Without call attribution, marketers miss nearly half (49 percent) of mobile conversions, leading to inaccurate return on investment (ROI) data and risking campaign optimization.
This occurs even though calls from mobile marketing sources are up 34 percent in the past six months alone, an increase of 77 percent on an annualized basis, according to a report by DialogTech Insights.
The report analyzed more than 400,000 inbound phone calls to businesses and over 60 million website sessions tracked on the company’s Voice360 platform, which has more than 5,000 active customers across 35 industries.
The study found mobile search and landing pages are driving a combined 81 percent of calls for DialogTech customers, while mobile display and social drive 18.7 percent.
While conversion rates vary widely based on factors such as industry or product, DialogTech found the average Web form conversion rate for landing pages to be 2.4 percent.
“Call tracking is a form of lead attribution and marketing analytics technology marketers use it to track inbound phone calls back to the specific marketing source that originated them,” Steve Griffiths, senior vice president of marketing, strategy and analytics for DialogTech, told eWEEK. “Call tracking enables marketers to understand what marketing sources, including offline, online, and mobile ads, campaigns, keyword searches, Web pages, content, direct mail or email blasts, and social media sites, generate phone leads and revenue–and which don’t.”
Griffiths said they can then use this data to make more intelligent decisions about everything from where and how to advertise, to what content to create and what types of messaging resonates.
The company also found the average phone-through rate (PTR) to be 2.3 percent.
Combining the two conversion paths, the result is an average total conversion rate of 4.7 percent.
The report noted when digital marketing was focused exclusively on desktops, understanding a lead’s behavior and intent was simpler, as consumers often began and ended their journey on one device, with conversions occurring via a Web form or online purchase.
“With everything confined to the desktop, tracking each consumer’s digital footprint–where they came from, the Web pages they viewed, if and how they converted–was easier,” the report noted. “In a mobile-first world, however, measuring the customer journey is more challenging. While some mobile purchases are simple, buying music, for example, many are more considered due to their complex, infrequent, or expensive nature.”
Data from research firm BIA/Kelsey indicates the explosive growth of mobile calls into U.S. businesses, predicting that by 2019 mobile channels will drive 162 billion calls, up from 76 billion in 2014. Search and social media are the largest drivers of this 114 percent increase.