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Branded Bull Podcast
Call Tracking Explained: Know Exactly Where Your Calls Are Coming From Ep 94.
00:10:38
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This is the Branded Bull Podcast, a show dedicated to helping take your business to the next level with winning marketing and branding tips and strategies built for today's competitive world. Ready for your business to make its mark and stand out from the competition? Let's get into it.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Branded Bull Podcast. I'm your host on this week's episode. My name is Adam Fullerton. And thank you guys for tun to the podcast that is built for green industry businesses who want to stand out, get found, and win more work. Today we're going to be talking about call tracking. And long story short, if your phone is ringing, that's a good thing. But here's the real question. Do you actually know why it's ringing or where those people are calling from? Most lawn care and landscaping businesses think they do, right? They'll say, yeah, is from Google or it's probably from my website. But in reality, most of the time, you're probably guessing. And that's why I want to talk to you today about, again, call tracking and what it is, why it matters, and how it can completely change the way you approach your marketing for your green industry business. So let's start, let's start in, dive in. I can't even, can't even think properly, guys.
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My bad.
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But let's start with the problem first and foremost, right? Most companies in the green industry are doing at least a few things to market their business, and that's a good thing. Maybe you've got your website, maybe you've got your Google Ads, maybe you've got some yard signs out, maybe it's referrals. The list goes on and on. The phone rings, that's awesome. Which is great. But when you stop and ask, where did that lead actually come from? It's usually not as clear as you might think. Was it Google? Was it your website? Was it a referral? Was it a yard sign? Was it ads? Who knows? And without that clarity, you can start making decisions based on assumptions. I guess you should. I should say you start making decisions based on that assumption. We want to clarify that with this episode. We're going to clean that up. And long story short, again, you might think your ads are working, so you spend more. You might think your website isn't doing much, so you ignore it. But the reality is you could be completely wrong if you don't have insights and data to work off of. And that's again where call tracking comes into play. So let's answer the question. What is call tracking? At its core, it is very, very simple. You assign different phone numbers to different marketing channels. So instead of having one phone number everywhere, you might have one number on your website, you might have a completely different number on your Google Ads. You might, you might have a completely different number on your yard signs, maybe even one on your social media. Right? The list goes on and on and on. Different phone numbers for different parts or different marketing tactics that you're using. Then when someone actually calls you, you know where they are actually calling from. That's it. That's it. That's. It's that simple. It doesn't change how your business operates. It doesn't change the marketing you're actually doing right off the bat. At least it's. It just gives you visibility into what's already happening and what might be working. So let's give you a real life example. Let's say your company's spending about $1,000 a month on Google Ads. You assume that's where most of your leads are coming from. So naturally you think, let's increase the budget. And certainly there's metrics there to tell you, especially if you're working with us with our PPC services or paid search services. Yes, there's an AdWords account where you can see all the different metrics from impressions to clicks and things like that. But the whole point is, you want more visibility, you want more data. Data always provides you with better choices. The ability to make better choices, I should say. So the thing is, once you set up call tracking, you might realize something very interesting. Maybe only 10% of your calls are actually coming from your Google Ads. Maybe the majority, let's say 60 or 70%, are coming from organic search, which means people are finding you through Google and through your website, not necessarily your ads. And another chunk might be coming from your lawn signs, whatever that marketing tool might be. So instead of pouring more money into your ads or more money into another marketing channel, you could potentially say to yourself, hey, let's shift our focus, obviously. Improve your website, invest into SEO, ask for more reviews. Those are all great things. But then you might realize, hey, you're getting better results without having to increase your budget elsewhere. Right? That's the power of call tracking, let's just say, to hopefully make sense of this. Let's just say the majority of your calls are actually coming from your lawn signs. And you're tracking that number. Right? You're using call tracking to say, how many people are calling from my lawn signs. And maybe you put out 50, 50 lawn signs, whatever that number might be. And again, if 60, 70, 80% of your calls are coming from your lawn signs, you might say, hey, my lawn signs are crushing it. So I don't necessarily need to put more money into ads or into other sources or