We are rolling! Freespee just recently passed 5 million calls – sales leads delivered to large and small advertisers all across Europe and U.S.

The counter for calls is ticking faster than ever, and at the same time advertisers are more aware of inbound call value, which is currently ranging from 5€ to 40€ – very competitive compared to any media pricing!

We could have not accomplished this alone – thanks to our business partners, Freespee continues on the right growth trajectory. We also sign new partners all the time, and I would like to introduce the following new ones:

Cologne, Germany -based search engine optimization and marketing firm

Social search with trusted reviews for local companies in Sweden

Performance based SEM and social media agency based in Uppsala, Sweden

Today, calls are one of the main topics within all of our Partner channels.

Publishers and Ad Networks are implementing Freespee’s platform to be able to show their advertisers the full value of their network. Affiliate Networks are maximizing their campaign conversions by opening up the call path.

We will be visiting the events below and we are more than happy to discuss call advertising opportunities with you!

ExchangeWire: ATS Stockholm

May 24, Stockholm

Ad Trading Summit (ATS) Stockholm is the first Nordic-focused event on the data-driven display marketplace.

Meeting contact: daniel.johansson at freespee.com

EASDP Forum

Brussels, 10-11 May

EADP is changing it’s name to EASDP - European Association of Search and Database Publishing, and this will be the first event under the new name.

Meeting contact: carsten.gildum at freespee.com

vdav - Verband Deutscher Auskunfts- und Verzeichnismedien

June 12-14, Berlin

vdav is the main meeting point for German ‘verlags’ – local search advertising and directory publishing companies.

Meeting contact: tobias.karlsson at freespee.com

a4uexpo – Affiliate and Performance Marketing Conference & Expo

June 19-20, Barcelona

The largest international performance marketing conference goes Spain! Two days, 40 sessions and 1000+ international delegates from 30+ countries.

Meeting contact: chris.shields at freespee.com

For other performance advertising events we like, please subscribe to the Freespee Events Calendar on Google Calendar or Lanyrd.

One of the most successful call advertising applications using the Freespee API has been adding service offerings (think insurance, finance, telecom, utilities, etc.) to traditional price comparison websites, which mostly still offer physical products like electronics.

Even if the price comparison site already include these offerings, adding monetizable phone number will improve the conversion rate tremendously, because people rarely buy these services using online forms, but rather call!

There are two ways for price comparison website publishers to learn more about how they could benefit reaching new types of advertisers and optimizing the value of their traffic.

1. Download the business case study (please enter your email address to access the PDF file)

2. See the example code in Freespee Developer tools

Even though the business case study demonstrates a U.S. example, this works perfectly in Europe as well! Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to get started.

Along with the latest version of the Freespee Call Advertising Suite, we also announced the public availability of our Application Programming Interface (API) for developers. The Freespee API is the world’s first call advertising API which is purpose-built to serve all call-intensive verticals: Local search, online classifieds, affiliate marketing, vertical search and price comparison, as well as mobile advertising.

We are very proud to say that the biggest media groups in Europe and the U.S. already trust our API to build their own call advertising tools, or simply integrate our platform with their own. However, for some audience, we will always miss some features, and there is no better way to extend a platform than to offer a simple but powerful API for that audience. We have exposed everything in our platform, so any developer can build their own call advertising service in a few lines of code, or integrate to an existing ad network or content management system.

Here’s an overview of the Developers section:

Freespee API documentation
Introduction | Resources | Examples | Version history

Freespee Tracking Methods
Dynamic Numbers | Online Click-to-Call | Mobile Tracking SDK

Did you know that using the Mobile Tracking SDK for iPhone and Android you can do full call tracking with Freespee Analytics and Freespee Performance without changing any phone numbers? Or that you can now find code examples to build your own call advertising applications?

See more at our Developer section and contact me if you have any questions or would like to give feedback!

“Marketing is the next big money sector in technology” they say, and so A4U‘s Simon Holland digs in deeper what it means in affiliate marketing:

 

Call monetisation

Networks are constantly looking for ways to minimise leakage and bring new and existing channels into the affiliate sector. One such company that’s seemingly not going unnoticed in network circles is Freespee, which is basically an API that sits between consumer-facing affiliate and advertiser. Freespee’s product provides a measurable and monetisable phone number through which consumers can get hold of somebody and discuss the item they’re looking to purchase. Advertisers are then able to bid for calls in the hopes of converting one of those queries to an actual sale.

Kevin Edwards, strategy director at Affiliate Window, agrees that Freespee would give affiliates another weapon in terms of conversion. “[Freespee can] really drive Affiliate Window’s ability to guarantee affiliates aren’t losing out on mobile sales by offering m-commerce platforms to our advertiser base,” he explains.

Other top-10 affiliate technologies in the article are data analytics, video, Skimwords, NFC, ExactView, attribution solutions, social media, MymCart and Google Search Plus Your World.

Follow A4u for more top-notch affiliate news at www.affiliates4u.com and on Facebook & Twitter.

