Tracking Phone Leads Back to Digital Media
A Key Piece to Reporting
Lindsay Blankenship | January 2008
Many marketers rely heavily on their inbound call centers to drive their business. Sales generated over the phone are an important aspect of campaign reporting and successes. Yet tracking phone leads and sales back to the digital media that directed the call is still a widely under-utilized technique. Given the variety of new and established technologies for capturing the impact of inbound call activity, advertisers should make every effort to incorporate this data into the evaluation of their online campaigns. This document explores five separate methods advertisers can employ to track inbound phone leads and sales.
Problem:
Many advertisers do not have tracking in place to report on phone calls driven from online media. These advertisers lose a percentage of leads and sales in delivered media reports and optimize from an incomplete picture.
Solution:
Advertisers should adopt a customized inbound call tracking strategy to incorporate phone leads into search marketing ROI.
Benefit:
Options for Tracking Inbound Phone Leads and Sales
A conclusive report leads to better optimized accounts and a possible shift in budgets as well as a new source of leads that brings even more value to the campaign.
The five tracking methods below are listed order of effectiveness and accuracy. Razorfish can work with clients to determine the best inbound call tracking technology based on the client’s needs and technical specifications. 1. Third Party Tracking Companies Third party call tracking platforms, such as VoiceStar, eStara and Who’s Calling, allow an advertiser to track and measure inbound calls and tie them to the online source. These call tracking tools can attribute inbound calls down to the placement level (for example, the individual keyword that drove an inbound call). In addition to reporting the number of calls, basic call tracking lines can provide other valuable performance information, such as the following: • • • • Length of the call Date and time of the calls Basic caller ID data (used to match consumers from initial contact to purchase) Area the call came from, through area code or ZIP code
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Third party tracking company pros and cons: • • Pros: A one-time tracking code implementation on the Web page(s) with 800 numbers allows an easy setup and detailed reporting. Cons: Additional campaign costs for third party vendor services, including advertiser’s IT to setup tracking codes within source code of HTML, plus additional time involved in managing and reporting on a new campaign element.
2. Dynamic Phone Numbers Hard-coding an 800 number into the URL or HTML is a common way to track phone leads. The lead is then passed through a content management system to populate the page. The phone data is provided to the agency for reporting and is aggregated on a designated basis. Dynamic phone numbers differentiate customer origins. These numbers can be unique to a certain media (search, display) or a certain campaign, and can even be as granular as search ad groups or keywords. This strategy requires a lot of 800 numbers, which is usually the first roadblock. At the simplest level, advertisers assign unique and trackable 800 numbers when Web site visitors arrive through an online marketing campaign. Advertisers can use multiple 800 numbers, specific to individual promotions, Web sites, and even Web placements (for example, keywords). Dynamic phone number pros and cons: • • Pros: Most practical. Easy to implement. Clean reporting if set up properly. Cons: Hard for advertisers to get unique 800 numbers. Needs proper backend setup for correct reporting to agency. Needs IT help to implement dynamic insertion in HTML.
3. Phone Lead Driven Media
Another phone tracking resource is the use of phone lead driven media, such as click-to-call or payper-call. These two types of tracking are lead generating sources and can be used alongside a media campaign to direct phone traffic to call centers as well as to provide detailed reporting. Click-to-call allows users to directly connect with an advertiser by phone or Internet by providing space for the users to enter their phone numbers. The user is immediately called and routed to the advertiser. Click-to-call vendors include eStara and Google Click-to-Call. There are two types of Click-to-call platforms: • • Computer-based applications that complete the call by joining the end user and the advertising brand, typically through a PC-based VoIP. The “call back” method, in which customer are prompted to type in their phone number, allowing the customer and merchant to be connected by the third party service.
Pay-per-call is an online advertising vehicle that intertwines search marketing functionality and the power of phone interaction by offering a service that allows an advertiser to purchase a category of keyword groups (for example, travel, cruises, and travel agents). Ingenio, which was recently acquired by AT&T, is a pioneer in pay-per-call and one of the largest pay-per-call providers today. The 800 number is tracked and routed to the client call center and then reported on, focusing on a variety of variables including length of call, origin of call (city, state), and customer phone number. Small to mid-sized companies, local business, and businesses without a working Web site can benefit greatly from this service without direct traffic to their telephone. Phone lead driven media pros and cons: • Pros: Detailed reporting. Additional phone traffic. Larger creative parameters for creating a mini Web page. Calls typically convert.
