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

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• receive a plurality of price bids from each of a plurality of entities;
• present a second telephone number in an advertisement on behalf of the plurality receive, via the computing device, a telephone call at the second telephone number from a caller;
• in response to receiving the telephone call:
• process a set of status information corresponding to the plurality of entities, the set of status information comprising status indicators each indicating whether a respective entity of the plurality of entities is currently available to talk to the caller, wherein the status indicators comprise a first status indicator indicating that a first entity of the plurality of entities is not currently available to talk to the caller;
• based at least in part on the set of status information, exclude the first entity from a subset of the plurality of entities and identify one or more entities from the plurality of entities that are available to talk to the caller, the one or more entities corresponding to the subset of the plurality of entities that excludes the first entity;
• and
• present, via the telephone call, respective information relating to each of the one or more available entities, wherein the respective information relating to each of the one or more available entities is presented ranked in an order determined by the respective price bid of the respective entity;
• receive a search request from the caller during the telephone call, the search request including one or more criteria specified by the caller to search for a suitable one of the plurality of entities;
• perform a search according to the search request;
• present a result of the search to the caller, the result comprising listings for at least some of the one or more available entities including a first entity;
• receive, via the telephone call, a selection of a first listing from the result by the caller that corresponds to a first telephone number of the first entity;
• and
• in response to the selection by the caller, connect the telephone call to the first telephone number of the first entity.

A system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least one processor to:
• receive a plurality of price bids from each of plurality of entities;
• present a second telephone number in an advertisement on behalf of the plurality of entities;
• receive a telephone call at the second telephone number from a caller;
• in response to receiving the telephone call:
• process a set of status information corresponding to the plurality of entities, the set of status information comprising status indicators each indicating whether a respective entity of the plurality of entities is currently available to talk to the caller, wherein the status indicators comprise a first status indicator indicating that a first entity of the plurality of entities is not currently available to talk to the caller;
• based at least in part on the set of status information, exclude the first entity from a subset of the plurality of entities and identify one or more entities from the plurality of entities that are available to talk to the caller, the one or more entities corresponding to the subset of the plurality of entities that excludes the first entity;
• and
• present, via the telephone call, respective information relating to each of the one or more available entities, wherein the respective information relating to each of the one or more available entities is presented ranked in an order determined by the respective price bid of the respective entity;
• receive a search request from the caller during the telephone call, the search request including one or more criteria specified by the caller to search for a suitable one of the plurality of entities;
• perform a search according to the search request;
• present a result of the search to the caller, the result comprising listings for at least some of the one or more available entities including a first entity;
• receive, via the telephone call, a selection of a first listing from the result by the caller that corresponds to a first telephone number of the first entity;
• and
• in response to the selection by the caller, connect the telephone call to the first telephone number of the first entity.