White Paper. Executive Summary: Contact Information. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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1 White Paper Executive Summary: estara makes it easy for a search engine, directory or classified publisher to supplement its revenue base by providing the tools necessary to leverage innovative technologies to deploy alternative billing models, including: Pay Per Call Call Volume Guarantees Subscription/Value-Added Service As an enabler of Click to Call and Call Tracking programs, estara s sole focus is on providing wholesale solutions to agencies and publishers. As such, estara will never be in competition with its customers for advertisers. estara s solutions are flexible to support any business model, and are backed by expert service and global call delivery capabilities. In addition, estara offers total integration with existing publisher systems to provide a seamless user experience. estara has successfully completed several online and offline integrations in vertical search, e-commerce, directory and classified advertising for such industry leaders as Verizon SuperPages.com, Amazon.com and Cox Newspapers. Today, more than 350 global enterprises and through its local media partners, millions of small-to-medium sized businesses - are using estara s technologies to generate revenue and increase customer satisfaction. Contact Information 1821 Michael Faraday Drive, Suite 100 Reston, Virginia Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved

2 White Paper OVERVIEW: Making Pay Per Call Easy...2 DETAILS Program Design...4 Program Implementation...5 Ad Creation Integration...7 Pricing Integration...9 Call Completion...9 Rating...9 Call Reporting and Data Warehouse Integration...10 Switching to VoIP...11 Conclusion...12 Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved

3 Overview: Making Pay Per Call Easy The term pay per call is sometimes confused with Click to Call. It s important to note that pay per call is a business model for ad listings in search engines, directories and classifieds that allow publishers to charge local advertisers on a per-call basis for each lead (call) they generate. Click to Call, along with Call Tracking, is a technology that enables the pay per call business model. Click to Call allows users to contact an advertiser directly from an ad listing by clicking on a button and choosing to either speak through their PC or request an immediate automated callback from the business. Call Tracking enables publishers to provision unique local and toll-free telephone numbers to each local advertiser, in order to track the ROI generated from any online or print ad listing and to prevent leakage caused by publishing regular phone numbers. VoIP-based providers of Click to Call and Call Tracking allow for more flexibility than traditional switch-based providers, and enable publishers to offer more dynamic services to their advertisers, such as lost-lead reporting, dynamic call routing and real-time reporting, which are essential components for any pay for performance program. The desire for local businesses to receive qualified leads from the Web has brought a tremendous amount of attention to pay per call programs. The Kelsey Group estimates that incoming calls convert to sales 45 percent of the time. They also cite that 42 percent of advertisers would prefer paying for phone calls over clicks. All indicators point to a market ready for explosive growth. This White Paper is designed to provide you with the guidance necessary to build a successful call-based program, in order to drive results and generate revenue for your advertisers. How estara Can Help Implement a Call-Based Program The cornerstone of estara s approach to pay per call is to allow publishers to control their own destiny publishers own their relationships with advertisers, publishers operate their own ad networks, and publishers bill their advertisers as part of their existing business relationships. estara s solutions create a seamless user experience for both advertisers and publishers. Based on this vision, estara has created an array of products, tools, features and services to make it easy to implement a call-based program. These include: Program Design Business model selection Best Practices consulting Statistical analysis Business rules library Business rules creation tool Program Implementation Dedicated project manager Marketing support Sales training Advertiser education Ad Creation Integration into existing ad creation systems and processes Real-time local and toll-free Call Tracking provisioning interface Automatic rate center matching Optional batch Call Tracking provisioning interface Advertiser dashboard for configuring calling options Dynamic Link Creator for Click to Call buttons (API including standard code) Click to Call button library Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2

4 Pricing Integration with existing bidding systems or other pricing system Real-time and batch interfaces to accept bid results and bundled pricing Call Completion Fully-hosted call management with global connectivity Redundant systems to assure availability Unlimited simultaneous calls World class abuse/call fraud prevention techniques Rating Business rules-driven rating engine estara delivers 5,000 leads per month to our advertisers. -- Pete Ellis Chairman and CEO, SpaFinder Call Reporting and Data Warehouse Reporting to advertisers via , fax or Web Optional delivery of fully-rated XML data on periodic basis for import by publisher billing system XML interfaces to return call detail to rating engine, billing system, and data warehouse Excel export options Figure 1. estara s features and capabilities make it easy to launch your pay per call program. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3

