phone call tracking « Mongoose Metrics

Posts Tagged: phone call tracking

How B2B Marketers Can Use Call Tracking

B2B marketers often are responsible for managing countless thousands of dollars in marketing and advertising spending to generate new business leads for their company’s sales team.

Tracking the ROI of this budget is extremely important, both to justify expenses to management and continually optimize marketing performance. To do this, many rely on web analytics and CRM reporting.

However a service that often gets overlooked is call tracking — a method for identifying leads who choose to contact the company offline (via the phone).

When call tracking is integrated with analytic programs, marketers are more equipped to optimize campaign performance, improve sales and reduce costs.

Following are some ways call tracking can be integrated in B2B marketing campaigns:

Company Website

By integrating call tracking into a website, companies can for the first time associate web activity to a lead that chooses to call rather than fill out a form.

Marketers can use this information, in combination with web analytics, to test the effectiveness of new page layouts, headlines, calls to action and messaging.

Call tracking software works by changing a website’s phone number based on the source a visitor used to find the site (e.g. search engine, banner ad, directory listing, etc.). The software then tracks the caller’s entire click path from browsing through sale, showing the likelihood for visitors from that source to convert into qualified leads and customers.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

To optimize PPC campaigns, better allocate budgets and identify strong-performing keywords, it’s imperative for marketers to see which keywords are driving qualified leads.

Similar to how call tracking works for website visitors (see above), call tracking software dynamically replaces phone numbers depending on the PPC keyword a visitor used to find the site. Mongoose PPC call tracking also can be integrated directly with AdWords to show traffic data and conversion ratios directly in AdWords campaign dashboards.

For more information, see our related post: Google AdWords Call Analytics Explained & Compared with Mongoose Metrics Call Tracking.

Social Media

Depending on the organization, it may already be highly active in social media or just starting to explore it as a viable marketing activity. Of course, as with all marketing initiatives, companies need to demonstrate favorable ROI to justify continued investment.

Call tracking can be set up to show unique phone numbers to visitors from specific social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Marketers can then compare the likelihood of these visitors converting into leads with other website traffic sources.

Traditional Marketing & Advertising

There are a variety of traditional marketing and advertising options that may be effective, but don’t result in website visitors. For example, product brochures, print advertising and trade show booths may offer audiences both a website address and phone number.

With a call tracking solution, B2B marketers can assign a unique phone number to each form of promotion. Now marketers can evaluate how effective a specific offline initiative is at capturing a prospective customer’s attention and motivating them to take action, and whether or not it is worth the budget and time invested.

Lead Nurturing Campaign

In some cases, a B2B sales cycle can take weeks, or even months. If this is the case, it is often marketing’s job to nurture these leads through the sales funnel. To help, marketers may introduce lead nurturing (or drip) campaigns.

These campaigns may drive visitors to landing pages with special-pricing offers, resource articles or simply display a number for the recipient to call for a limited-time-only offer. With call tracking, marketing and sales teams can see how many recipients choose to call.

The system tracks lead source, website activity (if any) and the resulting phone conversation, all of which is extremely valuable to the sales representative making a follow-up call.

We’re interested in hearing how B2B marketers use call tracking to improve their campaign’s performance. Please offer your experience in the comments section below.

Call Tracking / Examples / PPC / Search Marketing — No Comments
4
Jan 11

5 Reasons Why Digital Marketing Agencies Should Use Call Tracking

Digital marketing agencies understand that technology is reshaping how companies market themselves.

They build campaigns focused on SEO, social media, online content (i.e. blogs, video, ebooks), PPC, and media/blogger relations.

As a result, digital marketing agencies are evaluated on improvements in Website visitors, leads and conversion rates — not merely ad value and media impressions as was often the case in the past.

To show their value, digital marketing agencies rely on Website analytics reporting and in many cases integrate a CRM tool — such as SugarCRM or Salesforce — to close the marketing loop and more accurately track conversions of leads to customers.

While these tools are essential for tracking new Web form leads, a 2006 comScore study commissioned by Google found that 63 percent of Website visitors completed their purchase offline. This means the source of a majority of a client’s leads may be left to question using Website analytics alone.

Additional research supports this fact: Forty-six percent of local online searchers contacted a business by telephone following their Web research (TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, summer 2009).

