Since neither picking a number out of thin air nor delaying improvements while you gather a baseline is ideal, finding an industry benchmark is a good way to begin.

In fact, the Direct Marketing Association publishes an annual guide to the “Average Direct Marketing Response Rates” across various marketing channels. For example, here are the stats from their 2010 Response Rate Trend Report.

Call Tracking Conversion Rate Benchmarks By Industry

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Since we’re in the call tracking business, clients often ask about call tracking industry benchmarks for search.

While results will vary based on the quality of your traffic, offer, design and other factors, having a “benchmark” is important for getting started and evaluating your relative success.

In order to figure that out, I dug into a sample of our account base. I analyzed visits, calls and call duration across ten industries over the past three months.

We looked at how many web visits a client had, how many calls from search (paid and organic) they received, and how long those calls lasted, assuming that a longer call is a better qualified lead.

The result is a general baseline of phone call conversion rates and call duration for companies across these ten industries.

Overall, the conversion numbers make sense. The highest conversion rate is in the home services industry. If your pipe bursts, you’re going to search for a plumber on Google and call for help ASAP. You don’t want to send an email and wait 24 hours to hear back. On the other hand, food service and e-commerce websites may lend themselves to more online conversion.

In terms of call duration, the numbers seem reasonable as well. If you call a software company, you’re probably going to have a fair number of questions and a longer conversation. If you call a plumber, there’s a good chance the call will go to voicemail if that plumber is on another job.

What’s your phone call conversion rate? How does your phone call conversion rate compare to your online conversion rate?

Please share your results in the comments below and feel free to use these call tracking conversion rate benchmarks to measure your next campaign.

Image from Shutterstock, used under license.

If you’re considering adding call tracking data to the mix, here are three sets of questions to ask yourself:

A. Should I consider call tracking software in the first place?

1. Does your website have a phone number?
2. Does your sales team field inbound phone calls?
3. At what point in the sales process do you speak with your prospects?
4. Would a phone number boost click-through-rates, conversion rates, or sales?
5. Need to demonstrate ROI, optimize ad spend, or get credit for phone leads?

If you answered yes to anything above, then please proceed to section B.

B. What type of call tracking features do I need to capture the right data?

For example, do you want to:

1. Track the total number of phone leads, or do you need detailed keyword-level call tracking?
2. Forward calls to a main phone number, or do you need to customize lead distribution?
3. Analyze standalone reports, or do you need to integrate with Google Adwords?
4. Review data in-house, or do you need to provide access to call tracking data for your clients?
5. Use out-of-the-box reports, or do you need to export call tracking data into your own reporting tool?

C. Which call tracking metrics should I actually include in my KPI dashboard?

1. If you want “full credit” for your efforts, then use one call tracking number and focus on the total number of phone leads you generate.
2. If you need to allocate marketing dollars across multiple channels, then get one number for each channel to measure cost-per-call across each channel.
3. If you want to optimize PPC ad spend more effectively, then you’ll want keyword-level call tracking so you can automate bidding.
4. If you want to A/B test landing page variations, then you’ll want one number for each unique variation so you can measure conversion rates.
5. If you want to demonstrate call quality, then you’ll need to incorporate average call length in addition to the number of calls in your reports.

By thinking through your needs before you jump in, you’ll be able to setup a call tracking solution that provides exactly the data you need.

What’s the best way to evaluate and configure a call tracking solution? The answer depends on what you are trying to accomplish by tracking phone leads.

Here are the four most common reasons online marketers implement a call tracking solution:

1. Get full credit for leads
2. Increase lead flow by A/B testing
3. Optimize ad spend
4. Measure ROI

For each objective, there is an optimal way to structure your call tracking solution. This article will walk through each of those scenarios.

Get Full Credit For All Leads You Generate Via PPC

Let’s say you’re an agency that needs to prove you are worth your fee. Your goal is to show your client at the end of each month how many leads your SEM efforts generate. You just need to show that what you’re doing works.

If that’s the case, all you really need is one call tracking number. You assign that number to all PPC traffic. When paid search visitors arrive on your website, you display the unique call tracking number.

