Top 4 Best Call Tracking Software Solutions for 2019: Call Tracking and Analytics

You have probably heard that some companies are using call tracking software to monitor their marketing efforts and measure ROI. If you are looking to do the same and wondering how all this works, you’ve come to the right place.

What is Call Tracking Software?

Call tracking will tell you which marketing methods and advertising campaigns are generating phone calls, and which aren’t. If you are investing in online marketing that involves directing people to your website, it’s easy to track what works and what is not working with a tool like google analytics. But if your marketing efforts requires potential customers to call a phone number, how do you know which channels are yielding the best results? Thats where call tracking comes in.

Read More: Top 10 Call logging Software

How does it work?

What call tracking software does is give you the capability to instantly and cheaply create local or toll-free phone numbers so that you can monitor and isolate calls coming from your various marketing channels – TV Ads, Pay Per Click, Print, Web Campaigns, Social Media etc. What is neat about this process is that you can assign nicknames, labels and tags to these numbers so that the information you collect can easily be searched and tracked. These numbers can help you track both offline and online marketing efforts more easily. You will be able to tell what makes your phone ring and it will allow you to track, record and analyze the information so you can do more of what works and stop or tweak what is not working.

Benefits of Call Tracking Metrics and Systems

If you are currently spending money on marketing and have ads running across multiple channels, how are you measuring the effectiveness of these advertisements and the dollars being spent? How do you know which ads are working and which ones are not? If you have online campaigns, you can use a tool like google analytics to tell you which ones are converting and which ones are not.

But if you have ads that require potential customers to call you, how do you know which ads are generating the calls? That is where Call Tracking Systems and Software comes in. Metrics from these tools help you see where your calls are coming from, which ads are converting better, which ads need to be discontinued or tweaked. You can also record your calls for quality control and training purposes, allowing you to refine your message to improve conversion.

Here is how it works: You are able to assign local or toll free number to each ad, and then when your potential customers call, the call tracking metrics you get from the software systems will tell you exactly which number was called, how long and what happened. Some software allow for Google Analytics integration and others allow WordPress Integration.

Most services come with APIs that allow for other platform integration and interaction, providing you a very powerful tool to measure ROI on your marketing efforts, so you can channel your marketing dollars to the campaigns that work.

Benefits of Call Tracking

Here are 5 reasons why you should be tracking calls, if you are running ads from different channels and mediums:

1. You can track phone leads back to specific advertising channels – TV, radio, print, billboard or web ads.

2. You can chose to assign local or toll free phone numbers for each marketing channel for accurate measurement.

3. Rather then guessing what is working, you can demonstrate concrete marketing ROI from every source, which allows you to do more of what works.

4. You have the ability to integrate with Google Analytics and see your call data in real time, alongside your web analytics.

5. You can use APIs to integrate with other complimentary platforms to further enhance your online and offline marketing effort.

Top 4 Best Call Tracking Software Reviews: Callfire, CallRail, CallTrackingMetrics, DialogTech

Callfire Call tracking software

This is a Call tracking software review of Callfire, a Santa Monica based cloud telephony company that provides voice and text connectivity to over 100,000 businesses. Their other product lines include Hosted IVR, Voice Broadcast Hosted Solution, Local and Toll-Free Numbers and Cloud Call Center. Callfire’s call tracking systems allows you to buy local and toll free numbers to use in tracking effectiveness of marketing campaigns across channels and mediums.

What We like about CallFire

We found CallFire to have the easiest platform for call tracking. All you have to do is place their toll-free Call Fire numbers in different ads across as many channels as you would like. Then their software takes over, allowing you to track incoming calls from these ads and see call duration, caller identification, and Google Analytics data. You can also record the calls and review later for message refinement. Another feature we liked is the ability to to get both U.S. and international numbers and their very robust SMS messaging support, which allows you to respond to inquiries via text messages and track all that activity through google analytics.

As we mentioned, their platform is user friendly, but what we also found attractive was price. Their price levels are reasonable, allowing you to be able to get a sophisticated call tracking tool for a price point you can afford based on your need. If you really cannot afford even their LITE plan, then consider their Basic plan as a starting point.