With so many consumers letting their fingers do the walking, digital marketing agencies must learn how to measure and analyze calls resulting from online searches. And, as nearly all consumers (97 percent) now use online media to shop (BIA/Kelsey and ConStat Survey, February 2010), tracking phone calls resulting from marketing initiatives is more imperative than at any time in history.

The Answer: Call Tracking

Phone call tracking captures source data for leads that prefer to pick up a phone rather than complete a form.

By integrating phone call data with Website analytics, agencies can see how these leads are interacting with a client’s website. Following are five reasons digital agencies should integrate call tracking into their client campaigns.

1. View the Complete Marketing Picture

Not all customers like filling out forms; they often would rather speak to a company representative by phone. Others may never visit a client’s Website at all, which often is the case for leads that found the company via print advertising or Yellow Page listings.

Consequently, it is virtually impossible to track all lead activity without some sort of call tracking solution.

With a combination of Website analytics and call tracking, each and every lead can be accounted for, providing a clear picture as to what marketing initiatives are driving new, qualified leads, and which are not.

2. Better Allocate Budgets

Nowadays, digital agencies structure marketing campaigns to include keyword optimization, social media, media/blogger relations, and both online and offline advertising.

The ability to track each initiative’s effectiveness at generating quality leads is the only way to efficiently maximize the impact of a client’s marketing budget. With an accurate understanding of lead sources, agencies can encourage them to confidently shift money toward better-performing initiatives.

3. Improve Campaign Performance

Along the same lines, seeing how all leads are entering the sales funnel can help to more accurately identify under-performing elements of a campaign. For example, which is better?

Of the 100 visitors to each page:
• Landing Page A generated 5 form completions and 10 calls
• Landing Page B generated 10 form completions and 2 calls

Without call tracking, an agency may choose to adjust Landing Page A, when in actuality it is the better-performing page.

4. Help Clients See Value

Client retention is a big focus for all digital agencies. It is far easier, and more profitable, to retain and grow existing accounts than it is to find and nurture new prospective clients. Call tracking can ensure they are not selling themselves short by only reporting a fraction of the leads they helped generate.

5. Help Corporate Marketers Better Show Their Value

In many situations, digital agencies work closely with a client’s marketing department. Depending on the organization and its leadership, marketing is constantly struggling to justify budget requests and demonstrate ROI.

By creating a closed-loop lead tracking system that shows all leads from their first interaction to becoming a customer, it becomes much easier for marketing to show their value, as well as that of the digital agency.

In addition, there may be a slight disconnect between the sales and marketing departments. Help the sales department understand the value of marketing by continually improving the lead quality and volume. By including useful details, such as Website pages viewed, calls to action taken and level of interest, the sales team can prioritize hot leads and better customize pitches.

For those digital marketing agencies using call tracking, what type of success have you seen? How has it helped your clients? Please share your experience in the comments below.

Analytics / Search Marketing / Social Media — 1 Comment
22
Dec 10

Social Selling with Promoted Tweets

As marketers struggle for answers and often prognosticate about how to convert social media efforts into real relationships and sales opportunities, we’ve found success with one of the newest and hottest – yet highly debated – methods on the planet at the close of 2010.

Yes, we’re talking about Twitter’s much-lauded Promoted Tweets advertising platform which launched a mere two months ago on Nov. 1.

As one of Twitter’s 20 beta testers for Promoted Tweets, Mongoose Metrics has aggressively tested the platform in a number of ways detailed below. For example, we’re currently running 14 distinct campaigns. See details and screenshots from our first 3 weeks in the blog post “Top 10 Things We Learned from Twitter’s Promoted Tweets.”

Recently, on Dec. 14, Twitter added a form to its website where companies can express interest in purchasing Promoted Tweets as well as Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends. We’ve been told the program will begin rolling out publicly sometime at the end of January or beginning of February 2011.

We’d also like to note that Twitter – much like Google – has been less than forthcoming about how their algorithms work. In other words, at the present time, there is no guidebook.

What We Know So Far – The Basics

You can run multiple campaigns based on key terms that relate to the content you’re promoting in Tweets.

