Google Analytics is Good… but Could be Better

Why it’s Important to Include Call Tracking in Google Analytics

Fact: Over 50-percent of businesses rely solely on Google Analytics data for interpreting marketing metrics, making it the most popular web analytics tool used by tens of millions of businesses. So what then, you may be asking, is the problem, if one exists at all? Indeed, while there isn’t much lacking from the data Google Analytics provides, what the platform is ultimately missing is incoming call data. To be more specific, Google Analytics does not track incoming phone calls generated by marketing campaigns – whether online or offline – and this is significant as the use of smartphones and mobile search continues to explode in popularity.

Impacting the Performance of Marketing Campaigns… Including Websites

Tracking incoming phone calls in Google Analytics is as simple as using a call tracking solution, such as the variant we offer at ActiveDEMAND, and this approach has a significant impact on the performance of marketing campaigns… including websites. With a call tracking solution, phone numbers are registered, campaign meta data is associated with the phone number and the number is then published in specific online/offline marketing campaigns. When the tracked number is called, data is automatically logged in Google Analytics for reporting and visualization.

What must be remembered, however, is that incoming call data must not be neglected by marketing agencies and/or businesses; believe us when we say calls derived from marketing campaigns are high-quality leads, typically boasting a high cost-per-lead statistic. By tracking the data, marketing entities can not only analyze call length but also which campaigns are generating the call, geo-location information, time-of-day data and much more.

How Call Tracking in Google Analytics Increases Profit

Fact: According to a comScore study commissioned by Google, 63-percent of website visitors complete their purchases OFFINE. In the world of online shopping, there are plenty of methods to track visitor behavior including ad retargeting, click tracking, heat maps and tracking cookies… but as soon as that person picks up the phone, most marketers are lost.

The fact of the matter is they don’t have to be.

Without call tracking, there’s no way to know what web pages that caller has visited or the referring source of the call, thus all that effort that was put into designing user flows and nurturing that lead when these folks are online become all but nullified if they decide it’s time to talk with a real human being. Couple that with the unavoidable fact that not all customers relish filling out lead forms – and that inbound phone calls are 10 to 15 times more likely to convert than an inbound web lead – it becomes clear: If phone calls aren’t being tracked, money is being left on the table.

Compared to the more “traditional” method of…well, to be succinct, “wondering,” it’s easy to understand how using call tracking yields a more complete view of marketing efforts while enabling marketers to focus on budgeting and tightening the screws on their overall marketing efforts.

Now, how does this relate to increased profits and revenue? Using the collected data from call tracking campaigns, salespeople are better equipped to answer questions and anticipate objections because they’re aware of exactly what the prospect has been exposed to. Furthermore, a marketing team could use the call data throughout the marketing funnel so inbound leads are even more qualified when they arrive.

By combining call tracking – implemented to analyze browsing behavior – with a responsive power dialer, you can contact your new lead almost immediately after they’ve entered their information, and get a pretty good idea of what they’re interested in. Here’s an even better reason to consider call tracking and Google Analytics: Statistically speaking, by taking advantage of both technologies, you will be reaching a whopping 92-percent of your phone leads, all of which, as we mentioned earlier, are 10 to 15 times more likely to convert than your web leads.

Isn’t it time you looked into this thoroughly proven approach?