5 PROGRAM DESIGN Select a Business Model To date, estara has worked with over two dozen media partners in a dozen countries on four continents to implement value added voice communications programs. Although any number of business models is possible, our recommendation based on experience with numerous publishers, is one of the options below: Pay Per Call The pay per call business model enables publishers to charge for cross-channel leads on a pay per phone call basis. The pricing model for pay per call can be a flat rate charge per call, or based on an auction or keyword bidding system similar to pay per click advertising offered by Google and Yahoo. The revenue generated via pay per call is typically split between the publisher or search engine, the Call Tracking provider and, if applicable, the advertising network which placed the ad. Pay per call programs can be developed for both online and offline channels. Publishers and search engines with existing bidding or auction engines could seamlessly integrate pay per call local or toll-free tracking numbers into their current operations without requiring a separate bidding or auction engine for the new Call Tracking program. They do not have to reinvent the wheel. The benefits to incorporating pay per call lead generation programs into an existing bidding engine are three-fold: Integrated sign-up and reporting creates a seamless user experience for online advertiser An exclusive billing relationship is maintained between publishers and advertisers without any third-party intervention More of the gross revenue generated by each call is retained by the publishers. estara s Call Tracking service has been designed to serve publishers and search engine companies who already have bidding engines for pay for performance programs. Other Call Tracking service providers offer bidding or auction engines in addition to the phone-lead connection. These vendors can help new entrants who lack existing pay per click or auction engines build pay per call programs from scratch. Figure 2. Example of Click to Call Buttons deployed in featured listings by Verizon s SuperPages.com. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 4

6 Call Volume Guarantees Directory and search companies can set guaranteed minimum call volume levels. With this model, publishers may charge for buckets of calls up to 10 calls per month, rather than for individual calls. By tracking and reporting on phone leads from online and print advertising mediums, publishers and search engine companies can demonstrate the value of their offerings and charge based on a minimum number of phone leads per day, week, month or year. Like pay per call, this hybrid model appeals to advertisers that prefer to buy phone calls rather than clicks. However, it is often easier to implement. A Call Volume Guarantee model can maximize publisher revenue and demonstrate advertiser ROI without supplanting or cannibalizing existing revenue streams. Subscription/Value Added Service This business model offers local or toll-free Call Tracking numbers as part of your online or offline advertising packages to prove out value to advertisers. This model has been popular with publishers and search engine companies that are intent on adding more features and options for advertisers for free or as part of regular annual package pricing increases known as rate-ups. Establish Realistic Expectations Based on Worldwide Statistical Results Based on years of experience with publishers around the world, estara can draw upon a database of call statistics, calling patterns, and caller behavior to help you project results within realistic ranges. estara s team has worked with a variety of business models and marketing approaches, including opt-in, opt-out, and a la carte sales models. Without violating client confidentiality, we are able to provide aggregate statistics on offer uptake and call volumes along with geographical differences. We can help devise an approach that will work for you. Select Optimal Technologies Depending on both your intended business model and advertiser base, you may wish to implement one or more of estara s voice enabling technologies. Our Call Tracking product is the best choice for premium online programs where telephone numbers must be displayed, and is the only choice for offline programs where phone numbers are to be published in ads. Our Click to Call product is perfect for broad online programs, and offers infinite scalability that is possible, but likely impractical, with Call Tracking. Define Business Rules Once a business model and technology are selected, it is essential to devise a set of business rules to flesh out your program. estara will help you establish rules regarding which calls count and are billable under pay per call or bundled models. For example, call duration is an important indicator of lead quality and you can establish a minimum billable call length for your advertisers. Likewise, repeat calls from the same caller can be treated as billable or non-billable depending on your preference and feedback from your advertisers. estara provides expert advice and tools for implementing business rules. PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION Coordinate with an estara Implementation Project Manager estara will designate an Implementation Project Manager as the single point of contact at estara responsible for all aspects of our support for your project. These skilled consultants train your team in the implementation methodology and estara s technology, assist in creating your individualized implementation project plan, and coordinate technical, training, and support resources at estara. Their objective is to assure a smooth, effective deployment that meets your business objectives and delivers measurable value for you and your advertisers. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 5

