There’s a lot going on in the call tracking world and I’ve been a bit too busy lately to cover it all. A link roundup is about all I have time for at the moment, but I promise to revisit some of these items and offer my opinions soon. In the meantime, enjoy!

• AdInsight – 1st party cookies vs. 3rd party cookies, and why they matter for call tracking. (hint: it’s kind of a big deal!)
• AdInsight – 5 things every call tracking solution should do. (there are way more than 5!)
• ifbyphone – Why you should record call center calls. (right on, I’ve come to many of the same conclusions)
• Mongoose Metrics – What PPC advertisers need to know about Google Call Metrics.
• RingRevenue – Is now partnering with Pepperjam and others to increase their call-based performance marketing networks. There’s no doubt this is going to be a hot area in the very near future.
• Google AdWords – 77% of smartphone users have contacted a business after searching on their smartphones, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business. Read more from their smartphone user study here, or watch this video of the highlights:

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Call tracking software is being used in most call centers, though there are some center managers who ignore this crucial software utility.

One major reason why call tracking technology ought to be the focus of a call center is that your center is not built on a deserted island. Whatever a call center does is ultimately meant to support the processes of a bigger business. You do not operate completely independently. There is a lot of info that you can garner from a call tracking utility. And each bit of it is valuable.

There are three advantages of call tracking that can easily be observed and measured:

• Increased conversion rates
• Optimized ad spend
• Routing leads to the correct salesperson

Of course there are many more benefits than these three, but these are the most obvious ones. And since all these reasons are directly related to call center processes, any call center demands for a good call tracking software utility.

Apart from handling customer issues, cross-selling, up-selling products and services, or resolving customer disputes, a call center that is armed with call tracking software can gather a lot of information about the customer.

Integrated Customer Data

You don’t need just call center tracking, but you also need to merge it with marketing automated solutions, customer correlation management platforms, or any other technology that you use in your call center. This permits you to track each and every interaction that you have with your customers. Thus you capture crucial information, and use it to improve the customer experience.

Accountable, Measurable Ad Campaigns

Think about the latest marketing campaign you launched. It required a lot of research. It is very important that the campaign reaches the target audience and triggers them to take action. When you have a call tracking system, a lot of research material is being collected as you interact with actual customers. To understand if the next product or service will have a buying audience or not, just go through your database and you’ll have the answer.

And you do know that there is a lot of growth potential from your existing customer base. The trick is to utilize it. How do you identify potential and make use of it? It can be done using call tracking software.

I went through a few call centers and had a chance to take a brief look at the call tracking software at Global Response. Just by going through the information collected by the tracking utility, they saved a lot of time and money on a new market research project. And since this ‘research’ was conducted on actual and present customers, they knew it is the right target audience.

Call Tracking is Mainstream

Consider these stats:

• TechCrunch says that the number of searches leading to phone call for businesses using call tracking utility has increased by 35% in the present year.
• AdInsight says that 43% of search related discussions happen on phone.
• According to The Kelsey Group, 97% customers depend on online media for local searches.

The Bottom Line

You have a website, and it has all the information that customers need to purchase your services and products. If you do not use call tracking software to measure the outcomes from your online platforms, you are missing out on chances to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing and advertising campaigns.

Stacy Craig works with Global Response and is among the top writers at Odesk.com. She has conducted a research on call centers and their techniques. She is a serial blogger and a writing enthusiast. She is available at http://stacycraig.weebly.com/

Marchex has upped its game and signaled an intent to purchase Jingle Networks, a mobile ad network for $62.5 million.

The press release reads like an industry insider’s rambling internal monologue and does a terrible job explaining the benefits to advertisers and publishers. In plain English, Marchex just bought a huge distribution network for mobile ads that can be used to generate phone calls to advertisers. This will allow Marchex to expand its call tracking and pay-per-call performance marketing networks to include more advertisers and publishers.

I, for one, welcome the new opportunities this creates. But it remains to be seen if the integration will go smoothly and how easily Marchex can add new advertisers.

Yelp.com has announced a partnership with Telmetrics (more) to provide call tracking services to its advertisers.

From the press release (PDF):

Yelp, which receives more than 45 million monthly visitors and has more than 16 million reviews, will use Telmetrics’ call tracking solutions to help measure the volume of phone calls the site is driving to Yelp-listed businesses.

That Yelp would begin offering call data to its advertisers should come as no surprise. Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) sites have been doing so for years.

Google announced yesterday that its AdWords Call Metrics capabilities have expanded to include more detailed reporting. When they first launched the feature to U.S. advertisers late last year, the reporting options were very limited and data were only available in aggregate.

This new release provides details on individual calls:

• Call start time
• Call end time
• Call duration
• Call status (missed or received)
• Caller area code

To access these reports, you need to visit the “Dimensions” tab in your AdWords interface. If you don’t already see it, it’s available in the drop-down box to the right of your other tabs.

AdWords Dimensions Tab

Good News/Bad News

The good news is that call-level detail can give you a better sense of each keyword’s performance and the geographic distribution of your conversions.

