DMS ’08: V-Enable – The Potential for Mobile Voice Search

Local voice search advertising is already getting promising results, with widespread reach, and high clickthrough rates, according to V-Enable CMO Craig Hagopian, who was speaking at DMS ’08. V-Enable is a San Diego-based mobile voice search company with 65 employees. It partners with Superpages.com, Yellowbook, and AT&T’s Ingenio and Yellowpages.com.

Hagopian said the company is averaging six searches per month from a typical user. Featured ads posted at the top of searches are clicked on 10 percent to 15 percent of the time, and half of those clicks results in a call to a business. The ads typically go for $1.20 to $1.40 per action.

The implications may be important. Looking forward, the wallet and key are likely to go away as everything gets digitized. “But the phone stays with you,” he said.

Search activity on the phone is also worth noting. Top features, in order, include Yellow Pages, Directory Assistance, Navigate/Mapping and Internet/Directory Assistance. “All come together with mobile. The mobile phone can do all these things,” said Hagopian.