3.5 min read
There are a few fallacies around call tracking even today. Let’s get right to it.
Here are the 11 most common things about call tracking that you need to know and are not fallacies:
Call tracking is not new. It’s been around for 18 years or more. Companies have been using call tracking numbers to track the effectiveness of various marketing tactics for a long time. It isn’t a new technology.
This is something we’re passionate about clarifying. Call tracking does not hurt SEO. It just doesn’t, when used correctly. We’ve written about this in a 35-page treatise called The Authoritative Guide to Call Tracking and Local SEO.
Call tracking CAN hurt SEO when it is used incorrectly. What constitutes an incorrect use of call tracking? Placing call tracking numbers on online directories, listings, or Google+ Local. That could screw up your SEO (though we haven’t seen any actual data proving this…the evidence is wholly anecdotal). Regardless, we’ll cede this ground and say unequivocally that marketers should not use call tracking on directories, listings, or Google+ local. These tactics could screw up NAP and thus, screw up SEO.
However, call tracking can be used on websites, listings, landing pages, and other venues via Dynamic Number Insertion. This does not hurt SEO. Everyone acknowledges this. This is a correct way to use call tracking that does not hurt SEO. Again, read whitepaper on the subject and your head will fill with knowledge.
It’s a big industry. SMBs, agencies, and enterprises all over North America use call tracking every day. They use various numbers on various platforms to gather critical call analytics data.
This is according to BIA/Kelsey. BIA/Kelsey projects 169 billion mobile calls to businesses by 2020, driven by smartphone penetration, high commercial intent, and the natural handoff between mobile engagement and phone calls (i.e., Google “call” buttons). The report explains calls are boosted by an on-demand culture. The rise of the smartphone has conditioned users to expect everything at the push of a button.
Call tracking isn’t hard to set up. Nothing changes with your current phone system. Calls still come through the same way they always have. The only thing that changes are the phone numbers you market with.
These can now be local or toll-free phone numbers provided by Convirza. Setting up a number takes under 60 seconds. If you want to implement Dynamic Number Insertion, that takes a few minutes (or we can do it for you).
Why not make your current number a call tracking number? Get marketing data and call recordings from your current phone number. That’ll improve your marketing spend and your operations. Plus, if you ever want to cancel Convirza (which would be dumb), you would just get your number back.
Remember, you own your phone number. Whether you’re with another call tracking company, a phone company, or an online telephony provider, you can move your numbers wherever and whenever you want. You own them.
As we said above, regular call tracking has been around for a long time. It gathers good metrics, metrics that will save you money. But they are shallow metrics. Pretty much all call tracking provides is surface data about referral source. That’s the whole idea…track which ads, campaigns, and keywords are generating phone calls.
That’s not good enough.
Advanced call tracking solutions like Convirza go much farther. We take analytics to powerful new levels. Instead of just tracking referring source, we actually analyze what happens on the phone call. We extract data like lead score, buying propensity, sales readiness, and pricing sensitivity. We even track whether or not an appointment was set on the phone.
We do all this based on the words and phrases said on the call. Our call analytics engine uses speech recognition technology to analyze the content of phone calls and then extract metrics based on the words said.
Huge added benefit. You can log in and listen to the phone calls that are coming into your business. It’s fun, informative, very useful, and incredibly addicting. Read more about call recording benefits here.
Check out this video: How Conversation Analytics Works
Read this Whitepaper: 45 Cool Analytics We Extract From Phone Calls
If you’re not using call tracking there’s a good chance that you’re missing a ton of revenue. You’re producing results from AdWords, retargeting, and organic search that you’re not getting credit for. That’s a problem.
Why don’t you care about getting credit for all those phone calls, clicks, and leads that you should be getting credit for?
Originally published on Aug 26, 2015, updated Oct 25, 2018