The bad news is that there are still no ways to integrate this call data with a CRM or goal conversion in Google Analytics. It also doesn’t include caller ID information or integration with other ad platforms (adCenter, Facebook Ads, etc.).

Given the importance of tracking phone calls and analyzing conversion data to improve campaigns, I would not be surprised to see Google move towards a more robust integration with Google Analytics and even extend this tracking capability to other types of campaigns using their Google Voice technologies.

There’s a movement afoot to consolidate click-to-call mobile advertising (AdWords mobile, etc.), social couponing (i.e. Groupon), and phone call tracking. Savvy marketers are now combining these tactics to implement, measure and refine mobile marketing campaigns with complete end-to-end visibility.

The Evolution

It’s not a marketing “revolution” as some social media pundits would have you believe, but rather an “evolution” that promises to provide greater transparency for marketers and more optimization opportunities.

The real breakthrough is coming from open APIs that allow these systems to communicate behind the scenes. This enables consumers to enjoy a seamless experience across multiple apps, which is paramount when all they want to do is find a restaurant, get a coupon and reserve a table without having to navigate multiple applications.

A Real-Life Example

There is a great example of this type of “just-in-time” transaction on MediaPost today.

For searchers who may be highly motivated, offering a click-to-call option means companies with no brick-and-mortar locations can get at meaningful lead generation or close phone-based transactions.

Tracking phone calls is just the tip of the iceberg. The real evolution occurs when these marketing tactics become integrated so that even unsophisticated marketers enjoy the benefits of buying, tracking, and optimizing their mobile marketing and coupon campaigns from one source.

So you are ready to take your marketing analysis to the next level and track phone calls in addition to online conversions?

Congratulations, you are WAY ahead of the curve. Your competitors will never know what hit them and you’ll be optimizing your campaigns based on true ROI while others are left guessing about how to allocate their budgets.

The hard part is picking a vendor. Each specializes in different types of call tracking. Some are great at tracking PPC and SEO campaigns. Others focus on tracking and qualifying affiliate leads. Some cater to the small business market by offering turnkey solutions, while others focus on enterprise-level integrations with data warehouses and proprietary analytics tools.

This checklist will help you define your needs and objectives so you can pick the right partner.

Step 1: Assess your needs

What type of calls do you need to track? Online, offline, both?

What level of granularity do you need? Will campaign-level data suffice, or do you need keyword-level tracking?

What do you need to know about your callers? Location? Demographics? Traffic source?

How do you want to analyze the data? In a dashboard or integrated with your existing web analytics and CRM tools?

Write down your objectives and the features you’ll need to accomplish them. Keep this checklist handy as you start to compare vendors.

Step 2: Narrow the field

Chances are, you won’t want to pay for a Ferrari when a Chevrolet will suffice. Similarly, you won’t want to pick a vendor that only provides 80% of what you need simply because they are a few bucks cheaper.

I’ve compiled a list of features offered by the most popular vendors on our call tracking vendor comparison table. Start by eliminating the vendors that don’t meet your needs.

The best recommendations come from colleagues and peers, so ask around and look for testimonials or case studies by people you know and trust.

Finally, a few web searches for call tracking + your desired features may turn up a few niche vendors that you can explore.

Once you’ve got a short list, visit the vendors’ websites and see if their marketing materials pass the “sniff test”. If it sounds too good to be true, or they don’t provide screenshots, demos or have an actively updated site, they may be over-promising and under-delivering.

Step 3: Go shopping

Start contacting the companies on your short list. Most vendor websites have contact forms and phone numbers to get in touch with a sales rep.

Once you’ve made contact, don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. You want a partnership with a vendor that is going to respond to your support questions and help you grow your business. If you don’t get a positive vibe from a vendor, move on.

Schedule a time to see demos. Most vendors will provide access to a test account or set up a webex-style meeting so you can get a feel for the admin interface, ease of configuring campaigns and reporting options. This is the best way to test-drive their solution to see if it fits your needs.

Ask to see case studies for other companies in your industry or that have similar needs to yours. Finally, ask about support and customer service. Are tech support options available to assist with implementation or troubleshooting?

Step 4: Negotiate terms

Finally, ask about costs. Some vendors charge a per-number rental fee and/or a usage fee per minute of phone time used. Ask about volume discounts and the ease of renting and returning numbers. Also ask about required monthly minimum spending levels. Some vendors have them, others don’t.

Some vendors require a longer-term contracts, while others offer month-to-month flexibility. Either way, ask for an early termination clause or trial period (at least 60-90 days to give your campaigns time to gain traction).

Take your time, get it right

It’s important to note that switching between call tracking vendors is not easy. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to port numbers from one vendor to another. If you have to switch vendors mid-campaign, your existing call tracking numbers will no longer work and you may miss out on some valuable leads.

The right vendor can be an extremely valuable business partner. Pay attention to their sales pitches, and invite them to suggest ways to improve your campaigns tracking and analytics. A small time investment in learning and preparation will help you create and manage more profitable campaigns for years to come.

