Strategies to Find Which Keywords Are Driving Call Volume

Do you know which keywords are driving phone calls to your business? Are the pay-per-click (PPC) keywords “red shoes” making the phone ring? Or perhaps calls are coming from searches initiated with “black pumps” or “wedge sandals”? Whether you’re spending $600 a month on PPC or six figures, it’s imperative to know how your online marketing efforts affect your offline sales conversions.

Let’s face it: People still like to use the telephone to do business. In fact, 46 percent of local online searchers said they contact a business by telephone following their web research (2009 TMP Directional and comScore study).

Call tracking is one solution to answer the question, “Where are these calls coming from?” Today’s call tracking software does all the heavy lifting by identifying a valuable cache of data about customer browsing — all the way through to the completed sale. As a result, you’re able to immediately identify high-performing keywords and scrap dead weight.

It works simply when a consumer calls your business from a dynamic phone number on your website. Once the call is dialed, tracking software places a cookie on the caller’s browser enabling you to follow their entire click path, from start to finish. By understanding this data, you’ll be able to modify your PPC spending as well as optimize your existing website to target terms with high conversion rates — whether those conversions come from web forms or via the telephone.

Retailers will benefit most from implementing a call-tracking solution by keeping the following tips in mind:

• Provision local and/or toll-free phone numbers. Toll-free phone numbers convey a national presence, while local phone numbers speak to hyperlocal communities. A good call tracking provider should offer both.
• Integrate call tracking data in Google AdWords. Quickly and easily aggregate phone call conversions alongside online conversions for a complete picture of online spending within the Google AdWords Placement Performance Report dashboard.
• Control your data. Features such as interactive voice response and return on investment feedback tools let clients enter data related to phone calls for use in later correlation.
• Investigate international call tracking. If you have an international presence, choose a vendor capable of provisioning phone numbers across borders.
• Integrate phone call data with web analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) and bid management systems. Today’s advanced systems allow you to view call tracking data inside web analytics packages such as Webtrends, Omniture and Google Site Catalyst, as well as CRM software (SugarCRM, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM) and bid management providers, including Acquisio and Marin Software.

Bradley E. Reynolds is founder and CEO of Mongoose Metrics, a Cleveland-based enterprise-level call tracking solutions provider. Reach Bradley at mktg@mongoosemetrics.com.