Google recently posted a blog about the new ability they are offering users: the ability to look a little deeper into the data from calls placed to AdWords mobile click-to-call ads in Google search. Of the ads, Google says the following:
AdWords mobile click-to-call ads allow advertisers to connect with customers online in a relevant and meaningful way. In fact, over 40 million calls are made directly to businesses from Google ads each month and that number is growing.
To offer more to businesses who rely on these click-to-calls, Google has now made it possible to separate phone call data into different call conversion segments. In other words, users can now value different calls differently: assigning more value to a 10-minute phone call that might be more likely to be an inbound sales opportunity than the value assigned to a 30-second call, which might just be someone calling for a business’s hours and location.
This is an interesting development, especially in the context of data that predicts ever-increasing volumes of inbound phone calls to businesses. Clearly Google acknowledges the power and importance of phone calls to businesses but there is still a missing piece that users may take issue with as they begin to rely more heavily upon call conversion data in their analytics.
Consider this scenario: you’re paying for Google click-to-call ads and incorporating data from those sources into your strategy. You’ve even paid for a responsive site so that mobile users can access everything your website has to offer. What happens when a customer searches for your business online, decides to navigate to your website from your Google ad to poke around (rather than calling you from the Google click-to-call ad button), and then calls you from your website?
Without sophisticated call tracking software, that lead’s attribution data slips right through the cracks. If you’re not tracking calls from people who hit your site back to their Google search, then there’s a critical hole in your lead source data. And your inability to track the origin of that lead weakens the conclusions you draw about which marketing initiatives are successful, and which aren’t. Marketing also can’t get credit for helping generate that call and the revenue it brings in.
The fact of the matter is Google just isn’t equipped to cater to all the needs that businesses have around measuring and controlling phone leads. Call tracking is just one blind spot Google leaves you with: without additional call management tools such as call routing to ensure that when phone calls do come to a business (from any source), they are sent to the right person, store, or office right away, those valuable phone leads you are spending money to generate are less likely to become opportunities and revenue.
If nothing else, Google’s acknowledgment of the importance of phone calls to your business is a vote of confidence for those who are already aware of their value. But don’t stop there. Google doesn’t offer a complete picture for your phone call data, and if you want to ensure your leads aren’t being swallowed up, you need a call tracking tool (preferably with a suite of complementary call management tools) that will fill in that critical blind spot. Want to learn more? Download this free guide, The Marketer’s Guide to Call Tracking for Google SEO and PPC, to see the full picture that phone calls could be offering your business.