Prominent Telephone Numbers

[Qui Gon Jinn]

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Merchants with telephone order numbers which are too prominent is ever increasingly becoming frustrating & to a point taking liberties with affiliates. I just feel that networks are not keeping a close enough eye on this & in "some" instances too chicken to upset their network / merchant relations.

So this thread is dedicated to keeping a list of those offending merchants, whereby the list will be added to this first thread as members gradually submit them.

We are gradually going thru every single merchant as part of a checking link schedule, so will report back as & when

To start the list:

Laithwaites - TD
EuroPC - AW
Loanline - DGM

[D-Mac]

Perhaps it's about time a forward thinking network introduced google style click-to-call..

[Mike_M]

Which is what LeadX.com does! Aff puts number on their site, customer rings it, LeadX call centre validates/warms it up, patches it through to highest bidding merchant as a live telephone transfer. Affiliate then gets paid for that lead within 7 days, simple as that.

I'm sure that this time next year most of the other networks will also be offering pay per call - nothing more demoralising than losing a referral commission by someone deciding to ring the huge 0800 number rather than fill out the form!

[Itchy]

where do i start but this thread is what ive been waiting for nothing (at the moment ) jars me of than seeing a nice bypass phone number

onestopphoneshop
talkworldonline
mobiles2yourdoor
mobilesuk.net
find me a gift
gadgetpages
i want one of those
gadgetsuk.com
needapresent.com

mobiles2yourdoor <--- the reply i had from them made me ROFLMAO thats why we dropped them bunch of muppets.

simply3g <----- landing page no number but.... if you goto any other page bang have our bypass number

[mindblend]

I've been thinking of posting a topic myself on this, but from another angle.

I know that some merchants provide affiliates with their own phone number, by which they are then able to track calls through that number and pay on the lead.

I provide numbers that have this kind of functionality, and was looking at putting together a package aimed specifically at this market.

I'd love to hear both affiliates' and merchants' feedback on this - ideas, requirements etc.

please feel free to PM me if you like.

thanks,

Mike

[pricethat]

This problem should not be a problem, a VERY VERY simple piece of java script inserted on the merchants page would solve this overnight. I wonder what network will take the stage and say they are going to adopt this as from now with ALL new programs

Simply send the merchant a piece of javascript that calls up a cookie checker or session/ipcheck to the network, if it contains an affiliate cookie or related information then do not show the image that contains the number!!

SORTED

END OF DISCUSSION - THATS IF ANY NETWORKS DECIDE TO COMMIT TO THIS PUBLICLY. I WOULD BE INTERESTED TO SEE WHO HAS THE BOTTLE.

[D-Mac]

Simply send the merchant a piece of javascript that calls up a cookie checker or session/ipcheck to the network, if it contains an affiliate cookie or related information then do not show the image that contains the number!!

That's a hacky workaround to a problem that is ideally fixed with a phone order tracking system. Some customers like ordering on the phone, particularly for high value goods. Hiding the phone number isn't a good solution for anyone.

[Mike_M]

We just issue a unique phone number for each product type to each affiliate and record every call so if there is any disputes we can listen to the calls and make a decision based on that.

The clever bit is how we patch the calls through to the highest bidding merchant.

[ben01]

LOL. You don't miss a trick to promote LeadX do you?!

[pricethat]

Depends on your definition of a hacky workaround and what it is that your trying to accomplish. I will explain further.

The problem with telephone numbers is obviously affiliates wont make money on sales that would of come to them because they can not be tracked. The most common solution on offer is to in fact REMOVE the telephone number. Affiliates are in general happy with that as it gives them fighting chance to make a sale. What they dont like is for the merchant to make money on the affiliates hard work. By removing the telephone number it is in fact the best solution to the problem of showing a telephone number without tracking.

Now seperately you might define it is a cheap hack but you dont have any regard for how limited merchants technical skills or resources can be and how hard it is for networks just to get merchants to make feeds or even put the tracking in. By offering a prewritten little javascript to the merchant the problem is sorted for 90% of the internet users. To ask a merchant to make a much grander solution and do all the coding in each case is repeating work that the network can do to remove the problem.

THAT IS OF COURSE IF THE PROBLEM IS JUST THE FACT A TELEPHONE NUMBER IS THERE

Now, i presume that you think this is a dirty hack purely because your referring to the fact that you want the telephone number there but you want affiliates to be paid for it. Of course that would be the most ideal way of doing things but it wont work and merchants would rather IN MOST CASES just remove the telephone number with some code for affiliate traffic which in most cases will be done via JAVASCRIPT or localised cookie tracking and some other code.

