EBay and Google today announced an agreement under which they’ll introduce click to call advertising on the sites of both companies. The agreement will leverage the capabilities of Skype, a communication offering from eBay that allows voice and video communication over the Internet for free between the users of Skype software, and Google Talk, Google’s service for Voice over IP and instant messaging, globally in each company’s shopping and search platforms.
The companies said the agreement includes a revenue share but didn’t disclose terms. Concurrently, Google and eBay also announced that Google will become the exclusive text-based advertising provider for eBay outside the United States.
“We’re pleased to expand our longstanding relationship with Google to explore new market opportunities like click-to-call advertising, that benefit both our communities of users,” says Meg Whitman, eBay CEO. “People continue to evolve how they shop, communicate and advertise online. By combining the power of eBay in e-commerce and Skype in communications with Google’s leadership in search and advertising, we can increase the usefulness of the Internet for shoppers, merchants and advertisers around the globe.”
The click-to-call capability would allow a user to click on a link or icon within a product or service advertisement to communicate with that advertiser, initiating a voice call to participating eBay merchants. According to the companies, the service would have particular value for merchants who may not even have a web site, by opening up a new way for them to generate customer leads using the internet.
In the future, the companies said, Skype will offer its users the option to download a Google Toolbar that includes Skype’s custom button. The companies also will explore interoperability between Skype and Google Talk via open standards to enable text chat and online presence.
Testing of the click-to-call and text-based advertising initiatives is expected to start early next year. The specific components and timing of implementation of both initiatives will depend on early test results and will vary by market, according to the companies.
Will the wider availability of click-to-call functionality signal bigger demands on marketers' ad budgets from the digital realm? In the opinion of one search marketer, the percentage of marketers’ ad spending that goes to digital advertising is already inconsistent with the degree of influence exerted by the medium, and the new click-to-call initiative from eBay and Google is a wake-up call. “People are buying PPC search advertising to the extent that they can show conversion on their web sites, and it doesn’t take into account the massive amount of cross-channel or purchase cycle influence that digital has,” says Fredrick Marckini, CEO of iProspect Search Marketing. “The mainstreaming of click-to-call suggests the opportunity is only going to grow.”
Marckini speculates that click-to-call service putting customers directly in voice communication with advertisers over the Internet could also boost conversions directly. “More and more people are going to be surfing the web and searching from their cell phones. This is yet another way to pick up some of the people who don’t want to go through the whole shopping cart process or make the transaction on the web site,” he says.
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