A few weeks ago, a client told me that they were approached by a search engine marketing firm that had a unique way of making pay-per-click budgets count and checking to see which keywords actually drove leads and sales. The firm’s approach involves attaching a unique phone number to each of the keywords, and then tracking the calls to see which ones got people to pick up the phone. Through tracking and trial and error, the firm knows where to spend the money on behalf of the client.
Since consumers like to work with local businesses and provider, why not apply this same technique using local telephone numbers? They don’t necessarily have to go to PPC ads, as these phone numbers can also be used on print advertising, landing pages, and other marketing campaigns. It’s a great way to see if your current marketing tactics are working to give you leads and sales, as well as to experiment with new marketing techniques. If you’re already spending a ton of money on print advertising or online banner ads, spending a little more to track their success can tell you if you are wasting your money or if you’re even getting the ROI that you need to justify the expense.
Use a Local Telephone Number for A/B Testing
A similar way that a local telephone number could be used is in A/B testing, where you are tracking two or more ads or campaigns to see which one will do better. For example, if you have an ad running in two different local newspapers, you can utilize A/B testing and local phone numbers by giving each newspaper the same ad but each with a different phone number. Then you can track to see which newspaper does better. This could also be done if you want to change something about the ad to see if it will make a difference, such as what the text says, or the color scheme, or even the size of the ad. Once you have enough results to come to a conclusion, you can drop the ad/campaign that isn’t performing as well, or you can conduct another test.
Make Sure Numbers are Used to Track Success
Business owners should know that these numbers should be used to track success only. Once it’s known that the particular campaign is or isn’t generating the ROI warranted to keep it going, then the campaign should be stopped or the number should be changed to your actual business number on the ad. If you fail to make the change, then the tracking local phone number could be mistaken for your business’ actual number. That might not be a bad thing in some cases, but it could be problematic if you plan to do A/B testing and will have a phone number apply to different campaigns at different times. Your results could be altered, as you could have people calling for one thing when you want them to be calling based on a particular ad. This could end up confusing Abby Connect or your salespeople.
Overall, local phone numbers are more than good for just giving a way for potential customers to contact you. They can also be used to track your marketing success, to gather hard numbers on what your marketing campaigns and ads are doing for your business, which can all be used to help your business make good marketing decisions for the future.