Bidding on these terms is competitive and begins at $.10 per engagement. An engagement is defined as a Retweet, a Favorite, a Reply or a Click.

Currently we’re seeing some bidding competition on key terms such as SEO. The base bid for SEO is currently defaulted at $1.00 even though there has been very little competition on the term.

Tweets must be Tweeted organically before they can be designated in a Promoted Tweets campaign. We’re not particularly fond of this method as it forces us to Tweet out self-promotional Tweets each time we refresh a campaign.

Tweet fatigue is ambiguous at this point. Twitter tells us that a Promoted Tweet will be shown to a user a maximum of five times before it is removed by Twitter from rotation. Analytics and details on this process are non-existent. For example, some days show a major spike in impressions and engagement for no apparent reason.

The Results

As we mentioned in our first blog post about Promoted Tweets in Nov., Promoted Tweets has delivered conversions, followers and an improved Klout score. Since Nov. 1, we have received:

961,000 Tweet Impressions
18,000 Clicks
220 Retweets
168 Replies
126 Conversions
Cost = $2067

Conclusion

Promoted Tweets is a valid marketing method for generating conversions as well as brand awareness.

Call Tracking / CRM — No Comments
7
Dec 10

Watch it Live: 20,000 CRM Fans Rockin’ w/ Stevie Wonder & Pres. Bill Clinton at Salesforce’s Dreamforce 2010

Customer relationship management giant, Salesforce, is playing host to 20,000 CRM fans at the company’s annual Dreamforce conference through Dec. 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Watch the amazing live stream happening now at www.salesforce.com/live

At this moment, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is demonstrating Jigsaw and Chatter. And yes, former President Bill Clinton and Grammy winner, Stevie Wonder, also are on the bill.

Benioff says at the end of the day, “It’s about managing your deals and closing business.”

But we ask you, Mr. Benioff, “How do Salesforce users understand their customers click paths when a phone call enters the mix?”

Of course, Mongoose Metrics has the answer. Our robust call tracking data integrates with Salesforce.

The benefit of integrating call tracking is the ability to track multiple calls from the same website visitor and associate those calls to a specific ad or more importantly, distilling the average number of visits it takes (based on the marketing campaign) before the person makes the calls. This extended data set not only helps the sales team, but the marketing team as well. Marketing can learn which ads generate calls versus ads that drive visitors straight to online conversions.

To learn more about how call tracking data adds a layer of intelligence to your CRM, download the whitepaper “Call Tracking for CRM Integrations.”

Analytics / Call Tracking / Examples / PPC / Search Marketing — No Comments
29
Nov 10

Google Adwords Call Analytics Explained & Compared w/ Mongoose Metrics Call Tracking

Tracking phone calls just got simpler for millions of Google Adwords users who want to understand how their PPC campaigns perform for delivering phone calls.

With Google’s Nov. 2 announcement about Google Adwords Call Analytics, the call tracking industry has been elevated alongside traditional web analytics providers as another trusted resource in the fast-growing field of marketing analytics.

“If you’re new to call tracking, using Google’s call tracking is a good place to start,” says Mongoose Metrics chief executive officer, Bradley Reynolds. But the technology only goes so far.

Of course, it only tracks one marketing source: Google Adwords, where more robust call tracking solutions offer insight into ALL your traffic sources including organic, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, display advertising, email marketing as well as traditional print and broadcast advertising.

The basic concept of the Google Adwords Call Analytics reporting platform works much the same way as many existing call tracking services. Google injects a unique call tracking phone number into the advertisement (in this case a PPC ad) and routes the resulting call (via VOIP) to the business. In Google’s offering, a limited set of data points are logged and recorded within the Adwords account dashboard.

Here’s a screenshot from Greg Sterling’s ScreenWerk blog post, “Free Call Tracking Comes to Adwords, PPCall Can’t Be Far Behind.”

To further amplify the concept, Surojit Chatterjee, senior product manager for Adwords, explains, “When a user calls the number in your ad, the call is automatically routed to your business, and AdWords notes that this call took place. Then, when you look at your AdWords reports, you’ll see the number of calls generated by each campaign, call duration, and in the near future, caller area code. You’ll still only pay for clicks on your ads, but we intend to charge for call metrics in the future.”

