. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
SECTION VII
Whats Next. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
With the advent of smartphones, phones are ringing at U.S. Why are calls more valuable than clicks? A call connects a
businesses like never before. After years of customers Internet- merchant with a prospect in the flesh or nearly in the flesh.
browsing their way to your website (though maybe never your There is no separation of miles and pages of inscrutable
door), click-to-call has emerged as the most common form of content and Internet ether. The customer is right there, on
purchase-oriented activity from mobile ads. the line, asking questions. Old-fashioned salesmanship has an
opportunity to blossom. You can take the caller by the hand,
A June 2015 report from BIA/Kelsey predicts that calls to and lead them down the sales journey path to that magical
businesses from smartphones will reach 162 billion by 2019.1 destination called The Close.
Mobile advertising platforms have taken notice, with Facebook
introducing new click-to-call functionality and Google launching Whats more, calls made from mobile phones are exciting
Call-Only mobile ads in 2015. Advertisers already spend an because the customer is typically not tethered to a PC or laptop
estimated $4 billion annually2 on click-to-call for paid search, at home or work. Theyre very likely on the move. They could
in addition to investing in click-to-call campaigns that occur be near your store. Or in your store! Mobile calls are goldmines,
across hundreds of mobile publishers through products like representing prospects who are thinking about your business,
the Marchex Call Marketplace. New click-to-call performance possibly within physical range of making a purchase and, most
products, like those recently launched by the mobile-focused importantly, are available for old-fashioned person-to-person
unit inside WPPs Xaxis 3 are a sign that there will be more communication, persuasion and deal-closing.
opportunities available to advertisers and we believe that
spending on click-to-call will rise dramatically as mobile What is new in this report? While marketers now know that
advertising platforms mature. click-to-call is essential to mobile consumers, there has been
a lack of data available to quantify both how these phone calls
convert into revenue and some of the challenges that marketers
face in click-to-call campaigns. Data for this study comes from
24 million aggregated and anonymous phone calls analyzed
over the last 18 months by Marchex Call DNA, part of the
Marchex Call Analytics platform. Marchex Call DNA scores and
classifies phone calls automatically to provide marketers data
on consumer intent, sales and audiences.
This is real performance data that tells who is calling, how they
got to your business, why theyre calling, what percentage of
By 2019, BIA/Kelsey expects calls are valid prospects and who should be answering the
phone on your end.
162 BILLION phone calls from
mobile phones to businesses
E-commerce has grown to more than $300 Billion in consumer spending in 2014. This is a large number, but only a fraction of the
more than $11 trillion per year spent by Americans.4
So how do Americans spend the other $10.7 trillion? Once we remove housing and health care, which account for roughly 30% of
this figure, were left mainly with products and services that consumers purchase in-store or over-the-phone.
Google, 2014
In 2015, Americans will spend more than $1 trillion in click-to-call commerce. Consumers increasingly use mobile phones for
business lookups. This year, advisory firm BIA/Kelsey estimates that there will be 93 billion consumer-to-business phone calls from
smartphones, and this is expected to grow to a whopping 162 billion by 2019.1
Google, 2014
50
Click-to-call is literally the connection between the mobile
40
consumer and American businesses for billions of purchases
30
each year, says Michael Boland, Chief Analyst at BIA/Kelsey. 20
Across dozens of industries, more than $1 trillion in consumer 10
expenditures are a direct result of this consumer action. 0
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Search Traditional Display Landing Pages Native Social
BIA/Kelsey 2015
50% 60%
40% 52%
30%
34%
20%
10%
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Other Product Inquiries
70%
60% 18%
50% 20% 19%
22% 20% 20% 25% 48%
10% 20%
% of total calls
40%
15% 5% 39% 20%
30% 38% 36%
31% 32%
20%
24% 8% 29% 32% 32% 26%
20%
10% 14%
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Key Takeaways
Travel What special services and features are callers asking for?
Our data show that the conversion rate is consistently over HOTEL CAR
25% for rental cars and over 20% for hotels.
Amenities
Despite its great efficiencies, the desktop experience fails to One way rental
(meals, pool, fitness)
serve one of our most basic needs the need to speak with
someone else. Oftentimes, that human connection is key Event hosting Recent accident/
(weddings) breakdown
to closing a sale. And oftentimes, that connection is key to
generating higher-value transactions.
Childcare
Data set includes more than 10,000 phone calls from January-December 2013 to
Marchex advertisers in the travel industries.
Click-to-Call Demographics
It perhaps should not be surprising that mobile callers are younger and less affluent than PC users after all, young people are the
ones with smartphones glued to their hands at all times. But these Millennials, currently aged 21-34, are a prized demographic for
most brands, spending more than $1.3 trillion annually.
This section provides demographic data on a set of aggregated and anonymized consumers that placed more than 1 million consumer
phone calls from mobile advertisements to businesses, as measured by the Marchex Call Analytics platform and the Marchex Call
Marketplace.
Mobile callers are more likely to be young, single, and of relatively low income, which is not unusual, as they are just starting
their careers.
