We all know you can track conversions on your website when someone fills out a form or makes an order. You simply put the Google Adwords conversion code on the “thank you” page, and voila: instant tracking.
But what if you want to track a customer calling you? How do you put a tracking code on the phone number of your website?
IMPOSSIBLE (right?).
But not really.
Billboard Tracking
Before the invention of the internet (and after, actually), there still existed advertising! Yes, imagine that: advertising before the internet. What a concept.
And those marketing professionals still needed ways to track their marketing efforts. If we put up a billboard, how do we know if it’s a effective? How do we know if it’s driving calls?
So the invention of a dummy number was born. Here’s how it works – a fake phone number is put on the ad (or billboard). When a customer calls the number, they are routed to your real number. Of course, the customer is completely unaware of this happening at all.
The calls are then counted, and you know how many calls came from that billboard!
The Exact Same Thing Can Be Done With Your Website, Only Smarter.
With 3rd party tracking, you can have fake phone numbers dynamically inserted onto your website depending on where the customer came from.
You can track whether they came from:
- Google organic search
- Google paid search
- Radio
- and more.
A simple google search can show you quite a few different call tracking companies to use. Some of them are quite expensive. If you’re new to call tracking, pick an inexpensive option.
Buy a new number for each source that you want to track.
It’s a good idea to also consider getting a toll-free number to use. That way if a customer calls from outside your city, they won’t be charged for long-distance.
Importing this conversion data for use in Google Adwords and Analytics takes a bit of training. But even if you don’t take advantage of that, you can still find out whether your general campaign is driving calls.
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