While it’s free for the time being, the pundits speculate that the service will eventually morph into a pay-per-call platform. Additionally, the only data points Google Call Metrics provide are somewhat limited and include only time of call, call duration and area codes in the aggregate.

Marketers who require a more sophisticated solution to understanding which marketing sources drive phone calls often turn to call tracking providers such as Mongoose Metrics. The Mongoose suite of products provides visibility into session-level, granular data about caller behavior from click to close.

Here’s how Google Adwords Call Metrics stacks up next to Mongoose Metrics Call Tracking:

For more information about how call tracking can improve ROI by up to 30 percent, schedule a meeting, download one of our many whitepapers or call 877.495.4440.

Follow us on Twitter @mongoosemetrics for the freshest links to the best sources of information about PPC, Web Analytics, Call Tracking, SEO, Social Media, Local & Mobile Search.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
18
Nov 10

Top 10 Things We Learned from Twitter’s Promoted Tweets

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Generate Leads & Brand Awareness for Mongoose Metrics – A Social Media Case Study

By Kathleen Colan, director of marketing and content for Mongoose Metrics, an enterprise-level call tracking and conversion analytics provider. Learn more about how call tracking can help you understand which marketing sources drive phone calls, download, “Top 10 Things You Can do with Call Tracking.”

Introduction: Twitter launched a beta advertising platform called Promoted Tweets on Nov. 1 to a select group of 20 advertisers around the world. Promoted Trends, a separate product was also launched on Nov. 1. Mongoose Metrics is actively participating as one of the 20 beta testers in Promoted Tweets.

With the news yesterday that Twitter is set to release it’s own analytics product, we thought it was a good time to share initial thoughts on the Promoted Tweets program, and give further insight into the reporting capabilities:

1. Just like Google Adwords, you can place advertisements in front of niche audiences. You can buy key terms, including hashtags, to strategically position messages in campaigns.

2. You can own hashtags. For example, we ran Promoted Tweets last week during #PubCon, generating more than 40,000 impressions. At this moment, we’re in a bidding war for #Twtrcon.

3. The haters will hate. But it’s minimal. As usual, the minority is often vocal.

4. Your Klout score will significantly improve. Ours went from 43 to 70 since participating in Twitter’s Promoted Tweets beta which began on Nov. 1.

5. Follower count increases. Followers increased by 700 since Nov.1.

6. If you do it right, you can track conversions and actions. Add Google’s utm_source code for links to sought-after conversion steps. In our case, whitepaper downloads about call tracking.

7. Conversions increase. Qualified leads are significant.

8. Brand awareness increases. Mongoose Metrics’ Promoted Tweets have been viewed more than 150,000 times. More than 3,000 people have engaged with our content. Influencers notice, and website traffic is up.

9. The landscape is dynamic. Promoted Tweets began appearing in searches and user streams within Twitter and HootSuite on Nov. 1. On Nov. 16, Promoted Tweets started appearing in TweetDeck.

10. Twitter’s built-in analytics dashboard is powerful, and presents a wealth of actionable data.

Conclusion: We are exploring a variety of uses for Promoted Tweets, including hashtags and keywords related to industry events and terms. We’re still learning, but so far it appears that Promoted Tweets, and the related anlaytics platform, will be powerful tools for marketers.

What do you want to know about Promoted Tweets? Send an @message to @mongoosemetrics and we’ll get the conversation started!

Addendum: Here’s a further explanation and some data from Brian Solis, “The Future of Advertising has been promoted: A New Study”

