If you have never heard about the word call tracking software, we will explain that the default call tracking solution from Google Ads is inaccurate and can miss up to 41 percent of calls. Adding advanced call tracking to your PPC campaign can significantly improve your results.
Given that any business will get phone calls, the challenge is to capture the data from every phone call so you can use it to expand your business.
This article will explain call tracking, how it works, what data it can offer from phone calls, and why your business should use call tracking. We will look at Google Ads Call Tracking and present a call-tracking solution.
Table of Contents
What Are Call Tracking And Call Tracking Software?
Call tracking is an information and call recording software that permits the business to track important details of incoming business phone calls. The data call tracking collected from inbound calls is as valuable as it gets, including who called, when they called, and what company they represent. Call tracking software also tells you where the caller was located and, most importantly, provides a transcript of all phone calls. In short, it provides you with complex data on phone calls that your business can use in various business-building ways. However, you can use it to optimize your website content to engage and attract new visitors.
Another excellent benefit of call tracking software is that marketers can identify which marketing campaign promoted the phone call, which enhances the KPI measurement. Moreover, it can also determine the keywords, ads, and web pages that drive the call to be placed.
Call tracking can also better measure online and offline marketing campaign performance. Sales teams handle call tracking software in advertising like Google Ads to feature which phone calls came from which place, so you know what marketing strategies are working and are not working.
Call tracking software can help salespeople not only to keep track of leads but also to improve relationships with both current and recipient customers. Since this type of software gives you background information about callers, like where they heard about your company, you are likelier to start a sales pitch on the right foot. Call tracking software can also increase your return on investment (ROI), offering insights about the effectiveness of your ad campaigns, whether through mapping customer website journeys or gathering data based on keywords used on calls or online.
How does call-tracking software work?
Call tracking is when unique phone numbers are used for every marketing campaign a business runs. The reason behind the individual phone numbers is simple to tell that the movement is apart. When calls come from a specific number, you know to which campaign the caller is responding.
For example, a good dispensary company launches a new marketing campaign. The first thing that happens is that unique phone numbers are assigned. Those numbers can also lead to any desired department, including an office phone, marketing department, or 3rd party answering service.
Once set up, phone calls go through tracking when those numbers are called. The software is the key that allows phone calls to be assigned to paid search, organic traffic, social media, and many other sources. Dynamic phone numbers are also available that authorize an advertiser to use as many numbers as they like and cover a variety of sources, marketing campaigns, and keywords. Moreover, call tracking software includes scripts, cookies, “call whispers,” conversion settings, offering the advertiser flexibility, improving their marketing campaigns, and even working offline.
Markets most frequently use call tracking to optimize paid search and marketing performance, personalize the caller experience and enhance the end-to-end customer by unifying online and offline data sources. The significant benefits that many call tracking users see are reduced cost per click (CPC) on paid search, reduced cost per acquisition (CPA), and increases in return on ad spend (ROAS).
What are the features of call-tracking software:
After reading the meaning of call-tracking software and understanding how it works, let’s dig deeper into the characteristics of call-tracking features that make it different from other programs.
Easy to use-
What is the sense of purchasing a call-tracking software program if it is too complicated to use? The best choice will be both easy to install and implement across your sales and marketing teams.
Perceptive dashboard-
You may be required to test different solutions to find out which dashboard makes the most efficient for you and look for free trial options. You will not use the program if you have to enter every detail you need.
Caller profiles-
The call tracking software should allow you to develop caller profiles by gaining relevant data, including the caller’s location, device, and the time of their call, among other details.
CRM integration-
If you use a CRM program for sales, make sure the call-tracking software program you choose merges with it so that essential details from the system’s caller profiles can be incorporated into the contact record. Which goes for any other critical software programs your team is using.
Scalability-
Now you have a small team, but what if your company grows? Can your call-tracking software grow with you? Here you need to check a program’s capability to scale and the cost involved. If a program gets more expensive at higher levels, it will still produce a positive ROI for your business.
Real-time analytics-
If you get a caller on the phone, and you cannot afford to wait until they are off to access vital analytics information. Observing analytics in real-time improves the ability to deliver a customized call experience that is more likely to result in a conversion.
Real-time and historical reporting-
Call tracking software can use the data to make future calls and on-site customer journeys effectively. But you can only do it if you have access to appropriate reporting tools and the capability to track conversion rates and measure ROI.
Customizable-
Your call-tracking software should be flexible and customizable to meet the requirements of your business and team members.
Call recording-
If you think of using a call-tracking software program for sales team development, ensure that call recording is in its place. This will let the managers on the team review past conversions to identify opportunities for improvement.
