Are customer phone calls important to your business? Include them in conversions! In this article, we will tell you how to set up a dynamic phone number, how to report the results, as well as present the advantages and disadvantages of phone call tracking.
For one of our B2B clients, among other things, phone calls were very important in the sales and order process, as well as forms submitted through the website.
Although we saw a few of these conversions in Google Ads, there were not many. For this reason, we could not effectively optimize the campaigns – based on these conversions alone.
Therefore, we also optimized the campaigns for “softer” conversions. For example, we focused on clicks on an email, visits to a contact page or downloads of product PDFs.
In order to have even more relevant data and allow the client to identify which calls came from the campaigns, we proposed to implement a “dynamic phone number” conversion.
We used a dynamic number instead of a specific phone number for the sales department. Users who visited the site through a paid ad (and who confirmed the cookie bar) were shown the number from Google instead of the original number. At first glance, this looks like a hotline or reception number: +800 XXX XXX.
Clicking on the number (or manually transcribing it to your mobile phone) will redirect the call to the original number listed on the site.
Because the dynamic number changes after a period of time (that’s why it’s dynamic), Google can match individual calls to the campaigns from which users clicked through.
At the same time, we can find out other information – how long the call lasted, but also whether the call was made after the number was clicked or if the customer dialed it manually. Previously, it was also possible to see what specific number it was. Now, we can only see the first three digits of the caller’s number in the report.
However, we didn’t want to count all calls made as a conversion. Therefore, we have set a minimum call duration, after which the call is counted as a conversion. In our case, it was 30 seconds. However, in the Google Ads report, we can still see all calls made – regardless of their duration.
As a result, we were able to get a few extra conversions and we were also able to show the client directly which specific calls we brought in thanks to paid advertising. On top of that, we also had additional data to better optimize our campaigns.
Be sure to enable Call reporting in the account settings.
To create a conversion, go to the Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversions tab. After clicking on +New conversion action, select Phone calls and then Calls to a phone number on your website.
On the screenshot, we can see the settings for the specific number that the calls will be redirected to, and the number that will be replaced on the website. In this step we also define the minimum duration of the call for the conversion to count.
For more information about the settings, see help.
Once set up, the number is displayed on the site as follows:
The conversion is displayed among other conversions in the GAds interface.
You can find out everything you need to know about the calls in the reports. You can access more detailed information by going to Reports > Predefined reports > Assets (legacy) > Call details.
In the following screenshot you can see what does the report with call details look like.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Want to learn more about calls? Or find out how to properly measure conversions? Get in touch – we’d love to help. With setup, measurement or evaluation.