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Cons: Additional costs. Lack of volume. Some categories expensive. Hard to scale. Inability to use advertisers tracking platform (for example,. Atlas cannot track behavior prior to a call or non-call session).
4. Call Center Surveying
A fourth option for tracking phone call leads back to the media source is through call center surveying. Corporations setup a survey through their call centers to assess how consumers found their business or learned about the product or service. If given a multiple choice selection, the call center can include “search engine” as a clearer answer than simply offering “Internet” as a generic option. While this is not 100% accurate, it is a strong indicator of the success driven by Search Engine Marketing if implemented well. Call center surveying pros and cons: • • Pros: Reports include an assumed number of converted phone leads (better than nothing). Advertisers begin to see the value of offline leads. Cons: Not 100% accurate. Adds another question to a survey that many consumers deem intrusive or annoying. Consumer answers may not be categorized correctly (for example, consumers say “Internet” when they mean “search engine”).
5. Assumption-based Reporting
Deriving assumptions based on current campaign data, a company can make an educated guess as to a percent of lift in call volume a search marketing campaign brings to the entire interactive marketing program. If a client knows that the call center received a 10 percent lift in traffic at the onset of a media driven campaign, assumptions can be made and reported regarding the number of estimated phone calls or leads in a given time. Let’s say your client can get only one designated 800 number for your media. This phone number can be used as the special number for your digital media and then rolled over to the standard number or call center. You will know the number of phone calls that media generated, and, in turn, you can apply the standard close rates across all phone leads. Assumptions-based reporting pros and cons: • • Pros: Reports will include an assumed number of converted phone leads (better than nothing). Advertisers will begin to see the value of offline leads. Cons: Not exact. Advertiser and agency must both agree on the metric for reporting.
Recommendations
Razorfish recommends all advertisers with an inbound call channel employ some method to factor inbound call leads and sales into the ROI calculations of their online campaigns. The most sophisticated and accurate approach employs a third party call tracking technology to tie inbound calls to a media source (on the placement or keyword level). Advertisers may also choose internal call tracking solutions, such as unique 800 numbers, but they should err on the side of increased specificity per phone number to tie leads and sales back to specific media placements. Even advertisers who do not have the technical means to employ third party solutions or unique 800 numbers should make an effort to quantify the impact of inbound calls. Developing an educated estimate of inbound call center volume as it relates to online media efforts will provide a more accurate picture of campaign ROI and enable better investment decisions.
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Conclusion
Consumers continue to show an inclination to research online and convert through offline channels. Inbound phone calls are undoubtedly a key part of this offline conversion process. A variety of methods exist for evaluating the interplay between online marketing efforts and the phone channel. Some techniques are exacting in their accuracy while some are best-guess estimates. But the overall imperative is clear: advertisers who seek an accurate picture of their online marketing efforts should factor the impact of inbound phone leads and sales into their online marketing decisions and investments.
About the Author
Lindsay Blankenship - Associate Search Director Lindsay has successfully developed, executed, and managed multi-million dollar search engine marketing campaigns for national and international brands with a strong knowledge base in the retail, travel, and finance verticals. With an integrated, full-service agency background, Lindsay has learned how to amalgamate search marketing campaigns with display media, email marketing, and lead generation campaigns to gain overall awareness of the online marketing initiatives. Lindsay brings over six years of media experience to the Razorfish team, including over four years of search marketing expertise. Lindsay earned a BA from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 2001 where she majored in Advertising and minored in Psychology. For questions and comments, Lindsay can be reached at lindsay.blankenship@razorfish.com.
About Razorfish™ Razorfish is one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world, and also one of the largest buyers of digital advertising space. With a demonstrated commitment to innovation, Razorfish counsels its clients on how to leverage digital channels such as the Web, mobile devices, in-store technologies and other emerging media to engage people, build brand loyalty and provide excellent customer service. The company is increasingly advising marketers on Social Influence Marketing™, its approach for employing social media and social influencers to achieve the marketing and business needs of an organization. Its award-winning client teams provide solutions through their strategic counsel, digital advertising and content creation, media buying, analytics, technology and user experience. Razorfish has offices in markets across the United States, and in Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Clients--many of them served in multiple markets--include Carnival Cruise Lines, Coors Brewing Company, Levi's, McDonald's and Starwood Hotels. Visit http://www.razorfish.com for more information. Razorfish 821 2nd Avenue, Suite 1800 Seattle, WA 98104 Phone: 206.816.8800 Fax: 206.816.8808
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