Keyword tracking-
Technically, your call tracking software can disclose that a contact clicked your website on the organic search result page for a specific keyword handled to particular pages on your website. With proper keyword tracking features, you are getting the complete picture of the contact’s history with your business.
Intelligent call routing-
Most call-tracking software programs offer IVR systems or integrate with others you are already using. Despite this, what is essential is that they can work with these systems to ensure calls are dynamically sent to the right person or team.
The Top 13 Leading Call Tracking Software in 2024:
Hubspot-
Hubspot’s call tracking feature is built with its free CRM and Sales Suite, and due to its native functionality and integration, it is one of the top choices. The platform offers call tracking and analytics, but you can locate calls from your browsers without even picking up the phone.
However, one click connects to a recipient through voice-over IP or your phone. Your calls will come from your number, and a choice to record each call provides you with reliable records of your conversions. Although calls are automatically logged into CRM, which, combined with Hubspot’s free email tracking, provides your sales team a frictional experience so that they can spend more time with recipients.
CallRail-
CallRail is another marketing platform that helps businesses to accelerate growth. It enables you to adjust marketing platforms that drive more quality leads and centralized communications and make more leads into customers.
Millions of businesses trust the CallRail platform to sustain and accelerate growth. Call tracking, form tracking, and conversion intelligence reveal insights across touchpoints with each customer’s journey. However, the lead center helps businesses connect with customers with allied inboxes and integrated communication tools, including text and chat. The price for the platform is $45 per month, but it also offers a free trial.
800 response-
The platform’s real-time call tracking and monitoring tools are the solutions to boost new customer acquisition and optimize customer interactions. With the help of real-time tracking reports, lead analytics, and customer interactions analytics, businesses can gain accurate information on their incoming callers, capturing consumer details and ranking leads by demographic attributes to gain visibility of their customer interactions.
collection-
Like other platforms, CallAction offers users inbound call tracking, caller enrichment based on customer databases, and CRM integration for transporting call data to records. However, one exceptional feature is its SMS automation for responding to missed calls, making this platform an excellent choice for companies with mobile-heavy customer bases or those investing in SMS marketing—the monthly charges for this platform range between $155 to $499 per month.
CallFire-
The platform allows companies to select local, toll-free, or international numbers from its database and merges them with their Google Analytics account or any other analytics data provider. On-the-users will also appreciate CallFire’s custom notifications which provide essential call information and access with email or mobile devices. The price range of this platform goes from $0.05 per minute to $599 per month.
CallSource-
CallSource is an excellent choice for those dealing in appointment-heavy industries such as dental, automotive, hearing consultants, and home services. This platform offers an exclusive ‘Dealsaver’ auto-alert that generates when call handlers fail to book appointments. In addition to CallSource’s lead sourcing features, it is possible to recover opportunities and provide performance training to call handlers based on recorded calls.
Convirza-
According to Convirza’s website, whether you are a small business merchant or an advanced enterprise agency, they have all the tools and solutions to improve your marketing spending and results. The platform’s feature list includes dynamic call tracking, call insertion, call analytics, quality scoring, and online and offline marketing channels performing the track.
CrazyCall-
CrazyCall is a cloud-based software that allows businesses and sales teams to reach their customers and leads with minimal effort. What makes this platform unique is its comfort to use.
The company’s inbound calls feature can improve customer satisfaction, along with helping businesses to grow semi-passively through the lead-generating callback widget. Users can track their call’s particular numbers, use the auto dialer, call recordings, call transfers, live listening, and more. Users can also make single calls, no matter what webpage they are.
Invoca-
Going beyond the features offered by many other call-tracking software programs, Invoca is an enterprise-level solution that uses AI-driven call intelligence alongside rule-based call analytics for classifying and segmenting calls. People using popular advertising platforms such as Google Ads and Google Analytics will be happy to see Invoca’s robust set of built-in integration that makes holistic call tracking as seamless as possible.
Infinity-
Infinity is the call-tracking platform for innovative businesses that need an advanced partner with the best reliability. The recent launch of infinity’s conversation analytics opens up exciting possibilities for understanding and accessing calls at scale. The platform also offers encrypted SIP calls, allowing companies to benefit from working with a cloud-based partner while guaranteeing unparalleled security.
The platform is available in over 70 countries and is trusted by brands and companies of all sizes across the world.
Call tracking metrics-
Call Tracking Metrics to give your business an all-in-one conversation platform. Its unique conversion tracking lets you see which campaigns are active calls, texts, and chats, providing you with a solid omnichannel presence.
Moreover, it also allows users to capture the entire customer journey that scales with your business. A ‘build your own quote’ plan means that whatever you need, you can get a deal tailored to your business.
