Are you ready to improve your sales strategy and convert leads faster?

Incoming call processes are a goldmine but sadly often overlooked by business leaders who assume bad leads.

Deliver better customer experiences through well -planned payments and organic search campaigns that use the right keywords.

On September 22, I moderated a Search Engine Journal-sponsored webinar presented by Franco Aquino, co-founder of REN Marketing, and joined by Laura Lawrie, the Principal Product Manager of CallRail.

They share insights on how you can boost your paid and organic leading campaigns using call tracking.

Check out the highlights and key takeaways below.

The Problem: Your SEO and PPC Efforts

The problem is that the standard PPC and SEO strategy for many businesses uses the same tools that have been around for years.

You can drive traffic, and you can generate leads and find out what led search queries to those leads, but you’re not using tools that aren’t best for the job.

Limitations of Google Ads

Google Ads has access to forwarding numbers for ads. However, this doesn’t help organic traffic, and you also don’t own the numbers.

If you use Google Ads, you can put the number in a Google Ad extension. In addition, you are able to place tracking numbers on a landing page.

But at the end of the day, those aren’t numbers that necessarily help you with organic traffic. Those numbers are also not owned by the business where you run the ads.

So down the road, if, say, someone interacts with your ad, and they call a number six months later, they may not take that number to the number they think they’ll take.

So this is a missed opportunity on the road.

Limitations of Google Analytics

Google Analytics provides SEO / PPC conversion numbers but there is inaccurate tracking of clicks as calls, and no context for incoming calls.

This is not the most accurate when trying to track conversions on phone call button clicks. For example, if someone opens their mobile device and clicks on a call button that was clicked on the initial click, it is an unnecessary call.

Google Analytics, while it is great in terms of the availability of that data, it does not provide context for their calls themselves. So you will not listen to the calls because it is not recorded by Google Analytics.

Challenge 1: No Idea How to Call

Considerations:

• You may not know the answer to “are these leads good?”
• Call duration helps, but it can be misleading.

SEO

Are your SEO efforts generating top quality ones?

PPC

Do you use appropriate match types?

Without the right context, you won’t know if specific keywords are helping you get appointments or sales.

Many companies do not use advanced call tracking software when managing their campaigns; instead, they use the tools included on many platforms.

Challenge 2: No Understanding of the Interaction Between Keywords and Calls

Considerations

• One of these keywords has a higher intent: “Miami dentist” versus “Emergency dentist.”
• Understanding how calls can help can easily help.

SEO:

What keywords make up the calls?

PPC:

How do keyword callers differ from keyword to keyword?

When you use call tracking software to direct people to a landing page or blog post, you want to know what search queries led them there and how those calls went.

This will allow you to understand how much the difference is between the keywords so you can put the money where it counts.

Challenge 3: No Inbound Process Measurement

Considerations

• If the campaign is generating great leads, why would the client want to scale back?
• Ask yourself, “Does the receptionist / salesperson help the movement?

SEO:

Is the receptionist driving for an appointment?

PPC:

How many calls do we answer, or do we leave unanswered?

These small details are important to share with businesses because they show that you are a partner in what they do.

Moreover, they present an opportunity to convert more of these leads into clients. Ultimately, it helps with client retention.

Challenge 4: No Understanding of Google Changes

Considerations:

• How do Google’s changes affect you?
• For example, changing the broad match modifier affects the quality of the leads we receive.

SEO:

Did you notice a change in the leads generated after a Google update?

PPC:

Did removing BMM help us? How does it affect us?

You want to make sure you have context and determine how certain changes affect your campaigns.

You run Blind Campuses

When clients say they are receiving bad leads, some leads are bad, but they may not have a good incoming call process and they are not aware.

Running campaigns blindly results in low customer retention for agencies and a horrible experience for businesses.

A Dental Client Story

Before the scenario:

Franco shared that his client had no idea when he asked how many clients they had formed with a $ 30K budget. The client disliked Google ads simply because their approach was incorrect the first time.

The Solution: Continuous Improvement With Advanced Call Tracking Software

Franco’s team was able to draw the client in once they mentioned that they would track the leads clearly and see what they were building for them. Having added transparency has really made all the difference.

After Scenario

They installed tracking numbers and contact forms.

• Spending on Google PPC with measurable results (e.g., they know they’re making appointments).
• An improved sales process that affected their other channels.
• Tons of opportunity found for an office 20 years in business.
• Confidence in what brings them new patients.
• They know who came up with the ads.

The Call Tracking Tool They Used

By using CallRail as a tracking tool, it allowed Franco’s team to do the following:

• Offline call tracking
• Call tracking online
• Customer journey
• Dynamic number entry
• Call notifications
• Free call recording
• Call forwarding
• Google Analytics integration
• Google Ads Integration
• Google My Business integration or Facebook integration

Franco’s team has been able to use these tools to provide his clients with the right data and the right insights to ensure their advertising dollars are well spent.

Advantages of an Advanced Call Tracking Software

Benefit 1: Identify Top Performance Channels

Benefit 2: Get the Right Keywords

You will identify keywords that generate traffic and leads and use these insights to launch a PPC or SEO campaign.

Example: using PPC campaign data to create optimized content for a new website design.

Benefit 3: Show Clients You Can Deliver Results

Want to make your clients happy?

Deliver results – whether it gets people to buy, schedule an appointment, or take another conversion action.

Benefit 4: Measure the Quality of Leads

Are you receiving the right calls? You need to know:

• What are they interested in?
• Were the callers or researchers motivated?
• Are the number calls wrong?
  • Example: change of “dentist in Miami” BMM

Benefit 5: Improve Inbound Call Process

• Listen to calls to determine keyword effectiveness and incoming sales.
• Use insights to train client staff using a call script.
  • Example: The initial process of the incoming dental client affected by all paid and organic efforts. It is possible that the business has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.

Your Next Steps

Check out call tracking software that gives you some of these features:

Key Takeaways

• The standard PPC and SEO strategy for many businesses has been using the same tools for many years.
• Most current tools like Google Ads and Google Analytics, although great in terms of data accessibility, do not provide the context for the calls themselves.
• You’re not just generating leads for clients. You give them the help they need to close those leads.

[Slides] Call Tracking for Google Ads & SEO: Convert Faster

Check out SlideShare below.

Join Us for our Next Webinar!

How to Create and Optimize Content for Higher Google Rankings

Are you constantly creating content that performs well on Google? Join our upcoming webinar on Wednesday, September 29 at 1 pm ET and learn how you can easily create better content based on a reliable approach.

Photo Credits

Featured Image: girakchik / Shutterstock
All screenshots taken by the author, September 2021