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As online marketers, it is our job to drive leads and sales for companies in many different industries. Most marketers will start with an online advertising campaign that brings people to their website. The reporting however seems to vary greatly among different marketing departments and companies. Have you ever heard a similar quote from a marketing agency or individual that you have worked with in the past?

  • “Google AdWords got you 200 new website visits at $5 per click this month”
  • “Your paid Facebook Ad got you 500 new website visits this month”
  • “You are now ranking in the Top 10 for 3 new keywords”

Don’t get me wrong, this is a good start, but the real question that any businesses owner should be asking is, “How many customers did we get from our online advertising campaigns?” Tracking the ROI from numerous different marketing campaigns can be complex, but this article is meant to make your life easier.

Let’s talk about the most common form of online lead tracking: conversion tracking.

Quick Overview: What Is Conversion Tracking?

Conversion tracking is the method of collecting data on how many people perform your desired action on your website, such as purchasing a product, signing up for an email newsletter, or watching a video.

The simplest conversion to track is if someone fills out a contact form or pushes a button on your website. If you don’t currently have this set up on your website, here is an article on how to set up conversions for Google Analytics – Google Analytics Conversions

But what if someone calls your business rather than filling out a contact form? It is sometimes impossible to track which marketing campaigns make your phone ring, but dynamic call tracking is here to save the day.

Video explaining conversion tracking for Google Adwords

What Is Dynamic Call Tracking?

Dynamic call tracking is when the phone number on your website switches to a tracking phone number depending on how that person arrived on your website. Call tracking software then records information about each caller such as how they got on your website, their phone number, and how long the call was. You even have the ability to record the phone call, if it is allowed in your state and industry.

Call Tracking Software

There are two different call tracking software companies that we use and both have their advantages.

CallTrackingMetrics

CallTracking Metrics is an advanced system we recommend to clients who have a large number of monthly visitors and different advertising campaigns. There is a wealth of information that you can access about each call (admittedly much more than we would ever use). The software integrates with many different other companies, such as Google AdWords, Google Analytics, HubSpot, Optimizely, WordPress, Unbounce, and many more. Pricing is a flat monthly fee with an additional fee per minute of calls made to the tracking numbers.

Here is a link to their cost calculator if interested in pricing: Pricing Calculator

View of the CallRail Dashboard

CallRail

CallRail is another great choice to implement dynamic call tracking on your website. CallRail is less robust than CallTrackingMetrics, but for many companies it is simpler to use. There is a flat monthly fee and no price per phone call minute unless calls go over the monthly limit. For more information on pricing you can visit here: CallRail Pricing

Setting Up Dynamic Tracking Numbers

Both CallTrackingMetrics and CallRail are rather simple to setup. After signing up for a plan and choosing some phone numbers, both require adding a small snippet of code to your website that tells your website when to switch the numbers on the page. After installing the code, the dynamic phone numbers will begin switching immediately. Another option worth noting, is to add just one number to a landing page that doesn’t ever change so you can see how many calls your landing pages are generating.

Are There Any Downfalls To Dynamic Tracking Insertion?

Here are a few potential downfalls that are worth thinking about before implementing call tracking on your website:

Call Tracking Is A Paid Service

Unfortunately, Call Tracking is not a free way to track leads. That being said, it can be worth it to incorporate this form of tracking in to your marketing budget.

Local SEO

Local SEO is a big concern for many companies when using call tracking. If your phone number does not match all the citations you have on the web (such as yelp, google, etc) your rankings can be negatively effected. However, there are ways around this ever being an issue such as Schema.org markup or switching your number with an image rather than text (this is a feature in the call tracking software).

If You Discontinue Call Tracking, What Happens To The Numbers?

If you decide to ever discontinue call tracking, your customers may have saved the tracking number in their phone which will then not work when they call you back. (The decision whether it could effect your business is different for every industry.) In most cases we see customers google a name after they are a customer rather than saving you as a contact in their phone (unless there is frequent communication).

Getting Started

If you don’t currently use call tracking and it makes sense for your business, we think it is well worth the money to be able to make smarter marketing decisions.

Have any questions about getting started with call tracking? Send us an email at contact@kineticsequence.com and we’ll be happy to answer any questions. Happy tracking.