mediums. Maybe I just need to double down on my lawn signs to put more lawn signs out. Right, Pretty straightforward. Now there are a few tools out there that make this really easy to implement because you gotta kind of know what you're doing at least a little bit to make sure you're setting yourself up for success. And one of the most popular tools is called Call Rail. That's C A L L R A I L. It is an industry leader and it tracks calls. You can obviously track form submissions where those leads are coming from. And it's a great option for most of you guys listening, kind of those small to mid size companies. Another option is called tracking metrics which is a bit more advanced. It definitely integrates with CRMs and automation tools, but it's typically better for larger companies who want a little bit more control. And then there's Google Ads call tracking as well, which is directly built, built directly into Google Ads I should say. And that one specifically tracks calls from your ads, which is obviously very helpful, but it's very limited. It doesn't give you really the full picture across all of your marketing. So it has some limitations. So why does this all matter? I know kind of all over with this one, but just trying to explain why this all matters. Why does call tracking matter for your business and for your marketing? First, it helps you make better decisions, right? Instead of guessing where your calls are coming from, you actually know what's driving business. Second, it improves your return on investment. Obviously you can cut back on what's not working and double down on what is working if you understand where the calls are coming from. And third, it just gives you better context for every lead. So when the phone rings, you know this person came from Google Ads or this person found us through your website, this person was calling from your, your yard sign. Lastly, it just gives you clarity on how to grow, right? Because at the end of the day, growth isn't necessarily about doing more, it's about doing more of what actually works. And to understand what actually works, you have to track metrics, you have to track data. Now that said, there's a few common mistakes we see all the time and the biggest one is using the same phone number everywhere as mentioned previously, that makes it impossible to track the calls and track where people are coming from. Another one is not tracking missed calls. And if you're missing calls during the day, most companies are, that's lost revenue you're not even aware of, right? Also, not listening to call recordings, that's huge. You can actually hear what people are asking for, what they care about, what your you know, where your sales process might be falling short. And finally relying only on tools like Google Analytics. Google Analytics is great, but doesn't tell you who you actually or who actually picked up the phone and called you. Google Analytics is great for metrics to track campaigns and clicks and various things. But when it comes to the phone ringing, you really need to use call tracking. So if you're thinking this sounds great, but where do I start? Here's a simple approach. Step one, guys, go use a tool like CallRail or just go to Google. You can find some competitors. Of course. Step two is replace your phone number in a couple key places. Your website, your Google Ads, lawn signs. Again, wherever you're running marketing, wherever you have your phone number listed, your Google business profile, et cetera, turn it on, let it run for 30 days and then check the analytics after that. That alone will give you more insight than you've probably ever had into your marketing and especially what's causing your phone to ring. So that said, I'm going to leave you guys with this. If your phone is ringing again, that is a great sign. But if you don't know why it's ringing and where it's link, where it's ringing from, or where that person is coming from, or where your customers are coming from, then you're leaving growth up to chance. So call tracking gives you clarity, definitely gives you confidence, and it definitely helps you make smarter decisions with your time in your marketing budget. So instead of guessing where the where the calls are coming from, start tracking it. It's that simple. Because when you understand what's working, that's again, when real growth starts to happen. That said, that's what I got for you guys on this week's episode, all about call tracking and how important it is, how easy it is to set up and use and of course how it can give you great, great, great, great insight into where people are calling from and what might be working better than others in terms of your marketing tactics. So that's it. Thank you again as always, if you like what you hear, consider subscribing wherever you're listening to or listening from, whichever platform you're on, however you would say that. And then also consider leaving that five star review if you find this valuable guys appreciate you guys tuning in and letting us know how much this podcast means to you. We appreciate that every Tuesday new episodes. That's what I got. So thank you as always and catch you guys on the next episode. Take care.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of the Branded Bull Podcast. The podcast dedicated to giving you expert advice and actionable ideas so that your business can make its mark and stand out from the competition like what you heard in today's show. Visit brandedbull.com to see how we can help you achieve your marketing and branding goals. Also, please consider leaving a five star review. And again, thanks for listening.