Researches show that in 2019, calls to business from smartphones are predicted to reach nearly 162 billion, which is a 73% increase from 2015. Even without the data, we all know that phone calls are the main factor in converting for a lot of businesses. 

However, it can be challenging to measure exactly how many calls were made because of an online marketing campaign. That’s why call tracking was invented. 

Call tracking is the process of measuring offline conversions (phone calls) from online ads.

Did you know that 43% of all search-related conversions happen over the phone? That’s a huge percentage of phone calls that are uncounted for without call tracking. Most marketers say that their top priority with paid search ads is getting people to call the business.

Call tracking tools like INVOX allow marketers to measure call conversions that resulted from paid search ads.

How does Google Ads call tracking work?

Call tracking Google Ads works in a few stages:

First, a prospect searches for one of the keywords you have your campaign with. They find your ad and either click on the ad or call the number right from the search query (if you setup Google Ads Call Extensions or Call-Only Ads).

If they click on the ad, they get sent to a dedicated landing page that displays a call tracking number used for call tracking. If they just pick up the phone and call the number the process is the same. The call connects and a few data points are captured, one of which is the campaign that triggered the call. 

Next, it records the duration of the phone call to determine if the call is converting or is it just an inquiry. The conversation is also recorded. 

What are some of the benefits of call tracking?

We have already determined that call tracking is an accurate and quantifiable way to track how effective are offline conversions (phone calls). In addition to this priceless data which cannot be captured in any other way, there are a lot of other benefits of call tracking.

Here are some of them:

Measuring marketing ROI

A huge benefit of call tracking is the ability to exactly know your marketing ROI, either for all your paid campaigns or an exact one or even an exact keyword. This is useful in proving the effectiveness of paid search campaigns and it also helps in better budget allocation.

Recording phone calls

During the call tracking process, all the phone calls to the call tracking number are also recorded. They can later be revisited back later to see exactly what potential customers are looking for. The recording can also be used to improve the way customer service and sales teams are handling inbound call tracking.

Capturing the entire visitor journey

INVOX call tracking also provides you with various visitor-level metrics. With INVOX, you’ll be able to see the exact visitor journey, how many pages the visitors viewed and how long did you spend browsing each page during the entire session. This allows you to better understand the exact visitor behavior on your website and what makes them call your phone number.

Multi-channel call attribution

Another useful feature of call tracking is the multi-channel call attribution which lets you know how each of your campaigns and channels are performing. This allows you to focus on improving the best PPC campaigns and marketing channels as well as your overall marketing strategy.

Google Ads account optimization

If you have a lot of campaigns in your Google Ads account, you know how hard it can be to keep track of all your campaigns. With call tracking, you’ll be able to optimize the structure of your Google Ads account by removing all the campaigns that are not working and better focus on those campaigns that are.

Better data analysis

All the data that comes from call tracking can be used in a wide business sense. How? Well, you get to see exactly how your leads are behaving. This data can be used to improve the way your business works based on the feedback you get from leads. If your leads are looking for a specific product or service that isn’t your priority, maybe you spend more time on making sure that it becomes a bigger priority. Call tracking data can help with data. If your leads are looking for a new product, maybe there is a shift in the market and call tracking has helped you predict it. 

Conclusion

I hope that this article gave you an insight into the wonderful world of call tracking. With call tracking, you’re practically sitting on a gold mine of useful and actionable data. The possibilities you get with call tracking are almost endless. Make sure you use its power before someone else does.

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