What is call tracking?

The problem call tracking solves

An insurance agency pays for leads in several places at once: search ads, social ads, mailers, a directory listing, a website. Web forms are easy to count, because each submission arrives with a page attached. Phone calls are not. If every ad prints the same number, the phone rings and nobody can say why.

That matters because for many insurance buyers the phone is the main channel. Someone comparing plans often wants to talk to a person before they enter anything on a form. If you cannot see those calls, you undercount the sources that produce them and you may cut the wrong campaign.

How tracking numbers and forwarding work

The mechanics are simple, and they are the same across almost every provider.

1. You get extra phone numbers, called tracking numbers. Each one is assigned to one source, such as a campaign or a mailer.
2. You publish that number in that source and nowhere else.
3. When someone dials it, the carrier forwards the call to a number you already answer, such as your office line.
4. The service records the call: when it arrived, the caller’s number, which tracking number was dialed, and how long it lasted.

The caller sees one phone number in the ad and speaks to your agency. Your staff answer the phone they always answered. The only new thing is a log that says which tracking number was dialed. Because each number belongs to a source, that log is also a record of which source the call came from. See tracking numbers and call forwarding for how VereTel handles each step.

Static and dynamic numbers

There are two ways to put a tracking number in front of people.

Static numbers are fixed. You print one on a postcard or set it in an ad and it never changes. This is the right tool for anything you cannot edit after the fact: mail, print, radio, a billboard, a directory listing, a call-only ad.

Dynamic numbers are swapped into a web page by a small script, so the number a visitor sees depends on how they arrived or which page they are on. This is called dynamic number insertion, or DNI. It exists because a website has one place for a phone number but many ways in. The DNI guide explains the variants and their trade-offs.

Most agencies use both: static numbers for offline sources and for ads that carry their own number, and dynamic numbers on the website.

What call tracking can tell you

• How many calls each source produced, and on which days.
• How many were answered and how many were missed. A missed call is a paid-for lead that went nowhere.
• How long calls lasted, which is a rough sign of whether a real conversation happened.
• Which source is worth more money, once you divide spend by calls. See measuring cost per call.

What it cannot tell you

Call tracking is a measurement of calls, not of sales. Be clear about the edges before you rely on it.

• Whether the call became a policy. The log records that a call happened. Whether it turned into an application is something your agency tracks in its own system.
• What was said. Without call recording, a log tells you nothing about the conversation. VereTel does not record calls today; recording is coming, with no date.
• Which exact ad or keyword. That depends on how numbers are assigned. A number tied to a campaign tells you the campaign. Per-visitor systems can go finer. See attributing calls to ad clicks.
• Calls made from a number you did not track. Someone who saw your ad, then searched for your agency and called the number on your website, is counted against the website number. Attribution is never perfect.

What VereTel does

VereTel’s plans use local tracking numbers (toll-free numbers on Starter and up are on request: talk to us first). Each one forwards to a single line you choose, and every call is logged in a desk, including missed calls. Forwarding happens at the phone carrier, not inside VereTel’s web app. Websites can use a one-line script that swaps registered numbers per site and per page; see dynamic number insertion. VereTel does not offer recording, transcription, reports or CRM connections today. Numbers are not on sale yet. Create a free account and ask to be told when they are.