How to use Google Analytics to track telephone leads: "
Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to track telephone call leads in Google Analytics? Guess what? There is and I'm going to share with you over a series of four posts how you can set this up for yourselves.
In this economic climate, what with the credit crunch ‘n’ all it is more important than ever to prove to your clients that the work that you doing is providing real return on investment. For e-commerce websites, this is fairly easy by using analytics tools such as Google Analytics to gather data. But what of other sites? What of sites where conversions are actually not sales but are leads generated?
Again, using Google Analytics as an example, we can set goals for contact forms etc. We can use event tracking for clicks on links etc. But what about the number of telephone call leads generated as a result of landing on your client's site?
We have devised a solution to the problem of tracking offline telephone leads in order to prove to your clients that they are generating phone calls off the back of your online marketing efforts. Being able to show client these stats allows them to make more informed judgements about where their budget is best spent. But for internet marketers, it also means that we can see whether high traffic paid key terms are worth the spend, or whether they should be ditched altogether.
This post is the first of four where I will walk you through how to set up a system like CallTrackID for yourself and your clients. I have broken it down into four sections to make it more easily digestible as follows:
- Explaining the CallTrackID system
- Setting up Google Analytics
- Getting Phone Numbers onto your site
- Pushing Call Data into Google Analytics
Explaining the CallTrackID System
With this call tracking system, it is necessary to ‘define’ what the routes to your site are that you wish to analyse. This means that in the first instance, you need to have an awareness of where you think call converting traffic maybe coming from.
Example
Let’s use an example of HolidaysToTheMoon.Com. This fictionary company predominantly want to sell holidays to the moon, except they don’t have an ecommerce site. They require that a searcher
- Finds their site
- Like what they see (engages with site)
- And, pick up the phone to book with a human sales person (converts)
Their main online marketing channels are:
- Google Adwords Paid Search
- Google Organic Search
- A paid advert on a site called starvacations.com
They want to know which of these channels generate the most potential sales (potential because closing the deal is down to the salesperson).
Each referring route (medium) is given a separate number. When a user lands on the site having come from one of the predefined routes, the assigned number is displayed to them and only this number.
- Google Adwords Paid Search – 0845 111111
- Google Organic Search – 0845 222222
- A paid advert on a site called starvacations.com – 0845 333333
When they dial this number, the CallTrackID system recognises it as a predefined route, and fires a call to a webpage containing the Google Analytics tracking code which then registers a visit in Google Analytics.
Example
Charlie clicks on an ad from starvacations.com and lands on HolidaysToTheMoon.com. The contact telephone number displayed on the site is 0845 333333.
Charlie decides he wants to speak to Customer Services. Charlie dials 0845 333333. The call is transferred to the normal main dedicated sales phone number to answer as normal e.g. 01903 247788. Charlie speaks to the rep.
The call is registered in a CSV file in the telephone account of HolidaysToTheMoon.com. This data is then collected into an email, parsed through a system that converts it to XML which then fires a call to a dedicated page on your site that contains their Google Analytics™ Tracking Code.
The data is recorded in a call tracking profile in Google Analytics™ for HolidaysToTheMoon.com to create comparison reports between the referring routes. This allows them to determine which routes to site generate the most telephone calls.
HolidaysToTheMoon.com can now:
a) Prove ROI of online marketing efforts.
b) Re-allocate budgets according to results
c) Adjust target keywords to pursue most profitable terms.
The next three posts will explain how to:
- Set up Google Analytics for Call tracking
- Get Phone Numbers onto your site
- Push Call Data into Google Analytics
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