Tracking campaign effectiveness would be easier if marketing campaigns drove traffic and referrals back through a single channel, but this is rarely the case. Consumers can do any number of things when marketing influences them into action, and this makes tracking complicated. This is especially true when referrals take the form of phone calls, which can only be accurately measured by analytics through a call-tracking solution.
What is call tracking? In the simplest terms, it's a way of seeing which ad campaigns are driving calls to your business. As smartphones create a seamless experience that melds phone capabilities with online search and mobile browsers, call tracking lets you get more reliable data from your campaigns. Without it, your company could be saddled with distorted readouts of how your digital campaigns are performing. But this simple functionality also provides valuable insights into the behaviors of your consumer base, helping you tweak your marketing style in the future.
How Call Tracking Works
Call-tracking software is actually pretty straightforward. The problem, of course, is figuring out how to track phone calls that are driven by different campaigns. As Search Engine Journal explains, the solution is simple: Instead of using one phone number for all your campaigns, you can differentiate each campaign with a different phone number.
Call-tracking software makes it easy to manage multiple phone accounts. Each unique number serves as its own referral number — in other words, the number dialed instantly signals the campaign that drove the referral. You can set up separate phone numbers for paid search ads, television commercials, direct mailings and any other campaigns you create.
The software then compiles the statistics from each campaign and shows which outlets are driving the greatest number of phone referrals. You can then add these results to your other data, creating a more comprehensive view of what's working and what isn't.
Why Businesses Benefit
You can expect several benefits from a call-tracking solution. For one, you can examine the referral value of your website's landing pages more fully, revealing which pages drive the greatest results and which ones are struggling. With paid search ads, you can count referrals even when those consumers don't actually click on the link — whereas without a tracking solution, these referrals can't be identified, hurting the perceived success of your paid ads.
You can also use unique phone numbers for individual keywords, thereby determining which keywords are the most valuable. With this information in hand, you can tweak your ad spending to divert funds toward the keywords and campaigns that offer greater value.
Stop asking yourself, "What is call tracking going to do for me?" You're hurting your own campaigns with each passing day you don't take action. A small investment into this tracking software will reveal new findings that can drive improvements and ultimately make your marketing more successful.