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
2
Nov 10

PubCon, Promoted Tweets & Google Adwords Call Metrics

PubCon — the mac daddy of all search and social media conferences – begins next week, Nov. 8 – 11, in Las Vegas with more than 1,800 registered participants. The Mongoose team is delighted to be attending, especially in light of our recent status as beta testers in Twitter’s Promoted Tweets experiment and Google’s announcement today of a call tracking platform for AdWords accounts.For at least a month now, the buzz about PubCon has been heavy with the help of social media. Search the hashtag, #PubCon on Twitter, and you’ll see what we mean. And yes, we purchased those Promoted Tweets you see running through the #PubCon search stream. Of course, PubCon has a Facebook page and a LinkedIn group as well where hundreds of participants are busy making plans for a seemingly endless array of panels and parties.Speaking of social media, today is Day #2 of Twitter’s Promoted Tweets in HootSuite and we’re only one of 20 beta testers in the world for the experiment. Needless to say, in between preparing for PubCon, we’re a little overwhelmed handling a diverse mix of responses to our foray into the uncharted territory of Promoted Tweets. Judging by our engagement numbers (very positive) and the @mentions from Tweeps (negative and positive), we’re closely watching how things continue to develop. (Look for more detailed blog posts from us about our Promoted Tweets experience in the near future).And just to make things interesting, Google today announced call tracking for Adwords accounts. Yes, we’re a call tracking provider and this development seriously demonstrates the efficacy of call tracking for search marketers who want to understand ALL of their conversions – online AND offline.Here’s what the feature will apparently look like within Adwords:Blogger Greg Sterling wrote “Free Call Tracking Comes to AdWords, PPCall Can’t be Far Behind,” and authored a piece for SearchEngineLand.com titled, “AdWords and Google Voice Hook Up to Form “Adwords Call Metrics.“Of course, many others have weighed-in on the announcement, including BIA Kelsey’s, “Google Adds Call Metrics to AdWords, a la Google Voice.”So if you want to chat about search, social media or marketing optimization drop us a line on Twitter @mongoosemetrics or try and find us at PubCon. Hope to see you there!In the meantime, if you want to know more about how call tracking can significantly optimize your online marketing efforts, check out our call tracking library for a white paper download filled with facts that will make you a believer.

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
26
Oct 10

One Reason We’re Going to Ad:Tech New York.

With only a few days before the Ad:Tech Marketing Conference in Manhattan we’re excited for the gathering and want to invite you to share in the learning from some of the country’s top thinkers.

The one reason you should join the conversation: The future of digital marketing is now.

Connect with us in three ways:

1) Stop by our booth in the exposition hall and share your questions about phone call tracking and conversion analytics. Our team will be happy to address them. We’re experts when it comes to telling you which marketing sources make the phone ring.

2) Follow us on Twitter. We’ll be Tweeting the best intel and most interesting content from some of the smartest folks in the industry. Check out our Twitter feed @mongoosemetrics.

3) Join the Ad:Tech LinkedIn group and contribute to the conversation, ask questions and engage with participants.

By the way, we’ve noticed three hashtags in use for the conference: #Adtech #Ad:tech and @AdtechNY. Which one are you using?

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
21
Oct 10

Thanks, Avinash Kaushik, for the Call Tracking Recommendation

Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 (Sybex, 2009) and prolific blogger at Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik, on Oct. 19 wrote a long and comprehensive entry titled, “The Best Web Analytics 2.0 Tools: Quantitative, Qualitative, Life Saving!”

The post covers an extensive list of tools for optimizing web analytics. We’re delighted that he honored Mongoose Metrics by recommending our call tracking and conversion analytics technology as an important tool for understanding a complete picture of how marketing drives conversions.

Here’s a screenshot of the section about call tracking:

Thanks, Avinash!

Features, Tips, & Announcements — No Comments
13
Oct 10

Local Search Conversions Just Got Easier with Call Tracking for Multiple Markets

For businesses with multiple locations, the question has always been: “How can I get session data on a local level so I can understand which marketing efforts are making the phones ring?”

With the introduction of Mongoose Metrics’ Multi-Market Session Data feature, organizations such as auto dealers, franchises, rental facilities and national retails chains from all business sectors can begin to understand — at a granular level — which of their local marketing initiatives are working and which ones should be discontinued.

In the past, national advertisers would be forced into overspending on call tracking phone numbers for each location. Today’s solution from Mongoose changes all that. Now, businesses can rely on a pool of dynamic call tracking numbers which capture a treasure trove of information about where website visitors are coming from. The feature reveals not only which PPC keywords drive phone calls but also the last URL visited, call recording, geo-location, caller ID, ad group, campaign and log time as well as numerous customizable features.

“Marketers are growing more accustomed to using quick feedback loops — which call tracking provides — for optimizing marketing dollars and making better spending decisions,” says Bradley Reynolds, chief executive officers for Mongoose Metrics.

Mongoose MetricsConversion & Call Tracking Blog