Google does some interesting things. Some might think that Google is pulling an Ebay (the Skype purchase) and rolling out Google voice, but they are not. I have been playing around with Google voice for a couple of days and have quickly come to realize that this is a fantastic platform for a click to call campaign. I am running a click to call campaign that runs at DirectoryM and I couldn’t help but feel that the campaign management interface has many similar features with Voice.
Click to call is something that has been talked up for years. Imagine that you could include a call icon in your Adwords ad to capture the person searching for your product or service. With Voice, Google has a platform, the phone numbers and the ability to track campaigns. One of the beauties of Voice is that Google does not have to ask you to change anything that you currently do. They can assign a random phone number, connect to the line of your choice and charge you for that customer action. In the end, everyone wins…maybe.
Is this why Google bought up dark fibre a few years back?
In the end, Google wants to continue to grow search share and is always looking for avenues to display more ads. With Voice, they are probably moving toward the front of the line of a potential shift in ad models. I would expect that we will soon hear about the ability to add a click to call icon in an Adwords ad.