7 Figure 3. Examples of sales and marketing literature from estara s clients SuperPages.com, Martindale-Hubbell (Lawyers.com), and ThomasNet. Develop Marketing Materials Using Templates and Examples estara provides input to your marketing team to assist with their development of your call-based program. In particular, we will provide descriptions of our Call Tracking and/or Click to Call products and their benefits and features for advertisers. This content can be integrated into your marketing materials for advertisers. Our marketing team will also be happy to review and/or assist with the development of your marketing materials. Figure 3 shows examples of actual marketing and sales materials from estara clients SuperPages.com, Martindale-Hubbell, and ThomasNet. Develop Sales Training Using estara Templates estara will provide input for your sales training program, as well as providing expert consultation for any support you may need. We will furnish you with sales training PowerPoint content that can be adapted by your sales training team to meet your needs. In addition, our experts are available to participate in your initial sales training launch as well as to provide train the trainer services. Educate Advertisers with Content from estara estara will provide input for your advertiser educational efforts, including both awareness promotion activities and content for advertisers once they enter your program. Materials available from estara include sample advertiser education materials for both Web and print media. Insert Pay Per Call Contract Language into Advertiser Contracts estara will provide input for your advertiser contracts or service agreements. This input consists of contract clauses describing the pay per call service and applicable terms and conditions. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 6

8 AD CREATION INTEGRATION Technical Integration with Ad Creation Tools and Processes estara s products can be integrated with your existing ad creation systems or processes. Our system needs to collect destination telephone numbers and, in the case of Call Tracking numbers, whether the desired tracking number should be local or toll-free. Our consultants will provide sample code that can be integrated into your ad creation system, or can help you add the necessary data fields to your order forms. Our consultants will also help you incorporate appropriate quality assurance steps related to the destination and tracking numbers into your order fulfillment process. Real-Time Call Tracking Provisioning Interface estara can provide immediate, real-time provisioning of Call Tracking numbers (both toll-free and local) through a web services application programming interface (API) accessible to your systems, or through a web interface (estara s WebCare portal) to your order fulfillment team. Our consultants will assist your team in creating the interface by providing sample code and testing support, or will train your order fulfillment team to use WebCare to provision your ads. Automatic Rate Center Matching For local numbers, estara s systems automatically determine the rate center for the destination number. The rate center determines the calling area within which consumers can reach the advertiser without paying long distance toll charges. Our systems automatically match the rate center so that the tracking number has the same performance characteristics as the destination number from the advertiser and consumer perspective. Local numbers are preferred by consumers, outdrawing toll-free numbers by a factor of 2.3 to 1 according to a series of 9 split-run and tracking studies conducted by CRM Associates. Batch Provisioning Option for Call Tracking Numbers If you do not use a real-time provisioning method for your ads, estara s systems accept batch files containing advertiser identification and destination number information to enable our system to provision Call Tracking numbers en masse. We adapt our batch interface to smoothly integrate with your order entry systems and processes. Web-Based Controls for Configuring Calling Options estara s web-based control panel allows your staff or advertisers, if you elect to use a self-service model to manage calling features, including time of day handling and Find me / Follow me capabilities. Because your brand is important, our consultants will customize the user interface to extend the brand and ensure its familiarity with your advertisers. Dynamic Link Creation for Click to Call Buttons estara s Click to Call service was specifically engineered for large-scale online media deployments. Dynamic Link Creator (DLC), an estara API, enables your content management systems to populate online listings with Click to Call buttons using your existing database architecture. Implementation is quick and straightforward. Figure 5 shows buttons created using DLC on the EuroPages directory. Click to Call Button Library estara has a collection of sample Click to Call buttons in multiple languages, available for deployment as is or as inspiration for your team s own designs. These are available through the WebCare portal. Our consultants will share best practices insights into appropriate designs and calls to action to help maximize response rates. Figure 6 shows examples of buttons deployed by various estara customers. Customizable Click to Call Caller Interfaces The graphical user interface and the auditory user interface for Click to Call are customizable. estara s consultants will prepare a customized GUI using input from your team. Figure 7 shows the areas that can be customized on the Click to Call GUI. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7

