Methods and apparatuses for offline selection of pay-per-call advertisers

A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed perform a method, comprising:

• providing a single advertisement to one or more media channels, including a first telephone number, on behalf of a plurality of competing advertisers;
• receiving a telephone call to the first telephone number and identifying a geographic area related to an origin of the telephone call;
• selecting a first advertiser from the competing advertisers, based at least in part on the identified geographic area, and identifying a separate previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser;
• connecting the received telephone call to the previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser to track telephone connections to the first advertiser established from received telephone calls to the first telephone number provided in the advertisement;
• and
• charging the first advertiser a predetermined fee for the advertisement in response to connecting the received telephone call, placed to the first telephone number provided in the advertisement, to the previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser identified based at least in part on the identified geographic area.

A system, comprising:

• means for providing a single advertisement to one or more media channels, including a first telephone number, on behalf of a plurality of competing advertisers;
• means for receiving a telephone call to the first telephone number and identifying a geographic area related to an origin of the telephone call;
• means for selecting a first advertiser from the competing advertisers, based at least in part on the identified geographic area, and identifying a separate previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser;
• means for connecting the received telephone call to the previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser to track telephone connections to the first advertiser established from received telephone calls to the first telephone number provided in the advertisement;
• and
• means for charging the first advertiser a predetermined fee for the advertisement in response to connecting the received telephone call, placed to the first telephone number provided in the advertisement, to the previously assigned telephone number of the first advertiser identified based at least in part on the identified geographic area.