Pay Per Call or Pay For Action

Due to the success of Googles ad system, many are trying to figure out how to replicate it in other mediums or simply improve it.  Other mediums being Print, TV, etc.  One issue that makes it difficult to reproduce is that the pay per click nature of googles adsense program is hard to Carry over into a physical (non online) world.

Some have suggested a Pay Per Call system. 

What I have found after some research though, is that there are a number of these PPC systems for web based advertising.  Click on a link, view the details, and if they call you get charged.  Only get charged for the call, not the click.

Now, the number of players that have jumped into this area is huge.  Not the least including Microsoft (potentially).  Still the issue is that the advertising is only useful if the result you want is a phone call.

So just how useful would it be?  So far, it seems that it could be very useful for some businesses/industries.  But not for the number that the pay per click system is useful for.  Also, Googles reach with adSense is so wide, that it would be hard for any other player to match.  Just not as many eyeballs looking at the ads.

What I would relay be interested in is a Pay Per Action system.  Where I can dictate the action.  For one site or product I may just want a click-through to my site. For another maybe a download of my software.  Maybe a inbound phone call.  Maybe someone to use a coupon (printed on-line) in my retail store.  Perhaps I just want repetition.  I want to target specific types of people, and show the same ad over and over regardless of what they search on or what other sites they go to.  Repetition is the key to branding after all.

 A system that is customizable to that extent and more is what we are waiting for.  One ad system to rule them all.