9 -- Petter Bakke IT Project Manager, Findexa Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 8

10 Call Tracking Best Practices Guidelines estara also offers expertise in the placement of Call Tracking numbers to maximize program results. Some best practices include: 1) Top-level placement of Call Tracking numbers on search results 2) Prominent placement of Call Tracking numbers on landing pages 3) Placing a phone icon next to Call Tracking numbers to attract attention 4) Using only Call Tracking numbers to avoid leakage 5) Avoiding other contact methods such as or hyperlinks Customized Voice Recording (.wav file) estara can customize the call connection voice recordings to the publisher s or advertisers specifications in order to alert Click to Call users that they will be connected to advertisers telephone representatives. PRICING INTEGRATION Pricing and Billing Are Under Your Control Pricing and billing are at the heart of your business relationship with your advertisers, and estara has the flexibility to support your approach. For example, you may wish to handle all pricing, rating, and billing tasks internally; in that case, estara supplies you with raw call detail records and you do the rest. At the other extreme, you may want estara to rate your calls based on your pricing models, bill your customers, and collect via credit card for you. Most publishers take an approach somewhere in the middle. Whatever approach you want to take, estara is prepared to support you. Pricing Interface estara has an API for our pricing interface, which collects your call price as set for each advertisement by your bidding engine or ordering system. The pricing interface is optional it is only necessary when you want estara to rate your calls by applying your pricing and other business rules to our call detail data. CALL COMPLETION Fully-Hosted Call Delivery with Global Connectivity estara s fully-hosted call delivery network completely frees you from any concerns about telecommunications capacity or infrastructure. Using multiple, redundant data centers to assure availability, estara delivers calls globally through our carrier network. We offer virtually unlimited capacity because voice traffic is routed over third party carrier networks, with estara providing the call management, call recording, and call reporting overlay. World-Class Call Abuse Prevention Techniques Both Click to Call and Call Tracking technology can be abused or used fraudulently. estara continuously applies over 50 tests to detect and prevent such abuse, and has a patent pending for our methods in this area. RATING Optional Call Rating Bill Runs If you elect to have estara rate your calls by applying your pricing and business rules, we will use our rating engine to produce Bill Runs processed files containing advertiser identifications, call details, and applicable charges for the advertiser. These processed files are intended to be imported into your billing systems for inclusion in advertisers invoices. Our consultants work with your billing team to create an effective, integrated process for periodic billing consistent with your business practices. Optional Billing Services If you elect to have estara bill your advertisers on your behalf for pay per call services, estara can prepare online bills and can automatically process credit card transactions to collect on these bills. Nearly all publishers prefer to bill their customers directly, but estara has this capability available if desired. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 9

11 CALL REPORTING AND DATA WAREHOUSE INTEGRATION Comprehensive Reporting Options As outlined below, both Call Tracking and Click to Call call reports can be exported to your systems, and/or sent to advertisers in real-time or scheduled and transmitted by fax, or through the Web. XML Interfaces to Return Call Detail to Your Rating Engine, Billing System, and Data Warehouse estara exports data in XML format for import into your rating engine, billing system, and/or data warehouse. By using a web services approach, estara has made it easy for your systems to obtain call data either in real time (using immediate transactional XML data feeds) or in periodic batches. Our architecture maximizes your flexibility. Online Access to Call Reporting Data It is your choice who has the ability to access call reports through estara s Web- Care portal. Through WebCare, users can view detailed call reports and usage data including total number of calls completed to advertiser; whether calls are dialed or completed using PC-to-Phone or Phoneto-Phone Click to Call links; total talk time; individual call duration; and exact time, date, and source of calls. WebCare also provides the ability to track critical information like: company name, account ID, category or any other variables of importance to you. Figure 8 shows some examples of WebCare reports. WebCare provides data snapshots in the form of charts and graphs, such as: State by phone number Hourly activity report Average number of calls by hour of the day Daily activity report Average daily calls by day of the week Day of the week activity report Weekly activity report Monthly activity report Figure 8. WebCare s reporting tools enable your staff (and potentially your advertisers) to analyze patterns of use, confirm return on advertising investment, and better manage telesales resources. Optional Lost Lead Reporting for Advertisers Using estara s automated lost lead reporting feature, you can offer your advertisers real-time Lost Lead reports that provide information on missed calls and calls that end up in voice mail. Lost Lead reports give your advertisers a second chance to complete a sale to phone-based leads. Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 10