Age - Mobile Callers Income - Mobile Callers
Age - Mobile Callers Income - Mobile Callers
Under 25 Less Than $25K
Under 25 Less Than $25K
25 to 34
$25K to $50K
25 to 34
35 to 44 $25K to $50K
35 to 44 $50K to $75K
45 to 54
$50K to $75K
45 to 54 $75K to $100K
55 to 64
55 to 64 $75K to $100K
65+ More Than $100K
65+ 0 50 100 150 More Than $100K
20 40 60 80 100 120
0Index Value 50 100U.S. Population
Against Average 150 20Index 40 60 Average
Value Against 80 U.S.
100Population
120
Index Value Against Average U.S. Population Index Value Against Average U.S. Population
Key Takeaway
How Spam Impacts Click-to-Call platforms that cannot effectively measure phone calls. This
section shows, by publisher type, the percentage of calls that
are Spam & Misdials, as identified and blocked by Marchex
Click-to-call campaigns can be noisy. A common complaint
Clean Call.
we hear from a first-time click-to-call marketer is something
along the lines of I received a lot of short calls and spam calls,
We divide the rest of the calls, by publisher type, into two types.
and wasnt able to figure out how to deal with it. This section
New Customer Calls are calls from prospects that result in
is designed to quantify this challenge for marketers, and
meaningful conversations. Short, Customer Service & Repeat
provide some advice on how to deal with it.
Calls are the rest as identified by Marchex Call Analytics.
Percentage of Callers
54%
24 Million+
Phone Calls
In
2014 - 2015 34%
12%
Total Calls SPAM & Misdials Short, Customer Service New Customer Calls
& Repeat Calls
21% 65%
61% 6 Million+
Phone Calls
1 Million+
From
Phone Calls
Directories
From
in
Search
2014 - 2015
in
2014 - 2015
25%
18% 10%
Total Calls SPAM & Misdials Short, Customer Service New Customer Calls Total Calls SPAM & Misdials Short, Customer Service New Customer Calls
& Repeat Calls & Repeat Calls
53% 48%
16 Million+ 1 Million+
Phone Calls Phone Calls
From From
Voice Display
in in
2014 - 2015 34% 2014 - 2015
`
35%
13% 17%
Total Calls SPAM & Misdials Short, Customer Service New Customer Calls Total Calls SPAM & Misdials Short, Customer Service New Customer Calls
& Repeat Calls & Repeat Calls
Key Takeaways
Calls
9% 18%
In desktop digital marketing, marketers miss opportunities
when their website is down. In the world of mobile marketing,
Hang-ups & Abandons
marketers miss opportunities when calls from consumers are
Conversations
not answered.
Other
The new challenge in the mobile marketing world is getting the 73%
calls through. The call center becomes the critical connection
between consumers and advertisers in the mobile marketing
world. How are advertisers doing in getting consumers through
to businesses?
35%
30%
% of all classified calls
25%
31%
20% 25%
15% 18%
10% 15%
5%
0
Automotive Real-Estate & Cable & Satellite Financial Services
Multi-Family Housing Local SMB Average
25%
% of all call outcomes
20% 24%
15%
18%
10%
5%
0
Call Center Local Business
What can marketers do about hang-ups? This first thing to do is to monitor hang-ups automatically with a call analytics
platform. Effective marketers then can build a business case around appropriate staffing, or limit click-to-call campaigns during
certain times of day or days of week. On average, appropriate staffing can improve ROI by a minimum of 10%.
Marketers can also use conversational analytics technology like Marchex Call DNA to identify problems such as hold time for
internal transfers, and the use of terms that might indicate a consumer is having trouble understanding a representative. Data
from more than 2 million calls shows that consumers use terms like repeat or understand in nearly 20% of phone calls. A
more lighthearted look at this data was profiled recently on our corporate blog, which showed how often consumers curse when
calling a specific industry.5
Key Takeaway
Whats Next
To get detailed data about mobile call activity in your industry, have the Marchex Institute perform mobile call research for your
company, or to have Marchex create mobile advertising campaigns for your company and analyze your campaign data, contact the
authors John Busby johnb@marchex.com or Poom Poochaiyanont ppoochaiyanont@marchex.com. Or visit us at www.marchex.com
or @marchex on Twitter to learn more.
SECTION VIII
About Marchex
Marchex is a mobile advertising analytics company that Please visit www.marchex.com, blog.marchex.com or @marchex
connects online behavior to real-world, offline actions. By on Twitter (Twitter.com/Marchex), where Marchex discloses
linking critical touchpoints in the customer journey, Marchexs material information from time to time about the company, its
products enable a 360-degree view of marketing effectiveness. financial information, and its business.
Brands and agencies utilize Marchexs products to transform
business performance.
Marchex Institute
JOHN BUSBY, Senior Vice President of Consumer Insights & Marketing
John Busby is Senior Vice President of Consumer Insights & Marketing at Marchex. Since 2010, John has run the
Marchex Institute, a consumer insights group that publishes findings on mobile advertising, call analytics and
online-to-offline commerce. The Marchex Institute also provides custom research and consulting services for
key customers on their mobile and call-ready advertising campaigns. Previously, John served as Vice President,
Product Engineering. Prior to joining Marchex in 2003, he held various product and program management roles
at InfoSpaces consumer and wireless divisions, Go2net and IQ Chart.
Poom is an avid runner and collects old vinyl records in his spare time.
Sophia has bachelors degrees in physics and mathematics from University of Washington. She also minored in
music, and is pursuing a side project composing and arranging original music.
INSTITUT E