Clicking the advert takes you to your phone's dial screen with British Gas's phone number ready to dial. (This goes via an ad network so they can count hits.)

This is pretty good, they're redirecting phones to the following URL tel:08081205054

The tel: schema is close to universal. Any phone which can see that advert can also call that number. Great! Right?

Wrong!

When Is Free Not Free?

It may surprise you to know that "freefone" numbers often aren't free to call from a mobile. The reasons are a little arcane - but it means that any 080 number will cost your callers. Calls to 080 numbers generally do not come out of a customer's inclusive minutes.

So, using an 080 number will not be free. Kinda defeats the purpose of buying a "freefone" number, doesn't it? Especially on a campaign targeted to mobile users.

Where Are You?

Secondly, British Gas have assumed that anyone viewing this advert is based in the UK. Unless their geo-targeting is very good, they may well be showing this to people anywhere in the world.

If your customer is roaming, an 080 number isn't likely to connect to the UK call centre.

What To Do?

There's a really easy way to solve the set of problems which British Gas have with this advert.

1. Use an 03 number.
2. Use +44 at the start of UK phone numbers.

03 Numbers

OfCom have created a phone code which allows a mobile caller to use their inclusive minutes even when calling a non-geographic number.

From What are 03 numbers?

Ofcom introduced UK-wide 03 numbers as an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers, such as 0870.

These new numbers allow organisations to have a single national point of contact without consumers having to pay extra to call them.

Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to an 01 or 02 number and must count towards any inclusive minutes in the same way as 01 and 02 calls.

These rules apply to calls from any type of line including mobile, BT, other fixed line or payphone

Fully Qualified Addressing

The ITU have a recommendation for how to write telephone numbers unambiguously (E.123). It recommends using the country code. Essentially, when making a click-to-call phone number for the UK, make sure it starts with +44.

What Should It Look Like

Ideally, British Gas should be using a number like: 03069 990123.

Written in the correct international notation: +44 3069 990123

So, the final link would be tel:+443069990123.

That way, their callers - wherever they are - won't be paying extra to contact them.

(Oh, don't worry, that number is reserved by Ofcom for testing and drama usage.)

Feedback - 16/11/2010

Just had this in from Mary McEneaney the Online marketing manager for British Gas...

Thanks for taking the time to review our mobile advertising and you raise a good point on the use of "free" telephone numbers. Based on this feedback we're going to change the number to a 03 number

(Quoted with permission)

That's great news! Thanks to Mary and the team at British Gas for being so responsive to feedback.

It's a format that, for better or worse, has migrated to mobile.

Here's the mobile Guardian showing off its latest advert for STA travel.

A Normal Banner Ad? Or Much, Much More?

This being a super-whizzy smartphone, the advert has a surprise up its sleeve. Clicking on it doesn't take you away from the current page - it displays an overlay instead.

Banner Overlay

Brilliant!

This is a fantastic idea!

• You don't leave the referring site - that means you don't have to navigate away from a site you're interested in.
• It's visually exciting.  The advert doesn't contain distracting animation, but it does animate as it unfolds down the site.
• Click-To-Call.  There's a great big stonking call to action "CALL US NOW".  Clicking that will make your phone dial STA's call centre.

So why is it in the Badvertising section?

Let's Click To Call....

Callto?

Ah.

Clicking to call doesn't work.  It's unlikely to work on any mobile phone.

Callto - as far as I can tell - is an unofficial URI scheme supported only by Skype.

There are two common ways to initiate a click-to-call

tel:

According to DeviceAtlas over 2,300 phones support the tel: schema

wtai:

The oldest - and most common - way of dialling from the browser.  The WAP Forum specification was laid down in the late 1990s. The syntax is slightly strange - wtai://wp/mc/ - but it works on many phones.

International

The other problem is that you have no way of knowing where in the world a user's phone is.  You need to specify the international dialling code.  For the UK that's +44.

Why? If the user is roaming and tries to dial 08.... at best they will be unable to connect to your number.  At worst they'll connect to a local number who won't be best pleased to have a bumbling English-person ringing them.

How To Fix It

Using a service like WURFL or DeviceAtlas will allow you to see whether to use tel:, wtai:, callto, or something else.

Use the international dialling code.  You can't assume your customers are based in your country.

Use a geographical number.  Premium rate numbers like 0871 don't come out of your customers' bundles. They can cost much more from a mobile than from a land line.  Make sure the number you choose is suitable.

Test, test and test again.  I can't believe that this mistake cropped up.  Callto: is such a poorly supported URI scheme, that testing on more than a handful of devices would have shown it was unsuitable.

Remember - and it pains me to point out the obvious - if your customers can't contact you; they won't contact you!