Paid search is used by most companies to produce sales or interest in their business these days.

Pay-per-click advertising through Google Adwords for example, can frequently be effective if regularly looked after and up to date, but it can also be quite costly – especially for sole traders and small companies. Also, it’s often difficult for companies to find out whether they are getting a worthwhile return on investment (ROI).

A couple of simple ways that businesses using paid search can save money and justify the worth of their ad campaigns.

One choice is for them to include a easily remembered non-geographic telephone number (e.g. 0845) in their paid listing that is devoted to that specific advertisement only.
By doing this it enables potential clients that have looked at the advert to dial the 0845 telephone number before clicking on to the website (which costs the business money – even if they don’t sell anything). A sales person could potentially close the deal better than if the enquiry just went to the website.

Other ways that enable a business to evaluate the accomplishment of a paid search campaign, would be to advertise a dedicated non-geographic number on its website.

By using a non-geographic number, like 0845, potential customers will not judge organisations on their actual location, which means that it is possible for them to gain business where they have no physical presence (an important element of advertising on Google UK and the internet as a whole).

The beauty of non-geographic numbers similar to 0845 numbers, for example, is that it is really basic to attach online call data packages onto them so that businesses can see the number of callers have called the dedicated number. This would make it easy to decide if the ad is working or not and if they are getting a worthwhile Return On Investment.

Additionally, some Call statistics packages detail the geographic placement of all people phoning that number – this can help people that promote the company and company bosses evaluate where in the United Kingdom their campaigns are working and what area they should be concentrating their marketing efforts.

Combining paid search with non-geographic numbers seems to be a way for businesses to smarten up the way they advertise online. It helps companies to see what campaigns are working for them and therefore what marketing activity is best value for money – a crucial result in the present economic environment.