In a nutshell, call tracking is the process of identifying how callers have found your business. With this information, you can then analyse which channels are performing well, and transforming into leads. What’s more, you can also go on to detect the quality of your calls, as well as the average conversion rate across all calls.
Using call tracking software allows you to gain a complete view of your marketing performance, across all channels and strategies. Call tracking metrics are extremely beneficial to marketers, aiding a better understanding of which keywords, messages, landing pages and campaigns are working best for your brand. By knowing which of these are generating the most leads, it becomes a lot easier to optimise future marketing strategies to gain the best results.
How does call tracking work?
There are a couple of ways of implementing call tracking software into your business, to analyse and improve your marketing strategy.
Your two options are as follows:
- Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI)
This form of call tracking places a JavaScript code on your site, replacing your phone number on each web page with a unique, trackable number that is tied to each individual visitor. This way, if a visitor calls your business, you are able to track exactly which part of the site – or which channel – they have come from. You can also capture how the caller found your site, alongside specific details relating to their online session.
This version of call tracking is best for understanding digital marketing and advertising efforts, alongside visitor interactions with your website and general SEO.
- Static Numbers
Static number call tracking also generates unique phone numbers per visitor, but instead focuses more on offline marketing, such as ad content and direct mailers. Other than being applied to different, offline channels, the tracking method is the same as DNI – measuring the effectiveness of offline marketing campaigns.
You can also incorporate call tracking extensions into your Google Ads, which allows mobile prospects to call you directly from their initial search.
Where is call tracking most useful? And how?
The answer to this question is twofold – as we can look at both industries and marketing channels.
Call tracking can be greatly beneficial to many different industries, especially those that require regular and consistent contact with their customers. These include:
- Automotive
- Retirement and care homes
- Healthcare
- Marketing agencies
- Dental care
- Financial services
- Travel and hospitality
- Legal services
Now, looking at marketing channels, call tracking software can track and optimise a wide range of methods. We’ve split these efforts into two categories.
Online:
- Google Ads PPC
- Microsoft Ads PPC
- Organic search results
- Online directories
- Social media pages
- Web referrals
Offline:
- Direct mail
- Print ads
- TV and radio commercials
- Flyers and brochures
- Billboards
- Yellow pages
And why is it important?
Call tracking is an important tool for a number of reasons. Namely, it provides invaluable insights into the performance of your campaigns. In particular, call tracking works best for digital advertising, PPC advertising and organic search engine traffic analysis, through using DNI, optimising keywords and identifying leads by their source.
