Search Marketing and Internet Marketing Blog Online

My new favorite blogger, Shimon Sandler has posted 8 methods you can use for tracking phone orders that were initiated by Search. This is a problem that plagues EVERY company involved in search. How do we get a true sense of the return on ad spend when phone orders or phone leads are not being taken into account? These 8 tips will make the tracking process MUCH, MUCH easier!

1) Create a unique landing page with a unique 800# for Google, Yahoo, MSN respectively.

2) Generate a unique “promo code” by placing all your keywords in a database and assign them an individual ID. Then when the user clicks on the Google url, it will attach a string to the URL like: keyword=12345. The unique ID can be the promo code that appears on the webpage.

3) By adding a unique customer reference code (promo code) on the page, and the reps on the phone can ask for that number. Train the sales reps to record and report the “lead source”.

4) The Landing page can encourage visitors to print a discount coupon, which can be redeemed at local stores. The Landing page could encourage prospects to find their local store and redeem their discount coupon.

5) Possibly utilize an 800# with an IVR phone system for tracking. Great Expectations, Inc. used an IVR system to track phone calls. The cost of their IVR was $.35 per minute. 3% of all their leads came from the IVR system.

6) Integrating your frontend/backend with your Conversion & Tracking software, and enabling an API to track the sales amount generated per keyword & the spend on that keyword.

7) Use Pay-Per-Call.

8) Use tracking software from a company that specializes in tracking conversions from phone calls.