You then use reporting to determine the aggregate number of leads you generate, and leverage that report to get full credit for the results you deliver. Pretty simple.

Increase Lead Flow By Running A/B Tests

If you’re working on a conversion optimization project and want to determine the most effective landing page design, then perhaps an A/B test is your primary goal. In that scenario, you simply need one unique phone number per variation.

If you test a new design against an original, you’ll need just two unique call tracking numbers. If you test three variations on 10 different landing pages, you’ll want 30 unique phone numbers. Again, pretty simple.

Optimize Ad Spend

This is where call tracking gets interesting. If your primary goal is to optimize ad spend, you need to have a fairly granular understanding of which keywords drive leads. You’ll want a call tracking solution with “dynamic phone number” capabilities so that you can track conversions to the keyword level without needing to buy a unique phone number for each keyword.

The way this works is that you buy enough phone numbers so that at any given time each visitor sees a unique number. The software matches unique visitors to unique calls, and pushes keyword level reporting data into Google Adwords. This enables you to create business rules for phone conversions and bid based on CPA instead of CPC.

Measure Return On Investment

While measuring phone leads can be critical to an effective online marketing campaign, you may want to understand which sources generate revenue, not just a phone leads.

For example, it’s possible that one group of keywords generates a high volume of calls but minimal revenue, while another group of keywords generates fewer calls but greater revenue.

In this scenario, you’ll want a call tracking tool that allows you to track which calls turn into clients and how much those clients spend. You can then use this data to bid based on revenue generated via phone leads, not just quantity of phone leads.

Overall, it’s important to consider your primary PPC goals when choosing and implementing a call tracking solution. In some cases, a basic solution with just one unique number is enough.

In other situations, you’ll need many numbers and more advanced tools. Ultimately, you need to make sure your call tracking solution is as simple and cost-effective as possible, yet as a robust and granular as necessary.

Image used under license from Shutterstock.com

Given marketers’ success advertising on television, what lessons can you apply to your online marketing efforts? Let’s explore the following three principles:

1. Your customers make purchases over the phone
2. Your sales will increase as you improve response time
3. Your advertising effectiveness will improve if you measure what works

Now, how does each of these ideas apply to online marketing?

Customers Buy Over The Phone: Make It Easy For Them To Call You

On TV, an infomercial’s primary call-to-action is generally “call us now.”

On the Web, your ads and website should also display a phone number, inviting eager buyers to contact your sales team.

This is especially important for service professionals, local businesses and other companies that require a sales dialogue to close new business.

Since initiating a phone call from a smartphone is much easier than filling out a website form, displaying a phone number in your ads and on your website will become even more important as the use of smartphones continues to grow.

Customers Want To Talk Now: Improve Your Response Time

Infomercials create a sense of urgency by claiming “offer ends soon,” “supplies are limited,” or “call now and receive a second absolutely free.” When someone actually calls, sales reps answer quickly before the caller loses interest and hangs up.

The same principle is true for online marketing. When a prospect calls to learn more, you should connect that lead with a sales person as fast as possible.

For example, franchises should geo-route phone leads to the nearest store and an emergency plumbing service should forward calls based on a schedule of the plumber on call. The more quickly you speak with a lead, the more likely you are to make a sale.

Measure Your Advertising Results: Consider Phone Call Conversions

Do you need to optimize ad spend, increase lead flow, demonstrate value, or improve lead quality?

For any of those goals, measuring response rates is a critical piece of the puzzle. With call tracking software, you can measure these metrics as effectively for phone calls as you do for online conversions.

As you begin to measure phone leads, you may be surprised to learn that:

• Traffic sources that generate few online leads deliver many phone leads.
• Websites with phone numbers generate more leads than those with just a web form.
• Your best leads call because they want to speak with you before making a purchase.
• Your marketing efforts generate more leads than your web analytics software reports.

Advertisers have successfully used call tracking numbers in TV ads to measure results for many years, while search engine marketers have generally favored web analytics software.

Recently, there’s a resurgence of interest in measuring phone leads from online campaigns, as businesses realize that the phone is often the preferred channel of communication for their most valuable business opportunities.

Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license.