If you are wondering why phone call tracking is important for your business, check out this blog post for more detailed information. The basic explanation is this: if you are receiving phone calls from website traffic, it’s important to know how the people are getting to your site so you know what PPC campaigns, or even better, keywords, are driving people to your site.
Are you currently using call-tracking software? Last summer, Google released its version of phone call tracking called Google Website Call Conversions. The average Joe may not understand the differences between Google’s new product and full service call tracking, so we’ll take a few minutes to go over the differences for you.
Google Website Call Conversions
Google’s product for website call conversion tracking’s major advantage is no per minute fees or additional call tracking costs. You pay for the click itself, but do not have to pay for the call. Seeing as 70% of mobile searchers use click to call, this could be a cost savings for your business. There are some disadvantages, however, to using Google for your call tracking. With Google’s website call conversions, you won’t be able to track any other sources – it’s limited strictly to AdWords. Any calls from social media, organic search queries, other sites, etc. will not be tracked using the Google product. There is also no way to differentiate the value of different calls as leads, sales, repeat or miscellaneous calls, etc. Similarly, you can’t disposition calls in any capacity to assign a value.
It’s also important for you to realize that Google will own the phone numbers and that it will utilize a shared bank of numbers. There is now an option for a local phone number available in some areas, and also toll-free numbers, but you will not own the phone number. Google’s product also doesn’t offer call recording, CallerID (caller area code is the only information you will be able to see) and CRM integration is not available.
Full Service Call Tracking AKA Third party products
When you choose a full service call tracking option for your site, you’ll be able to track any advertising source including organic and social media where Google’s product will only track calls that originate from an AdWords PPC ad. You’ll also be able to import marketing costs via API from many search engines and advertising platforms to create very detailed reports including metrics like cost per call.
Most phone call tracking services can seamlessly integrate with Google AdWords, Google Analytics and many CRM and other advertising/analytics programs. They also allow manual assignment of call values based on outcome, so you can differentiate from leads, sales, miscellaneous calls, etc. You (the customer) own the call tracking numbers and call recordings are available along with CallerID. Yes, you will be paying for phone calls, but what you are paying for is valuable information and control, and the costs can be very minimal depending on your needs.
Our Take on Google Website Call Conversions vs Full Service Call Tracking
While both options use dynamic number insertion, Google’s product will ONLY work for AdWords and there is no way to reconcile the call values outside of using call duration. Google’s Website Call Conversions is a nice, low budget way to get involved with call tracking, but choosing a full service third party call tracking provider is still a much better option because it gives you so much more valuable information.
If you would like to know which option is best for your site, feel free to reach out b to us at Full Circle SEM.
