Methods and apparatuses for pay for deal advertisements

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for advertising where the advertisement performance is determined via tracking the deals made as a result of communication leads generated from the advertisements. One embodiment includes: providing an advertisement containing a communication reference to a customer on behalf of a party; providing a connection via the reference for real time communications between the customer and the party; and charging an advertisement fee in response to an action of a predetermined type being performed by the customer (or an agreement between the customer and the party being reached) as a result of the real time communications.

1 . A method, comprising:
 providing, by a computing device, an advertisement to a customer on behalf of an advertising party, the advertisement comprising a communication reference;   establishing, by the computing device via the communication reference presented in the advertisement, a connection for real time communications between the customer and the advertising party;   monitoring, by the computing device, at least a portion of the real time communications between the customer and the advertising party transmitted via the connection established via the reference presented in the advertisement;   determining, by the computing device based on at least the portion of the real time communications between the customer and the advertising party that is monitored by the computing device, whether or not a deal between the customer and the advertising party has been reached; and   in response to a determination that the deal between the customer and the advertising party has been reached based on at least the portion of the real time communications between the customer and the advertising party over the connection, charging, by the computing device, the advertising party   an advertisement fee for the advertisement to the customer.