Call-based advertising player Soleo Communications took an important step recently with the launch of its Call Generation Portal, a new service that allows small, medium and large merchants (or their agencies) to create an account with Soleo to purchase phone-based leads. It’s essentially a self-serve pay per call platform.

Calls are of course a robust lead source for businesses of all sizes. BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor™ has consistently showed that calls are SMBs’ preferred lead format, topping even in person visits. In the latest wave of LCM, 69 percent of SMBs rated calls a good or excellent lead source, compares with 59 percent for in person visits.

Merchants using the portal to set parameters like location, type of business, and day parts in which they want to receive calls, for example. There is also a campaign management tool where merchants can set bid prices, etc. Soleo generates about 300 million per month from a multitude of sources.

“The pay-per-call industry is beginning to show its true potential. Because calls are real, we see call-based leads increasingly replacing clicks as the currency of choice in the mobile search market,” said Dan Gallagher, CEO of Soleo, in a prepared statement. “We are introducing new ways for merchants of all shapes and sizes to become part of this exciting paradigm shift.”

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Call-based advertising player Soleo Communications took an important step recently with the launch of its Call Generation Portal, a new service that allows small, medium and large merchants (or their agencies) to create an account with Soleo to purchase phone-based leads. It’s essentially a self-serve pay per call platform.

Calls are of course a robust lead source for businesses of all sizes. BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? has consistently showed that calls are SMBs’ preferred lead format, topping even in person visits. In the latest wave of LCM, 69 percent of SMBs rated calls a good or excellent lead source, compares with 59 percent for in person visits.

Merchants using the portal to set parameters like location, type of business, and day parts in which they want to receive calls, for example. There is also a campaign management tool where merchants can set bid prices, etc. Soleo generates about 300 million per month from a multitude of sources.

?The pay-per-call industry is beginning to show its true potential. Because calls are real, we see call-based leads increasingly replacing clicks as the currency of choice in the mobile search market,? said Dan Gallagher, CEO of Soleo, in a prepared statement. ?We are introducing new ways for merchants of all shapes and sizes to become part of this exciting paradigm shift.?

The post Soleo Launches "Call Generation" Portal for Self-Serve PPC appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Directory assistance is going through major upgrades, as more companies seek the power of leads from pay per call advertising, while relying on new technologies, such as cloud based- and mobile services. One of these is Soleo, which provides local search for many U.S. and global telecom companies, and has just announced a major partnership with AdAffix, the caller ID giant.

Among other things,, the new service matches businesses from Soleo’s database of 15 million organic listings and 1.5 million paid listing with call requests. It automatically suggests alternative merchants users when their initial calls go unanswered.

Soleo will use these technologies to provide call advertising campaigns to major ad partners, ad networks, lead generation companies and national retailers. Mike Wilson, the company’s new Chief Digital Officer – a longtime YellowBook vet — tells us that the program will keep growing beyond key local business categories such as restaurants, physicians, brokers and contractors to also include APIs for categories such as residential. points of interest and government listings.

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