No matter which generation you were born in or how tech-savvy you are, sometimes nothing can beat a simple phone call and the ability to talk through your questions with an actual human being. Getting direct answers to your inquiries can save time and aggravation for you, and the ability to provide personalized help and further marketing to customers who are interested enough to call is an invaluable opportunity for businesses. Because phone calls are an undeniable part of the marketing mix for both consumers and businesses, tracking these calls is crucial to understanding the impact of marketing campaigns.
CallRail is a call tracking application and technology partner with Google Analytics. The app serves more than 40,000 businesses across North America and is continuing to grow (“Call Rail,” n.d.). CallRail is self-service, with an easy to use setup and interface for marketers who are anxious to analyze and use call data to optimize their campaigns. The app shows marketers the reality of their current marketing efforts and reveals how callers found their companies by offering the ability to “track calls from online and offline marketing campaigns, view which campaigns are driving conversions, and records calls for lead qualification” (“Call Rail,” n.d.).
(“CallRail Introduction Video,” 2015).
How does it work?
CallRail works by providing marketers with a line of Javascript to paste into any webpage that shows a business phone number (“Installing Dynamic Number Insertion,” n.d.). Each campaign, whether it be paid search, organic search, online campaigns, or offline marketing efforts, will be assigned a different tracking number that will be routed to the destination number of the business. CallRail offers a pool of tracking numbers for the business to assign out to its different marketing campaigns, and the app will use dynamic number insertion to swap the specific tracking phone number for that source with the business’ actual phone number on its site when the visitor arrives there via one of the marketing campaigns. This tracking number will be recorded by CallRail for later analysis before the call is routed to the business’ destination phone number. Because each campaign will have its own tracking number, marketers will be able to analyze which calls were made from which campaigns.
CallRail’s Features
In addition to source tracking, CallRail also offers keyword tracking. Rather than tracking call sources by source-specific tracking phone numbers, CallRail keyword tracking assigns a different tracking phone number to each unique visitor (“Keyword Tracking,” n.d.). When the business receives a call from one of the keyword tracking pool phone numbers, CallRail is able to tie that phone number back to the individual caller to identify the keyword(s) she used in search to find the business. Keyword tracking provides marketers with the source type, keyword(s) used in search, the referring domain, the medium, and the complete visitor path leading up to and after the call. CallRail can also be integrated with a Google AdWords account, not only to view calls as conversions in AdWords, but to track key words used to pull Google Ads that serve as the source for calls as well (“How to View,” n.d.).
Multi-channel attribution tracking is another feature offered by CallRail. According to Weatherby (n.d.), “most customers interact with your business in more ways than one, but it can be difficult to track their exact journey from start to finish.” CallRail offers the ability to track each caller’s entire history with the business, from her first interaction with a brand, to each retargeting touch point after. Exposure to multiple marketing campaigns can drive customers to make a conversion, and it is important for a business to be able to follow the paths their customers take to get there. Each channel can get the credit it’s due in helping drive the conversion, which can ultimately prevent inaccurate skews in reporting of source tracking data.
CallRail also offers marketers the ability to send and receive SMS messages through local tracking numbers in in the app’s copilot dashboard (“Send and Receive,” n.d.). Marketers can have conversations with each customer individually, or can send the same quick response message to each customer when it is best to send an identical message to a group of customers. Marketers can select the tracking phone number of the original source used by the customer to contact the business to show as the business’ phone number in the text messages. Separating these tracking phone numbers and using them to continue contact with the customer can help marketers analyze the overall impact and effects of their marketing campaigns over the entire course of a customer/brand relationship.
Within the CallRail dashboard, marketers can also find detailed caller id information and call history for each customer. This information can be helpful to prepare a business representative before she picks up the phone to answer a call from a customer. Call recording is also an available feature. After notifying the customer via a verbal warning message before the phone call begins, CallRail records each phone conversation and stores it within the customer’s timeline on the application (“Call Recording,” n.d.). Business representatives can listen to past conversations in preparation for future communication, and marketers can tag recordings with categories or add notes to each call recording entry. The conversations recorded can also shed more light on the impact of marketing campaigns personally on the individual customer experience with the brand.
