By This Monday, Google announced the arrival of its new AdWords Tool, Website Call Conversions, allowing marketers the ability to identify and measure calls from their website after an advertisement click has been made.
Interestingly, Google has stated that no less than 70 per cent of mobile searches have called a business directly from search ads.
Although the giant already allows advertisers to track this with AdWords Click-to-Calls Ads, Call Metrics, and Call as Conversions, Monday’s release is specifically designed for calls that occur after a customer has already navigated to the company’s website.
Available in the US, Australia, France, Germany, Spain and the UK, after setting up a conversion for tracking calls, Google will replace the website/business number with a Google forwarding number for people who have specifically clicked on an ad. Incredibly, the number will not be the same every time a person clicks on the site, but Google states that every call will be tracked accordingly.
The only inhibition about the project is the fact that Google will only be providing 0300 numbers (instead of 0800), which may serve to put off some wary or sceptical customers. That said, brands are able to customise both the look and feel of generated numbers to match the style of their website. Changes can be made to the colour, font and size of all numbers.
“Let’s say your Google search ads send people to your website where they research and learn more about your business.
“Website call conversions dynamically inserts a Google forwarding number on your website that measures the calls made by these customers. Whether they click on the number or dial it directly from their phone, you can attribute the call conversion and conversion value back to the keyword and ad that drove the customer.”
To start measuring website codes, marketers are told to place the code on a desktop or mobile website and a unique number will be generated for each AdWords ad click. The numbers will display for up to 90 days to capture future call conversions.
Elan Hasson, digital marketing and information manager of People’s Trust Insurance has already used the new feature and says that:
“Prior to website call conversions, we didn’t have the ability to track ROI when prospects clicked through our ads and called our sales center.”
“Website call conversions [have] enabled us to better attribute lead and sales activity to the correct AdWords campaign after seeing a 79 percent increase in the total calls attributed to AdWords.”
Personally I think the tool will be great for marketers, both in-house and agency, as it’s just one more connection that enables us to see exactly where our customers are coming from. As with anything in marketing, knowing your audience is integral, and this gives us great insight in seeing exactly where people have come from.