CallRail Call tracking software

CallRail is one of the most aggressive companies in the call tracking space. According to their website, their mission “is to make call tracking simple and practical for businesses of all sizes. We believe that when business owners know which ads are driving phone calls, they can focus on the marketing campaigns that work — and stop wasting money on the ones that don’t”. Our review is to find out if this mission is being carried out through their product offering, reporting, and more importantly, on-boarding process.

When it comes to features, CallRail provides a lot of standard features as part of even their Starter package. And unlike CallFire Call Tracking Systems, CallRail has a much simplified pricing structure, with a Starter, Professional and Elite package. And their Starter package, which is the lowest is much cheaper than CallFire’s lowest package, which is their LITE version.

We also like the fact that CallRail has WordPress integration and are actively promoting that feature. That is important because a lot of online lead generation websites are built on WordPress and having an easy integration helps open up the service to non-technical people who are drawn to WordPress because of the ease of use. The image below provides a summary of the features offered with every plan.

How it Works

CallRail offers two types of call tracking. There is the Source-Level Call Tracking, which allows you to assign one phone number per marketing campaign. This can be done using their dynamic number insertion to easily implement source-level call tracking on your website. The other method is Keyword-Level Call Tracking, which help you track your SEO and SEM campaign efforts by attaching phone numbers to specific organic and PPC search keywords and having the ability to tell which of these campaigns and methods are driving phone calls to your business.

On-boarding:

We found their on-boarding process to be a breeze. Adding numbers and assigning them to campaigns was easy to navigate. Also, the google analytics integration was quick and when we had a problem and had to call support, they were very helpful. We think CallRail provides a compelling product that is priced for any budget and has the sophistication to compete with those of other more established players in the space.

CallTrackingMetrics Call tracking software

Call Tracking Metrics is the latest company to be examined under our Call Tracking Software Review and Analysis. In terms of size, they are bigger than some of the companies we have reviewed (like CallRail and Callfire) when you look at annual revenue figures available. But does size necessarily make them better? That is the question we want to answer in this review by looking at their software and how it works, pricing, and overall evaluation of what they offer customers in terms of marketing call automation and analytics.

How it Works

Just like the other companies we reviewed, Call Tracking Metrics gives you the ability assign a dynamic local or toll free number to all your ads that require a phone number. The main goal is to give you data to be able to see where the calls are coming from, and which channels are generating the most leads and conversion and what you need to discontinue or improve.

You have the option to record the calls and use that to see what is working and what is not, based on interactions between your sales/marketing teams and customers. CRM and Google Analytics integration now comes standard with all the software we have tested, and Call Tracking Metrics is no exception.

DialogTech Call tracking software

DialogTech often tend to ignore the main selling point of the business – which is the fact that they have been doing this for a while. They have been a leader in the phone conversion optimization business – helping you understand what makes your phone ring and providing the tools to enable you to track, record and analyze these calls to the granular level so that you can optimize your campaigns to bring the optimum return on investment.

Founded in 2007, DialogTech is one of the more established players in the call tracking and measurement space. According to their website, their software “captures and records offline conversions that are driven by both online and offline marketing and advertising campaigns”. With this information, the marketing or advertising department is able to “better understand—at a granular keyword level—what is driving conversions, how to evolve and improve campaign performance”.

How it Works

They have three types of call tracking – Static, Dynamic and Session:

Static call tracking allows assign individual tracking numbers to your online and offline campaigns. As the calls come in, the data collected —including the source, call length, recording, caller ID and location will help you to evaluate campaigns, caller quality and the purpose of the call.

Dynmamic call tracking allows you to assign unique phone numbers to specific advertising sources, on a one-to-one basis to specific marketing channels, sources, or campaigns (i.e. search, social, display, mobile and email). As calls come in, a conversion is attributed to the referral source, and valuable insight about the call is captured, including caller ID, call length, location and call recording.

Session Tracking is the other tracking method offered by DialogTech and it allows for a deeper level of tracking, with integration with Google Analytics and other CRM tools providing you more detailed and granular data for evaluating the effectiveness of your campaign across channels.

We were very disappointed not to find pricing information on DialogTech on their website. We tend to believe that anytime a company fails to display their price online, especially cloud based SaaS companies, it means they are expensive. That is not always the case but that is the impression we get.