With a high level of reporting, Call Tracking Metrics to help observe key insights into agent and campaign performance, assisting businesses in making critical decisions confidently.
Response Tap-
Response Tap is software crafted to work for marketers and call centers. Its powerful integration allows you to link phone calls to your digital marketing, bringing together two essential aspects of your business. It also helps to reveal the campaigns, channels, and keywords that make your customer pick up the call. With a good infrastructure, Response Tap is easy to use and helps maximize your return on investment.
Phonexa-
Phonexa aims to help you conquer your marketing strategies with one solution. It provides call tracking and distribution, lead, email, SMS marketing, link, campaign, and click training. This offers powerful tools to track your marketing across various channels, helping optimize your processes.
However, this platform is a good choice if you want to improve your outreach with sophisticated tracking. You have a lot of different pricing options to select from.
What are the benefits of using advanced call tracking?
There are many excellent benefits of using advanced call tracking in your ad campaigns, particularly to optimize them. Every paid ad campaign should incorporate call tracking for better results. Below we have mentioned some of the benefits of using advanced call-tracking software-
More accurate call tracking-
Most call-tracking systems use cookies to track online activities; you must have seen significant differences between out-of-the-box Google Ads call tracking and upgraded call tracking systems using CallRail.
Using the CallRail call tracking software, people have observed more reported phone calls, which means your business can determine who called, why they called, and where they called. It can also make more callbacks to those phone numbers and optimizes your ad campaigns in a better way.
You can also use call analytics provided by the software system to measure call-related metrics to conclude conversion data efficiently.
Killer reporting detail-
In the past, with standard Google tracking, you could see where calls were coming from, but qualifying them was almost impossible. That is because Google’s call details report was severely limited. With the advanced call tracking system, you can get a new level of detail, including- phone number, call time, call length, call recording, and call campaign.
This valuable call-recording data is provided on a wise, easy-to-use dashboard. It is simple to analyze each phone call quickly and see if the caller is qualified, export the call recording, or playback the call recordings.
Call recordings-
However, listening to call recordings might seem odd. Still, it is one of the most powerful tools to optimize marketing campaigns, improve conversion rates, and revise, if required, your marketing strategies. If recipients are interested in learning more about a specific service and features, we can update the ad and landing page copy to match that need. This single optimization increases conversion rates and brings in more qualified leads. Listening will let you know which campaign develops qualified leads and double down on those efforts.
Removing junk call sources-
The final element of call recordings we use for optimization is figuring out where junk leads are coming from. However, you could not qualify the leads with Google call tracking, which was a significant drawback. But with other software like CallRail, you can know where junk leads are emerging. With the CallRail software, you can turn off specific aspects of your PPC campaign bringing in those junk leads and saving time and effort. It is given the ability to optimize the campaign at an entirely new level.
Some optimizations we can make after listening to call recordings include- Ad copy adjustments, landing page copy adjustments, offer adjustments, follow-up process adjustments, keyword changes, and many more. In short, call tracking with CallRail gives insights into what is happening with the campaigns.
How to choose the best call-tracking software for your business?
Although you might have already made a list of various software, we still want to ensure that you get the best option. Follow the below steps to select the most efficient and profitable software-
Focus on your business size-
The initial step to choosing the best call-tracking software is to focus on the size of your organization. While your business might expand with time, it is best to filter the software on the list based on your current numbers. This will help you save money, which is challenging for your company.
Define your needs-
Please make a list of the features your company needs, while the platforms on our list have the basics, and each offers a unique set of characteristics. Focusing on your specific needs will help you narrow down the choices.
Set a budget-
After concluding the above two major sections, it is time to set your budget. If this is the first call tracker you buy, it is best to focus on the more affordable option. If you have a more prominent company or even an enterprise and are already familiar with how this software works, then it might be easier for you to define your budget. That said, never assume that a higher price means better quality or more extensive features.
Then, compare the options after step 2 with your budget; the call tracking software within your sending range is likely the best option. If the vendor offers a free trial, take advantage of it but remember to check if the features you need are included in the plan you want. Some free problems provide a complete set of features that may not be included in the lower tiers.
The Final Thoughts:
When spending money on PPC, getting as much possible raw data is necessary. This raw data allows you to optimize your marketing campaigns, which is why advanced call tracking is a belief all businesses should employ. Call tracking eliminates wasted efforts, maintains quality, and keeps new leads rotating. However, call-tracking software helps you a lot in specific ways. In the above blog, we have discussed some of the significant software and its meaning, benefits, and characteristics. Therefore, if you want to dive further into the topic, keep continuing your research regarding your queries.