In my day job, I find myself recommending and implementing call tracking solutions for a wider variety of clients than ever before.

But the more I bring it up, the more objections I hear. Some reasons are legit, others are pure ignorance. That’s not to say my clients are ignorant (quite the opposite, they ROCK) but sometimes their thought processes need a quick kick in the pants.

Here are the top 10 reasons I’ve heard NOT to track inbound phone calls. How many of these have you heard? Any I’m missing?

1. My customers only interact online and have no need to call my business

You’d be crazy not to have a phone number listed on your website. Some customers want to give you money but have a hard time checking out, signing up or finding a crucial detail on your site. Eventually they’ll give up and go somewhere else unless you make it easy for them to contact you for help.

2. I don’t think the extra investment in call tracking will yield any return

I have to call BS on this one! If you’re already spending money on PPC ads, SEO or other media, a small percentage invested in proper analysis of phone calls will make your paid campaigns much more efficient and more than pay for itself in no time.

3. I don’t get enough phone calls to justify the expense

This may be true if you only get a handful of calls each month. But don’t you want to get MORE phone calls? Even if you do it the old fashioned way with pen and paper, keep track of where your successful phone calls come from so you can focus your marketing efforts on those sources.

4. I already know how people find my phone number

5. I already know the outcome of all of my phone calls

Again, how can you really be sure? What about the calls that go to voicemail when you’re out to lunch or hang up during a long or confusing prompt system? Recording these calls can shed light on abandoned calls that could have turned into business.

6. I don’t have time to analyze the calls

7. Web analytics already tell me how many conversions I’m getting

Sure, any web analytics tool can report back to you on click-based conversions, leads, downloads and sales. But the moment a website visitor picks up the phone to call you, that conversion is not counted in your ROI calculations. You could be missing 50-75% of your leads when deciding how to allocate your marketing budgets.

8. I just want the phone to ring, all phone calls are created equal

Not so fast. Some of your marketing efforts could be generating a disproportionate number of customer service or unsolicited sales calls. These calls are less likely to result in new customers so you’d want to know this when comparing ROI across multiple traffic sources.

9. I don’t want to confuse people with different phone numbers

10. The people that answer my phones don’t care where calls come from

This is another common response, and I often recommend crafting a “whisper message” to help craft a more personalized response from your sales people. If the call came from a source promoting a special offer (i.e. a Facebook ad with a 10% off coupon), your sales people may be able to pick up some extra commissions by customizing their sales pitch to the offer and ad.

The Bottom Line

People are naturally resistant to change, especially when it might involve them having to do more work or wade through more data. But the problem is not that call tracking data are not valuable, it’s that the data are often not aligned with a client’s objectives or incentive structure. Find a way to package call tracking that helps them look good and you’ll soon gain their trust and hopefully their business!

(CC Photo Credit: Tim Ellis on Flickr)

Peanut butter and jelly. Holidays and egg nog. Mobile click to call ads and phone call tracking.

Some things are just destined to go together.

There have been a flurry of news releases and blog posts recently about mobile ad networks and affiliate networks partnering with call tracking providers to supply turnkey analytics and lead qualification solutions for advertisers and publishers.

It makes sense when you think about it. Tracking a phone call is a bit more sophisticated than tracking a click. Marketers and ad publishers need to capture and analyze the ad click data, standard call tracking metrics and conversion rates. The phone conversation takes place out of site from traditional web analytics tools and verbal transactions are much harder to quantify than click-based conversion events. (hint: recording calls can help)

What does it mean?

These partnerships make it easier for advertisers to determine the success of ad campaigns and individual ads targeted to a mobile audience. Smarter advertisers lead to more efficient ad markets and better results. Companies that spend money without measuring results are running blind and will eventually lose the ability to compete profitably.

Mobile web users are given more options to initiate a conversation with a business directly from an ad without having to navigate a website on a smaller screen. When time and screen space are in short supply, a phone call might be just what the advertiser ordered.

(CC Photo Credit: Vegan Baking on Flickr)

In a battle of Top 10 lists, who really wins? The marketers, that’s who!

• 10 Benefits of Measuring “Call Us” Ads from Ifbyphone.
• Top 10 Things You Can Do With Call Tracking from Mongoose Metrics.
• RingRevenue courts the pay-per-call market, pointing out that mobile advertising is the next big money-grab for affiliates and publishers alike. They throw around some big numbers, and I want in on the $75,000 per month in affiliate revenue some are apparently generating.
• Marchex Call Analytics now offers keyword-level call tracking which finally brings their product in line with other vendors that already offered the service.
• Machine voice transcription = Bigfoot? Century Interactive thinks so. Will we ever see the end of the machine vs. human transcription debate? Probably not until the fate of the human race is on the line in a post-apocalyptic battle…oh never mind. We never will.
• Marchex also released a promo video for their Call Mining feature. Apparently it takes a lot of scrolling text to get to the point, but otherwise does a pretty good job explaining the features and benefits. The UI looks pretty slick but I haven’t had a chance to take it for a test drive yet.