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.
What is a call tracking tool?
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.
How does a call tracking software work?
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.
All of this is done using advanced call center systems such as Telsip and Xontel
So, when someone calls a phone number provided for example by Xontel, the call is routed through the Xontel platform to a call center, agent, or another destination. This allows Xontel to collect digital data and link the caller’s previous activity to the call. This happens almost instantly and in real time.
How can marketers use call tracking?
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.
Some of the key benefits they gain include:
- Reducing cost per click (CPC).
- Reducing cost per acquisition (CPA).
- Minimizing wasted advertising budget.
- Increasing return on ad spend (ROAS).
Benefits of incoming call tracking:
- 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.
Which businesses should use call tracking solutions?
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.
Questions to ask when choosing a call tracking system:
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?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the call tracking feature?
Call tracking is a tool that helps companies identify the marketing source that drove a customer to call, such as a paid ad, a website page, or a social media campaign. It links a customer’s digital journey data to the incoming call to measure campaign performance more accurately.
How does call tracking work?
Call tracking works by assigning different phone numbers to campaigns or marketing channels, or by dynamically displaying a changing number to website visitors. When the customer calls, the system logs the visit source, campaign, page, and keyword, then links this data to the call and its outcome.
What are the key benefits marketers get from using call tracking technology?
Call tracking technology offers marketers strategic gains, including:
- Knowing the true return and precise performance of each ad campaign (ROAS).
- Reducing customer acquisition cost (CPA) and cost per click (CPC).
- Cutting waste in ad budgets and directing spending toward effectively acquiring high-value customers.
- Building integrated profiles of callers and retargeting them based on their preferences and past history.
Does call tracking mean monitoring employees or customers?
No, call tracking isn’t a tool for spying or personal surveillance. Its primary purpose is to analyze the sources of calls and measure marketing campaign performance. The system may include call recording or quality evaluation according to company settings and local privacy regulations.
How does a call tracking system link a customer's digital journey to phone calls?
Cloud-based call tracking systems (such as Xontel and Telsip solutions) rely on simple JavaScript code to collect online visit data (such as visit source, pages the user visited, and keywords). When the customer calls a dedicated number, the call is routed through the platform to instantly link the caller’s prior digital activity with the live call, with the option of using AI to analyze the call content and determine whether it turned into a sale or an appointment booking.
Can call tracking be integrated to a CRM system?
Yes, call tracking can be integrated to CRM systems to log the caller’s data, their marketing source, their call history, and the outcomes of contact with them. This gives marketing and sales teams a more complete picture of the customer journey.
How does call tracking help measure advertising campaign performance?
Call tracking helps identify the ads and channels generating the largest number of qualified calls, sales, and bookings. This allows a marketer to compare the cost of each campaign against the value of the results it achieved, rather than relying on click counts alone.
How does AI contribute to call analysis?
AI can transcribe calls into text, summarize conversations, detect important words and topics, analyze customer satisfaction, and classify the call as an inquiry, a booking, a sales opportunity, or a complaint. This helps analyze large numbers of calls quickly.