Call tracking provides you valuable information about what’s happening to your marketing campaigns on and off the web. It can help you determine which among your efforts bring in the bucks and which ones you can do away with.
But there’s been a buzz about this analytics program and its effect on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) ads – two online activities everyone wanting to do well on the Internet and their respective industries must engage in. As a result, considering the costs, time and effort that you’ll be saddled with initially, you might ask, “Is it worth it?”
Before you completely dismiss the idea of tracking, consider your answer to a couple more questions and get a clearer picture.
Is There Really a Problem?
The major concern in having call tracking while trying to boost your search engine ranking and doing PPC lies on using different phone numbers at one time. The different numbers appearing under your name in traditional marketing alone can present problems, particularly with that of being memorable to your customers – brand consistency.
With PPC advertising and SEO, you do need to be cautious about running into more direct obstacles. Displaying varying numbers in online advertisement, just like in offline ones, can confuse people – and Google. In some cases, there’s a strong reason for this confusion as certain call tracking numbers may have been associated with other parties. But all these can be avoided, however.
1. When working with a call tracking company, ask about Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI). This is the system that identifies a particular phone number unique to the web page, promotion or whatever source whose leads and activity you want to track. This gives you the power to pinpoint when and for whom the special number should be displayed.
2. Never share or use the same call tracking number(s) for specific advertisements and campaigns with your permanent numbers for business listings in online directories and search engines. This is usually where the confusion starts and your ranking ends. Be sure your analytics provider works with you to limit the use of the special numbers to your specified campaigns, pages or other sources.
3. Check with your provider that the tracking numbers you’ll use aren’t appearing in other campaigns or as other companies’ numbers. While this isn’t so common these days, still be cautious about getting the wrong calls. Go for a reputable call tracking company who will give you ‘clean’ numbers.
While you may encounter certain obstacles in using call tracking with SEO and PPC, they aren’t things that can’t be avoided or remedied. This is especially if you do things right and with the right provider.
Now, Is Call Tracking Worth It?
Simply put, your business’ primary aim is to make profit. And you do this by selling with the lowest expenses and the fastest time possible.
This is why you search for various ways to show your products and services. And this is why online marketing has risen rapidly and is now a must for most, if not all, businesses. The web is where most consumers hang out and depend on for a variety of things – from information to luxuries. And you do need to know if all your endeavours are working well enough to give you that profit.
Aside from the financial goal, your company may also have secondary objectives, such as honing the talents of team members, increasing the standards of customer service and revolutionising certain management systems, among others.
Call tracking can help you achieve your business objectives in more ways than one.
1. It can inform you where your leads are coming from. It can help you plan your next moves – which campaigns to drive harder and which ones to forget, which locations to consider for more intensive promotions, etc.
2. It minimises wastage in your company. Real-time information can help you immediately trim down activities and costs that aren’t converting to sales. You won’t need to waste a dollar or a drop of sweat on something that’s just not working for you.
3. It can help determine the strengths and weaknesses of your customer service. You’ll be able to not only have a more efficient business system, but also help improve skills of individuals on your team.
But call tracking entails money, time and effort, of course.
4. You need to allot a budget for having this analytics procedure in your system. You’ll find, though, that it generally isn’t much to get this going. But don’t settle for something cheap. As mentioned above, you need to go for quality to avoid problems with your SEO and PPC efforts and other campaigns. Look for a provider who’ll help customise the tracking according to your goals and activities
5. You need to train your team. You need to inform everyone involved in your business about this new addition to your system. Make sure they understand what’s going to happen and how it can help the operations.
These and more are the things you can expect when adding this analytics solution to your business.
While you’re asking if it’s all worth it, you can also ask alongside if you can afford not to have a route to efficiency like call tracking. Weigh the costs of acquiring this analytics program and the costs of not having one. Look into how much money, time and effort you’re spending for your marketing campaigns without real-time details and analyses to guide you.