The reasons why telephone tracking is not so easy is because merchants set up to operate an affiliate scheme, not a pay per call scheme, most merchants are happy to do affiliate marketing because its not got any perceived risks attached to it. PAY PER SALE thats it, so what are you going to do? tell a merchant you have to have pay per sale for internet traffic but you have to do pay per call for the phone calls. They will tell you in majority that they dont want to do it, and even with the pay per call system the merchant will still have to install some code to the header, if you want the network to track this then in most cases it will have to be JAVASCRIPT as the browser can talk to the network on its own to get the correct tracking number.

BUT, in my opinion and a lot of others you will not get merchants to pay for pay per call in general when they have subscribed to an idea of pay per sale. So lets say that they invent a system for tracking tele sales (like i have been doing for months) then again it wont work very well because it involves a human being, because it involves the company/merchant retraining their staff to ask everytime for reference numbers or something to say that a sale was made and how much. In that case most merchants would refuse the hassle and either say i will just remove the number, and or not give a stuff. Networks can not track the sale themselves, it relies on the merchant manually recording the sale and putting it through, already affiliate window for example have the ability to add sales manually in their admin but how many sales get added manually eh? none and they probably wouldnt even if it was supposed to be done, free sales to many, too much inconvenience to another group. THAT IS A DIRTY HACK

I agree that some merchants would want to track via telephone and yes it makes sales but even merchants that want to do it will find problems with having it, and if they did they might not like a pay per call basis so they now have to have a system that tracks pay per sales and change their whole telephone ordering methods?? some merchants wont want any of that and rather remove the number, so we are back to remove the number again. I agree that for those that want to do it a solution must be available but then merchants are more than capable of doing that for themselves even now if they just thought about it, independant to the networks.

The only perceivable way i can think of to effectively track sales via calls would be the situation in which the network transferred the call and informed the operator that it was a third party advertising call and that they would have to answer a series of questions once the call had finished via the keypad ie....call ends "was there a sale made" 1 for yes 2 for no. "please enter the amount" etc and that then records the sale.

I CAN GUARANTEE THE TAKE UP TO THIS WILL BE MUCH LESS THAN REMOVING THE NUMBER

But again for this to work it would have to be some simple code that a merchant would just pop into the header to replace the code that generates the image. Maybe some real experienced merchants would want to modify it, or make an advanced version of it, but at the end of the day it has to be a client network communication to get the correct tracking numbers and or codes which is JAVASCRIPT most often and this same principle applies to whether you remove the number or plan some call system!!

so before you state what is and isnt a dirty hack you need to consider the environment in which it is designed for!! You may be a perfect merchant but 90% of them are not or can not be.

[Mike_M]

LOL. You don't miss a trick to promote LeadX do you?!

No - just doing my job!! In my defence it is related to the theme of this thread!

[JasonD]

Watch this space!

[Hero]

I was wondering, are there any stats out there as to how many visitors abandon shopping online to call the merchant, ie what percentage of sales is lost?
thanks

[D-Mac]

Sorry, I didn’t mean ‘hacky’ to be derogatory, I used it as a retort to your “END OF DISCUSSION” comment. I agree that your JS fix should be a relatively straightforward solution.

However, I believe that a far better solution is a CPA phone tacking system, which I am sure many merchants would implement if the technology were provided by their network. I agree that pay-per-call could be off-putting for many merchants.

I don’t know how seamlessly a system like this can operate, but telephone service providers are pretty sophisticated these days, and I am sure it can be done nicely by some clever sausage.

Apologies to QGJ for taking this thread away from its original intent.



As if by magic: http://www.a4uforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37894

[mindblend]

Now, i presume that you think this is a dirty hack purely Of course that would be the most ideal way of doing things but it wont work and merchants would rather IN MOST CASES just remove the telephone number with some code for affiliate traffic which in most cases will be done via JAVASCRIPT or localised cookie tracking and some other code.

I agree that some merchants would want to track via telephone and yes it makes sales but even merchants that want to do it will find problems with having it, and if they did they might not like a pay per call basis so they now have to have a system that tracks pay per sales and change their whole telephone ordering methods?? some merchants wont want any of that and rather remove the number, so we are back to remove the number again. I agree that for those that want to do it a solution must be available but then merchants are more than capable of doing that for themselves even now if they just thought about it, independant to the networks.

Interesting post. Definitely given me some things to think about.