Has anyone used any of the call tracking services that allow tracking of offline search conversions down to keyword level? E.g. ClickPath, Mongoose Metrics, KeyMetric etc.?
Jetboy, I've noticed that ifbyphone was one of the few that actually posts its rates. Which one did you end up going with? Happy so far?
Still at the tentative research phase. Triggered by a cold call from one of them who said that their technology was unique in the marketplace. A quick Google search showed that that wasn't strictly true. It's piqued my interest though, as this is real holy grail territory.
We already have offline conversion tracking back to campaign level, but the cost of chucking a few thousand phone numbers in to do keyword level stuff is prohibitive. So the campaign triggers the display of a number on the site, a call to the number generates a reference to the campaign in our back-end systems, and if a sale is made the campaign is credited. Currently we've got three systems that make this possible that don't talk to each other, but the longer term goal is to set everything up in one place. As over half of online campaign sales are converting offline, it's made a huge difference in visibility, and my ability to scale things up without guessing.
I'm getting the impression that these companies are treating the call itself as a conversion though, and while that's kinda cool, it falls short of what I'm looking for.
I'd really like to know how the tech works. As I understand it the call logs a conversion in your analytics package. Do these companies just have a bottomless pit of phone numbers that are assigned to each keyword? Are they dynamically allocating them from a larger pool, possibly spread among multiple customers etc.? Is each number actually allocated to a keyword, or is a new number assigned for each session, and the session ID encoded into the number which links it back to on-site activity in your analytics?
google are offering a similar service in the US on PPC now I think - but not available elsewhere yet. That would be the obvious one to check out if it's applicable to what you need to use it on.
I know there are a lot of companies do similar stuff but I've never sat down and done a comparison - would be a nice thing to put together though. I think we've just signed up with someone so I'll try and see who and why we chose them.
Thinking I might be able to roll my own:
. Enough numbers in a pool to cope with the maximum number of concurrent visitors.
. Each session gets assigned a number from the pool, and the session start and end times and the number assignment get logged in the web analytics.
. When the session ends the number goes back into the pool.
. Import offline conversion stats and call timestamps into the web analytics.
. Match call timestamp/number with session window/number.
With the traffic I'm looking at we're talking about 2,500 numbers, which at £10 a month from BT is too expensive. However, I've seen 0843 VoIP numbers as low as £2. May be an option...
you might get calls from people who noted the number and then called later though, so would it be better to permanently assign a number from your pool to a specific keyword and then set it in a users cookie so if they return they see the same number second time around?
Guess there are many ways to do this depending on what's most important to track!
Quote...would it be better to permanently assign a number from your pool to a specific keyword and then set it in a users cookie so if they return they see the same number second time around?
Kinda what we're doing at the moment, but only splitting brand and non-brand. It'd work if you only had a few hundred keywords, but we're working with many thousands. Let's also say that as well as the matched keyword, you wanted the match type, the actual search term, campaign assists leading up to conversion, pages viewed etc. (which of course I do ;) ) - the number of permutations (and therefore numbers) could be infinite.
You're right that there could be false positives from people writing down numbers, but the more numbers in play, the lower the chance of that happening. The number of false hits could be reduced by putting the numbers in a queue rather than selecting randomly, so the recycling period is as long as possible. Putting the number in a cookie is a good idea though, so if it's available when they come back to the site their number will stay the same.
It'd need the right Analytics tool though, like this: http://www.unica.com/products/enterprise-web-analytics.htm - JS and log tracking, open schema, MySQL back-end and the ability to import external data.
I'd be very interested in hearing how things work out with the supplier you've chosen, and what their capabilities are.