What Is Call Tracking? How Does It Work?

Modern call center systems come with numerous features and tools that help increase productivity and analyse data efficiently. One of the important features found in modern call center systems ( contact centers) is the ‘call tracking feature’.
When you hear the term ‘call tracking,’ you may think it is a feature used by call centers to ensure that sales representatives follow pre-written scripts or responses, or a feature used by parents to monitor their mischievous teenagers.
However, it is a completely different feature used by marketers to identify the source of calls and analyse them to improve advertising campaigns. Call tracking is not a supervisory tool for call center employees, rather it is a marketing tool aimed at analysing data and understanding and evaluating the performance of advertising and marketing campaigns.

It is a tool that allows marketers to obtain important information from each incoming customer call. This information is used to evaluate the marketing campaign and understand the customer’s motives for making the call. It clarifies which advertisement or page prompted the customer to call, whether the customer is interested or just making an enquiry, the outcome of the call, and more.
For example, if a customer calls a company that uses call tracking software, the company can identify the advertisement they saw, the web page or social media platform they came from, and even the keywords they searched for that led them to contact the company.

Once a phone call is made, AI-powered conversation analytics can be used to analyse the language used in the call to determine whether the customer made a purchase, received a quote, booked an appointment, or achieved what marketers like to call a “conversion.”
You can then use this data to measure the success of your marketing campaigns, improve future advertising, update your website and social media platforms based on customer insights, and enhance other advertising methods to attract more high-value customers via phone.

Without call tracking feature, it is impossible to measure the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing efforts , which aim to convert calls into sales.

According to Forrester, 84% of marketers confirm that phone calls are among the most important and powerful types of conversions they receive, and they confirm that calls achieve higher conversion rates and greater purchase value than any other marketing channel.

Cloud-based call tracking software, such as Telsip or Xontel, enables marketers to connect customers’ online journeys with their phone calls. By collecting online data through simple JavaScript codes, it tracks important customer information such as:

• Source of the visit.
• Type of advertising campaign.
• Keywords used by the customer.
• Pages visited by the customer.
• Time spent by the customer on each page.
• Where the customer clicked on the page.
• Or the website can be linked to a phone number so that when the customer clicks it, the call is routed through the call center and connected to a sales or customer service representative.

Marketers use call tracking to improve the performance of paid advertising (such as Google Ads or social media ads) and optimise the customer journey from start to end by linking digital data with phone calls.

• Reducing cost per click (CPC).
• Reducing cost per acquisition (CPA).
• Minimizing wasted advertising budget.
• Increasing return on ad spend (ROAS).

• Determine the true return from each marketing campaign.
• Track all conversions that occur via phone calls.
• Optimize ad spending and attract higher-quality customers.
• Segment customers.
• Build a complete profile of the caller with data from the conversation.
• Retarget callers based on their previous preferences or purchase history with the company.
• Improve marketing messages using the language and keywords customers use.
• Increase conversion rates by tracking and enhancing sales team performance.
• Integrate call data with company systems such as CRM and others.

Any business that relies on phone calls to acquire customers should use this technology, such as:

• Car dealerships.
• Healthcare providers.
• Bank clients.

• Franchise companies.
• Insurance companies.
• Travel agencies.

• Telecommunications companies.
• Real estate agencies.
• Electronics stores.

When evaluating any company or system that offers call tracking, you should ask the following questions:

• Does it use AI to analyze calls?
• Does it provide accurate tracking of keywords and user click paths?
• Can it track multiple calls from several numbers on a single page?
• Does it integrate with your existing marketing and sales tools?
• Can it record calls and transcribe them?
• How accurate are the transcriptions it produces?
• Does it use AI to analyze call transcripts?
• Can it analyze calls based on key words relevant to your marketing funnel?
• Can it analyze call content to determine how many calls resulted in sales or appointments, and how many actually converted?