For the past year, the AdWords advertising platform of Google has been launching several new products that enable advertisers to create a link between ads and phone calls. These would include call metrics, click-to-call ads, and calls as conversion in the AdWords stats. Now, Google is taking things a little much further by launching its Website Call Conversions.
The feature begins after one has set up his regular search ads. Every time these ads are clicked and leads to the company's site, users can see a generated phone number which is linked to the ads. Potential and serious customers will then click on the number or they can dial it directly using their phones. The call will instantaneously link to the original ad that the customer has seen earlier. This way, ad owners can easily track the ads and identify which ones generate phone calls.
"Website call conversions dynamically inserts a Google forwarding number on your website that measures the calls made by these customers," said Anurag Agwaral, product manager of AdWords. When a customer clicks on the number or dials it directly from his phone, companies can attribute the call conversion and its value which will then bring the customer back to the keyword and ad that drove him to the site in the first place.
Once ad marketers get a handful of data, they can discern which keywords and ads sound more attractive and drive the most number of phone calls. Moreover, Google also allows marketers to assign different values to those calls that came from different and unique pages of a given website. This will help them track which among those pages are more effective and have turned visitors into customers.
Some companies that have started using the new feature commented on how useful it is to their business. Digital marketing and information manager Elan Hasson of People's Trust Insurance said that before the creation of website call conversions, companies didn't have the tools to track ROI when potential customers clicked through their ads and dialed the number of the company's sales center. "Website call conversions has 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."
In order to take advantage of Google's new feature, advertisers should be able to add a small type of code to their PC and mobile sites. Web admins will customize the look of the ad's tracking phone number and make sure that they would blend well with the website's overall look. According to Google, the unique forwarding numbers have 90 days to remain active so that companies can track future phone calls as well.
