3 Ways to Track Offline Lead Conversions With Call Tracking

This is a guest blog post by Kathleen Colan. Kathleen is director of marketing and content at Mongoose Metrics, a call tracking solution provider, and has written dozens of blog posts, guest posts and whitepapers on the topic of call tracking. You can follow her on Twitter @mongoosemetrics or her blog at www.mongoosemetrics.com/blog.

To maintain a successful inbound marketing campaign, marketers have to effectively track and record all lead conversions and associate them with specific marketing activities such as PPC advertising and lead nurturing campaigns.

Platforms like HubSpot and Google Analytics make it is easy to track online conversion data (i.e. contact form completions), but what about when a lead picks up a phone and calls? To capture these offline conversions, and complete the lead conversion picture, marketers need call tracking.

How to Integrate Call Tracking

There are two main ways to integrate call tracking, both of which should be used if you’re driving visitors to your website.

1. One-to-One: In your call tracking platform, assign a unique call tracking number to a certain marketing initiative, such as an email newsletter, online webinar, or PPC ad. Every time a call comes into this number, the platform will register the conversion and associate it with the proper initiative.

2. Javascript Snippet : Your call tracking platform will provide you with a Javascript snippet that you can install in the code of your website. As a visitor arrives to your site, source information will automatically be captured, and he or she will be shown a unique tracking number. If the snippet is installed throughout your site, the tracking number will follow him or her from page to page. As a call comes in, the referring site (i.e. search engine), the landing page, and the last page he or she visited before calling will be collected and associated with the conversion.

Using these two forms of call tracking integration, you can accurately track offline conversions, and use this information to improve inbound marketing campaign performance. The following are three examples of how this can be done:

1. Keyword Optimization

With the Javascript snippet installed on your site, you can collect highly useful source data, including which search engines drove visitors and which keywords those visitors used to find your site. As a call comes in, the platform will capture the conversion and associate it with the specific keyword that was searched.

You can then combine this information with online conversion keyword data to fully understand which terms are driving the highest quality traffic to your site. Armed with this insight, you can more effectively evolve your SEO efforts, focusing on-page optimization and content development efforts around the terms that have proven to generate leads.

2. PPC Campaigns

To effectively evolve PPC campaigns and maximize ROI, you need to evaluate campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keyword bids based on conversion rate. To track offline conversions, integrate tracking numbers directly into ads and landing pages.

For ads, Use the one-to-one integration by associating a tracking number to a specific campaign, ad group, ad, or keyword bid, and then put the number in the corresponding ad.

There are a several options for how you can include the number:

• Within ad copy : Keep in mind Google and Bing allow a maximum of 70 characters in PPC ads, and a phone number with area code and hyphens (555-555-5555) will use 12 of these characters.
• Google Call Extension : Google offers a Call Extension feature, which allows you to add a phone number to your ad without consuming valuable ad space. This number is then prominently featured below your ad. 
• Image Ads : If you have a graphic or display ad, you can feature a tracking number directly within the design.

For landing pages , use the Javascript snippet to integrate tracking numbers into your landing pages. By doing so, any calls will automatically be associated with a specific campaign, ad group, ad, and keyword bid.

You can also manually add tracking numbers to landing pages on a one-to-one basis, but if a visitor should leave your landing page for another page on your site, your ability to associate the conversion to the PPC campaign will be lost. With the Javascript, the tracking number follows them, enabling you to accurately track PPC conversions no matter what page the lead calls from.

3. Lead Nurturing

If you use lead nurturing email campaigns to progress leads through the sales funnel, repeat conversions is a clear indication a lead is motivated enough for your sales team to contact. To track offline conversions from these emails, add tracking numbers.

Within the email : There are a variety of ways to integrate tracking numbers into your emails on a one-to-one basis. Make sure to experiment with the placement to see which works best. Some options include:

• In a graphical banner
• In the right- or left-hand column
• In a call-to-action button or image
• Directly within content

Within Landing Pages : If you direct recipients back to a landing page, make sure this page is solely used for your lead nurturing campaign. Within your call tracking platform, you can tag visitors to a landing page as coming from a specific marketing initiative (for example: a lead nurturing email). As a call comes in, the platform will associate the call with the page on which he or she first arrived and report the conversion appropriately.

Do you use a call tracking platform? If so, how have you used it to improve inbound marketing campaign performance?