The Economics of Online Marketing

Channel Spillover

Just as many retailers deflate Web demand sales by a percentage to account for frauds and cancels, many then inflate the result to account for spillover into their call centers and retail stores.

While a few firms (e.g., Ingenio, Jambo, VoiceStar, eStara) and search engines offer technology to track online clicks at the ad level into the call center via distinct toll-free numbers, these solutions still are new and costly and have yet to gain significant traction. But they will. Web-to-phone tracking and pay-per-call advertising will become essential for all online direct marketers during the next few years.