Affiliates in the UK, get your call programs up and running by joining Affiliate Window today!

When each phone call from advertising is worth 5€-40€, wouldn’t it be nice to tap into that revenue stream?

We are happy to announce a new member to the Freespee product family: Freespee Performance.

With Freespee Performance, publishers and ad networks are able to start monetizing phone calls that initiate from their media properties.

Based on quality factors such as call length (Cost-Per-Lead, CPL) or completed transaction (Cost-Per-Sale, CPS), media value can be optimized and the advertisers can be served with customers who are ready to buy instantly.

Used by major affiliate networks such as Affiliate Window, buy.at, Daisycon and Zanox, Freespee Performance has already established as the leading technology platform in Europe for call advertising.

Learn more on our updated platform pages!

PRESS RELEASE: Freespee adds phone calls as an advertising currency, reaches out to developers globally with its latest platform release

Everybody working in mobile advertising and media knows this all too well: Consumers have gone mobile, but advertising spending is lagging behind. This disproportional gap can be clearly seen in the statistics published by the mobile app analytics company Flurry:

Why is this and what’s the opportunity?

Today, it’s fairly easy to sell products and services to consumers online – but mobile is more challenging environment for commerce. Have you even once entered your credit card information on your phone for example?

Mobile has been an ad channel for content and entertainment, as well as on some degree branding, but only a handful of companies have so far been able to move any significant amount of actual business to mobile. Naturally this has kept mobile ad spending comparably low, but on the other hand also the cost of the media reasonable.

In short, adding Click-to-Call to mobile campaigns is the easiest and the most powerful way for any service brand to convert mobile advertising into commerce today.

Instead of buying impressions – or clicks to sites that do not convert well on mobile – why not buy qualified calls that drive new business instantly?

Google has just published a case study with Razorfish and Starwood Hotels & Resorts about the international hotel chain’s success on mobile Click-to-Call advertising, and the results are phenomenal:

• 20x increase in mobile paid search ROI
• Mobile booking growth of 20% month on month
• 200% increase in mobile traffic

In order to start testing and buying calls, contact us to get in touch with Freespee’s network and agency partners!

Sources:

Flurry blog

Google Mobile Ads Blog (full Starwood case study in PDF)

The Freespee team is growing again and we’d like to give a warm welcome to Jessica (Partner Services) as well as Hannes (Finance & Control) – you can learn more about them below. Great to have you on board!

We would also like to remind about an open position for a Senior Developer in our joyful and intensely skilled platform development team. More information about the position and how to apply can be found at http://www.freespee.com/jobs – please apply by Februry 1st.

Looking forward to an exciting spring in the Call Advertising business!

Jessica Ogden | Director, Partner Service

Jessica brings 8 years of experience in the area of Customer Service and Delivery to Freespee. During her time as a delivery coordinator at IP-Only, Jessica managed delivery projects to large enterprises with high-powered telecom services. Jessica also has a background in planning and coordinating operational works at Com Hem as well as leading the production of photo finishing at Kodak Nordic.

Hannes Engdahl | CFO

Hannes has experience from a wide range of industries, including IT and Telecom, from positions within business analysis and finance control in organizations that have experienced rapid change, as the online casino provider Net Entertainment, the telco IP-Only, and the packaging recycler Svenska Returpack. His background also covers management consulting within KPMG, with a focus on IT-related change projects for organizations in both private and public sectors.

Hannes holds an MSc in Business and Economics and a BSc in Computer Science, both from the University of Uppsala.

The week starts with good news for Dutch affiliate marketers – One of Freespee’s largest affiliate network partners, Zanox, has launched the first Pay-Per-Call program in Netherlands.

Publishers, who previously had to decline programs with phone numbers because of  revenue leakage, can now accept call-based programs which conversions can be reliably attributed back to the publishers.

For each call, affiliate publishers will earn a nice commission of €11.15. [Program description in Dutch]

The advertiser, Centraal Beheer (part of the large insurance group Achmea) is a prime example of a company that instantly gets call advertising: They already have a strong call center operation in place, so why not utilize it fully and drive new customers through affiliate marketing?

Whether you are an ad network, advertiser or publisher, don’t hesitate to contact us to learn how Freespee can help you to get started with call advertising, Pay-Per-Call and CPA Phone Calls.

Today we are very happy and proud to introduce our latest team member:

Vanessa Wu – VP, Strategy & Affiliate Relations

Vanessa has long international career within advertising and strategy development. She joined Freespee after being responsible for Product Planning of Search, Maps, and Advertising business at Microsoft’s Windows Phone division. Prior to that, she worked at Google, HP, and McKinsey. She was the co-founder of a boutique media consulting firm in Asia, and her global clients include eBay, Acer, and other major telecom operators in the region. She studied management at Harvard University and holds an MBA from Boston University School of Management.

Warm welcome to the Freespee team Vanessa!

With these great news we would like to thank everyone for another record year for Freespee – and wish all our business partners, call advertisers and publishers Happy New Year 2012!

Making Phone Calls Count | Since 2008