Measuring Marketing ROI Through Call Tracking

Alexandra Hagler - April 29, 2010

When setting up your marketing plan there are obviously different channels to advertise on, including one or a variety of online, print, radio, T.V., etc. Many ask how you can actually track the calls made to your company through your advertising efforts.

Call tracking is a great way to do this.  Through call tracking, you are able to tie incoming calls to where they are coming from, whether that is a radio or TV spot or even an ad online. Call tracking companies usually charge a monthly fee for each number you use for your campaigns; plus a small fee per minute. The call tracking companies also provide extensive reporting to the advertiser such as unique callers, length of call, leads per day, voicemails, etc. They may also include features so that when a customer calls from one of the lines, the advertiser will be notified before they actually begin speaking with the person on the other end of the line.  An advertiser also has the ability to set up a recording feature that starts every time the incoming phone calls are answered.

An advertiser can pick out one number for simplicity or multiple numbers channels where they are advertising. Below are a few scenarios of how you may want to use call tracking when you are running multiple ads in a variety of channels, such as   newspapers and magazines, online ads, and radio ads on various stations.

Scenario 1 — Purchase one phone number and use it across all of your marketing channels. This will be a measure of potential customers that have actually seen or heard your paid advertisements

Scenario 2 — Purchase different lines, one for print ads, one for online ads, one for radio, etc.  Through reporting you could see how your potential target clients are responding to the marketing channel or advertisement being presented.

Scenario 3 — Purchasing multiple lines for each marketing channel. In print for example, you might have one line for the newspaper and one for magazines, or more than one line if you are advertising in a number of newspapers. The same goes for magazines, sponsored online ads and multiple radio stations.

Call tracking is a very unique service to measure your ROI based on where and when the advertisements are running and receiving a better return on your overall investment.