12 Call Alert with Click to Call Buttons Advertisers and end users alike can receive a call receipt after completing a Click to Call call. Both s can, at your option, include Click to Call buttons providing the user and advertiser the ability to contact one another again. As always, these contacts will be logged, creating a virtual audit trail of contacts between buyer and seller. Excel Format Exports estara also supports exports of data from WebCare in Excel (.xls) format. This common format provides a simple way for your team to obtain and analyze call reporting data using your existing tools and approaches. Switching to VoIP: For Local Tracking Numbers, Service Reliability and Speed Technology advances are making Call Tracking relevant and cost effective for publishers and lead generation marketers who want to target SME advertisers. SME advertisers traditionally budget for, and focus on, local advertising channels like the yellow pages, newspapers, direct mail and online search. In 2004, SME advertisers spent over $15.4 billion on local advertising and lead generation, which constituted about 72% of their overall advertising budget. SMEs focus on local advertisements because their customers are local and the vast majority of their revenue is generated locally. In terms of Call Tracking and pay per call programs, SMEs want local telephone numbers in their advertisements to distinguish them as a neighborhood business. The lack of local number availability for Call Tracking purposes across North America has slowed the adoption of Call Tracking and pay per call programs by SMEs and limited the ability of publishers and lead generators to offer national programs for phone based lead generation using local numbers. The barriers that had previously made Call Tracking advertising impractical for large scale sales to SME advertisers - high cost, lack of widespread local number coverage, lack of real-time provisioning and lack of value added features - have been overcome by new VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) technologies. Legacy Telecom Switches Versus VoIP Technology Traditional Call Tracking services are hardware based and rely on legacy switches to connect prospects with advertisers over the phone. VoIP-based Call Tracking services do not rely on legacy hardware but rather on software systems that can use Internetcentric signaling like SIP (session initiation protocol) for call delivery. The difference between switch-based Call Tracking provider and a VoIP-based provider can be seen most dramatically in: (1) availability of local numbers (2) the cost of providing and delivering the service (3) and in the stability and reliability of VoIP-based services The ability to provide local numbers for Call Tracking on a national or super-regional basis has been prohibitively expensive for hardware (switch) based Call Tracking service providers. That s because in order for a Call Tracking number to be similar to an SME s traditional phone number it has to have the same or equivalent Rate Center and most SMEs require the area code match too. There are over 12,386 Rate Centers in the United States divided into 211 LATAs (Local Access and Transport Areas) or telephone markets. Legacy Call Tracking providers have two options if they want to offer local numbers with the right NPA-NXX designation for use by SME advertisers: Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 11

13 (i) They can choose to physically install expensive telecom switches in multiple LATAs. This practice is rare due to the high costs associated with this type of infrastructure set-up and maintenance. (ii) Or, the more popular option is to back-haul numbers from each LATA to a central hardware switch. Both processes are expensive and require significant lead time. In contrast, the ability for VoIP-based Call Tracking services like estara s Call Tracking to carry local number call traffic is not geographically dependent, but rather uses Internet-based technology and protocols to connect local calls with local SME advertisers. Conclusion According to analysts, the local advertising market is expected to reach nearly $10 billion in Thus, there s an increased need to provide better ROI metrics for advertisers. For many, the answer lies in adding call-based programs to the mix. However, deploying a Call Tracking or monitoring service should not be a one size fits all proposition. estara s goal is to provide a flexible Call Tracking and monitoring service that fits into any business model. As a wholesale provider, estara works with its channel partners to help them achieve their business goals with aggressively low rates and a flexible backend infrastructure. estara s focus is on enabling agencies and publishers to add Click to Call and Call Tracking to their current advertising mix. estara does not sign up SME advertisers directly, nor does it offer a stand-alone bidding engine or auction service. Contact Information 1821 Michael Faraday Drive, Suite 100 Reston, Virginia Copyright 2006 estara, Inc. All Rights Reserved 12