What Is Call Tracking, and How Can It Benefit My Digital Marketing Campaign?

In this article, we'll delve into the world of call tracking, explaining its significance and showcasing the myriad benefits it offers for your digital marketing campaigns.

In the world of digital marketing, tracking the online journey of your leads is a breeze. You can follow their clicks, identify the ads they engage with, and monitor the landing pages they visit—all crucial data for attributing purchases to your marketing efforts. But what happens when these online leads convert offline, perhaps by picking up the phone to connect with your business? The digital trail vanishes, and the attribution story goes cold. This is where call tracking comes into play, acting as a bridge between your online marketing initiatives and offline call conversions. 

What Is Call Tracking?

Call tracking is the magic link that connects your online marketing endeavors (keywords, ads, campaigns) with the offline world of phone calls. It enables you to pinpoint which specific marketing efforts are prompting potential customers to pick up the phone. For example, if a new customer spotted your client's Google ad and decided to call the business to place an order, call tracking is the tool that reveals precisely which ad led to that call. Without it, connecting online browsing to offline actions is nearly impossible, leaving you in the dark about the performance of your ads.

What Can You Do with Call Tracking?

The power of call tracking extends far beyond simply connecting online and offline dots. It empowers you to:

Prove ROI: For businesses heavily reliant on phone leads, call tracking allows you to calculate the hard-number value of your marketing efforts. You can attribute offline leads (phone calls) to the online marketing strategies (like SEO and PPC ads) that generated them.

Optimize Campaigns: Call tracking provides valuable insights, such as conversion rates, average revenue per lead, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Armed with this data, you can make informed decisions, optimizing campaigns to maximize your ROI.

Unlock Intelligent Insights: Some call tracking tools offer advanced features like conversation intelligence and Lead Intelligence. These capabilities use machine intelligence to automatically gather insights from calls and other marketing data, helping you qualify leads and focus on strategy.

How Does Call Tracking Work?

Call tracking relies on Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI), a sophisticated technology that transforms the way you connect with your audience:

• Dynamic Numbers: DNI replaces static phone numbers on your web pages with unique, dynamic numbers. Each visitor sees a different number, ensuring a personalized experience.
• Visitor-Specific Tracking: These dynamic numbers allow for individualized tracking, pinpointing which marketing efforts led to a specific call.
• Data Integration: Call tracking software uses cookies to associate critical marketing data (e.g., UTM source, medium, keyword) with the visitor's unique call tracking number.

Why Do Marketers Need Call Tracking?

Marketers need call tracking because phone calls are a primary source of leads for many businesses, and these leads are exceptionally valuable. Over 43% of search-related conversions occur over the phone, and 65% of businesses consider their most valuable leads to come from phone calls. For organizations that combine digital advertising and phone-based transactions, call tracking is essential to demonstrate the effectiveness of their marketing investments.

Benefits of Call Tracking

The advantages of implementing call tracking in your digital marketing efforts are numerous:

• Accurately attribute calls to marketing sources.
• Optimize campaign performance by identifying high-performing strategies.
• Efficiently allocate your campaign budget by eliminating low-performing avenues.
• Leverage PPC keyword insights to inform your SEO strategy.
• Gain a deeper understanding of the customer journey.
• Finding the Best Call Tracking Software

When choosing call tracking software, consider your specific needs and goals. Look for features like lead quality analysis, lead qualification automation, customizable reporting, and advanced call tracking capabilities that align with your objectives.

In conclusion, call tracking is the missing link that connects your digital marketing initiatives to offline call conversions. It's a vital tool for proving ROI and optimizing your campaigns, ultimately driving the success of your digital marketing endeavors. If you're ready to dive deeper into the world of call tracking, check out our guide on how call tracking numbers work, and discover how to start tracking calls with Google Ads for your PPC campaigns.