Call Tracking Software: The Ins, the Outs and the Whole Enchilada
If you’re just getting your feet wet in the deep end of the call tracking pool, it’s important to first understand what this modern marketing approach is all about. Call tracking is a technology that enables the pay-per-call business model, connecting the tracking of phone calls to performance-based advertising while, in advanced examples, supplying additional analytic information about the calls.
Some marketing experts describe call tracking as a “method of performance review for advertising,” basing it on the “technical possibility” measuring the behavior of callers – taken in this way, call tracking can be considered the equivalent in telephony to the conversion tracking used on the Internet. Indeed, through different channels, both procedures offer the opportunity of clearly assigning a customer response to a specific advertising medium.
Software specifically prepared to handle call tracking procedures can record:
- What number has called
- The geographical location of a caller (if available)
- Time distribution of incoming calls
- Recording of the phone call(s)
This information can then be used to generate reports including (but certainly not limited to):
- Caller names and addresses (assuming a database relating names to numbers and addresses is implemented)
- Postal code summary
- Missed calls
- Call summaries (i.e. daily, hourly)
- Details regarding “unique” and/or repeat callers
- Analysis of frequency of calls by city and area code (if available)
One of the main goals of call tracking is to monitor the effectiveness of advertising campaigns by comparing tracking reports before and after its implementation; as such, call tracking is available on all types of incoming PSTN and VoIP telephone lines.
There are a number of software providers that support businesses and digital marketing agencies in telephone tracking, and the majority of them utilize two technological methods for tracking calls:
- Call-Back Function – The call-back function remains entirely web-based; in this methodology, the Internet user provides a phone number when visiting the website of a company at which he or she can be called back. As soon as the user confirms he/she wishes to be contacted with a click of their mouse, the technology automatically sets up a telephone conversation between the advertiser and the interested party.
- Call Number Tracking – Dissimilar to the call-back approach, call number tracking doesn’t include web-based functions and is instead based on a telephone server solution. In general, marketing agencies are given a multitude of service numbers for customer feedback, wherein land line numbers can also be used. This enables each print ad, online banner and any number of other advertising media to communicate an individual phone number as a “response element.”
The right call tracking software solution makes call tracking super-simple by enabling you to create call tracking phone numbers in a snap…and track calls made to those numbers.
