Call Tracking DNI Crash Course Local Biz Need

Do the words Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) give you a little bit of a rush?

Then you probably work in sales or marketing – or perhaps you need to step away from the glow of your computer screen.

If you are not familiar with DNI, then you may be excited to learn that it offers access to some pretty fantastic marketing metrics.

Marketers that use DNI call tracking have the ability to use a broad range of unique tracking phone numbers for highly accurate campaign data. They can assign an individual tracking number to different keywords, campaigns and marketing channels that are driving traffic to their website.

With DNI, call tracking has no adverse effects on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are also three different types of DNI that offer versatile solutions for the most precise call tracking data. The call tracking that you choose to implement will vary based on your specific goals.

DNI and SEO

If you apply it correctly, call tracking should not impact search engine rankings.

Once Google decided to include NAP (Name, Address and Phone Number) consistency as a part of their local search ranking factors, listing different phone numbers for one business had the potential to impact rankings negatively. However, with DNI call tracking, it is possible to display different phone numbers on a web page for separate traffic sources without harming search rankings.

How is this possible?

By using DNI, unique call tracking numbers can be displayed according to factors that you define while still providing a consistent default phone number for search engine spiders to index.

DNI is implemented with a snippet of JavaScript that is placed within the HTML. The JavaScript is used to detect visitor information, such as the referring website to determine the phone number that should be displayed. Just before the page is pulled up, the default number is swapped out with a unique number that is associated with the particular source or campaign that the visitor can use to make a phone call.

Since JavaScript is not executed when search engine indexing is taking place, DNI keeps the original default number in place for the search engine to crawl and compare with other listings to verify consistency.

Types of DNI

By implementing DNI, marketers can track the number of calls generated by various activities such as PPC, email marketing, SEO, social media marketing and even specific keywords.

There are three separate types of DNI. Convirza is one of the few call tracking providers that offers all of them. Here is a description of each:

• URL Based DNI

With this type, it is possible for marketers to assign unique phone numbers to specific URLs. When a visitor clicks through from a specified URL, an individual phone number will be generated. This allows activity on different URLs to be tracked and produced in corresponding reports.

When is it used? The majority of our clients that select this feature, use it to track social media and PPC campaigns. With this DNI, they can track the effectiveness of specific ads as well as groups of campaigns. This strategy involves assigning a unique phone number to each social media campaign or PPC ad. This ensures that visitors from each referring URL will see the unique phone number associated with it.

• Source-Based DNI

If you are interested in gathering high-level data about particular referring sources, then source-based DNI is for you. With this type of DNI, marketers could assign one phone number for all visitors coming in from Google, another for traffic from Bing or Yahoo as well as various other referring sites. In this case, every visitor from the same source would see the same unique number associated with that source.

When is it used? This form of DNI doesn’t provide intricate campaign data, but it is very useful for high-level metrics. If you want to know whether the people calling in are finding you from Google or another source, then this method is ideal.

• Session-Based DNI

This form offers the most granular data, but it is also the most expensive type of DNI. Instead of assigning unique phone numbers to specific sources or URLs, session-based DNI displays a different number to every person that visits your website. This number follows them the entire time they are on the site until they complete their browsing session. This offers highly focused data that not only provides information about the referring site but also the keywords that lead them to the site before making a phone call.

When is it used? Session-based DNI makes it possible to track the specific keywords that someone searched for before they clicked through to your site and made a phone call. This is an exceptionally efficient means of gathering data about SEO and online advertising.

Whether you are interested in high-level or more granular metrics, DNI call tracking is an easy and straightforward way to gain access to valuable data. The information generated in call tracking reports can be used for a variety of purposes including future campaign spend optimization and to prove marketing ROI.