The paid search phenomenon has fuelled a significant part of the Internet's revival, with its simple pay-if-they-click, don’t-if-they-don’t model.

With the search engines now turning their eyes to local search, paid search network Espotting is targeting local advertisers wanting yet more accountability and those with no websites at all. The principle follows the performance-based model of pay-per-click. If they call a trackable freephone number, then you pay, if they don’t, you don’t.

For a local advertiser, being able to easily account for your advertising expenditure should be an appealing proposition. For the publisher, they are able to tap into a new potential audience of local advertisers.

So, why do I have my doubts about the idea?

• Financial viability: In my experience, advertisers love the cost per action model, publishers don’t. Will it make enough money for the publishers that carry the likes of Espotting’s ads? How many Internet users are going to call and what about those dial-up users that can't make calls and surf the Internet at the same time?
  

• Pricing point: will the cost appear prohibitive for advertisers? What's the cost for all those free calls?

• Trust: how comfortable will web users be without being able to kick the virtual tyres of a small business? However, this goes both ways, with a clear phone number and fixed address adding to the trust factor in e-commerce.

For all the potential of pay-per-call, the paid search world won’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs and pay-per-click will be the defining model for a good while yet.