Call tracking is the process of tracking the source of incoming calls to your business in order to understand the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, determine trends in behavior, and identify opportunities to improve sales.

When a customer contacts your business via a call-tracked phone number, the call is routed through a tracking system to record details such as the campaign it is associated with, date, time, call duration, wait time, unique vs. repeat, etc.

Call tracking services provide businesses with unique phone numbers, which can be placed on websites, social channels, digital ads, and other collateral.

Here are the most common sources to track:

• Direct traffic: User visited your site directly.
• Organic: User searched for something related to you and landed on your site.
• PPC: User clicked an ad and arrived on your site.
• Google Business Profiles: User called the number from your Google Business Profile.
• Call extensions: User called the phone number attached to your Google or Microsoft search ad.
• Social channels: User called number on a social ad.
• Local service ads: User called a local service ad.

If you’re ready to get started with call tracking, check out Search Engine Land’s guide.

Speaking of telephones, CallRail is a call-tracking vendor that collects and analyzes call data to help you optimize your marketing efforts. Try out custom menus, call routing flows, lead tagging, automatically generated transcripts, and loads of call metrics.

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