CallRail and Google Analytics
Integrating CallRail into Google Analytics is simple. Marketers can make a custom event goal in Google Analytics, give the goal a value (set in comparison to the brand’s other goals), and can then analyze the call data sent into that goal by CallRail (“Adding Call Goals,” n.d.). Users can analyze the behavior to determine how many calls were produced from each source and can identify the timing of these calls. (Users cannot see the personal phone numbers in Google Analytics, however, as this type of information is protected to preserve customer anonymity). Marketers can choose to keep first time calls combined with all call data, or they can create another goal to track these. A separate goal can be set up in the same way for text messages as well (“Adding Text Message Goals,” n.d).
CallRail’s Impact on Marketing Efforts
Call tracking and analytics can provide tremendous insight for businesses. While there are countless web analytics tools available to track a visitor’s every move on a website, many businesses find a disconnect with tracking their callers’ interactions with the brand leading up to and after a phone call. While a phone call is considered an offline activity, CallRail gives marketers the ability to monitor exactly which online sources (and keywords) led customers to the phone call.
CallRail breaks ground in tracking offline campaigns. Renowned advertiser John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” (Lloyd, 2016). Historically, offline paid advertising efforts, such as advertisements on billboards or the radio, have been difficult to track and measure ROI. By using CallRail to ascribe different tracking phone numbers to various offline marketing campaigns (by type, by location, etc.), marketers have a way to analyze the impact of paid advertising efforts that were unmeasurable before. With information to monitor both online and offline ROI, marketers can have all the data they need to improve marketing efforts and reallocate resources and finances to further increase ROI.
Lastly, CallRail provides marketers with the ability to get to know their audience. Where web analytics can provide visit and visitor characterization details, call recording gives businesses the opportunity to explore who visitors are and why they act the way they do. Marketers can listen and re-listen to what the customers want and need and get to know them in a more personal way. Web analytics can’t provide information about why the customer behaves on a site or interacts with a brand in a certain way, but call recording can provide invaluable, qualitative data about the personal experiences and beliefs held by a caller. This kind of insight is rare in the analytics world, and by combining this qualitative data with the quantitative data linked in Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, marketers can gain a more holistic understanding of who their customers are and how best to serve and reach them.
References
Adding call goals to Google Analytics (Universal). (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/201325073-Adding-Call-Goals-to-Google-Analytics-Universal-
Adding text messages to Google Analytics (Universal). (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/204425009-Adding-Text-Message-Goals-to-Google-Analytics-Universal-
CallRail. (n.d.). Solutions for you & your business. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/analytics/partners/search/apps
CallRail. (2015, August 11). CallRail introduction video. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkx8pQO3Ucs
Call recording. (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/200977088-Call-Recording
How to view keyword data for Google AdWords calls in CallRail. (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/202672388
Installing dynamic number insertion. (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/201051406-Installing-Dynamic-Number-Insertion
Keyword tracking overview. (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/203949129-Keyword-Tracking-Overview
Lloyd, S. (2016, October 7). 14 examples of how to track offline marketing campaigns better. Rebrandly.com. [Blog]. Retrieved on February 11, 2017 from https://blog.rebrandly.com/14-ways-to-track-offline-marketing-campaigns-with-branded-links/
Send and receive SMS text messages. (n.d.). Support.callrail.com. Retrieved from https://support.callrail.com/hc/en-us/articles/202918109-Send-and-Receive-SMS-Text-Messages
Weatherby, L. (n.d.). Call tracking: A key component in campaign marketing analytics. Kissmetrics.com. [Blog]. Retrieved on February 11, 2017 from https://blog.kissmetrics.com/call-tracking-in-marketing-analytics/
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