Everything You Need to Know About Google’s Website Call Conversions [Updated]

Katie Holmes
23rd January 2019

In October 2016, we highlighted details and drawbacks associated with the use of Google website call conversions, and today’s post contains a resume of the latest Google Ads conversion features.

The Google website call conversion service has been around since 2014 and offers useful tools which are totally free of charge.

Many business users query whether this is the right solution for their needs, so this brief summary takes a look at just how Google website call conversions service works.

As an added bonus, we will also take a look at how you can get more out of Google website call conversions with the help of Closed Loop Revenue Attribution.

Let’s dive in.

 

How Google Website Call Conversions Service Works

From November 2018 all calls made from location extensions can be classed as conversions when you activate account-level reporting for calls.

Location extensions are a Google tool which can help consumers find your business by displaying your ads together with your address, a map detailing how to find your location and the travel distance.

This can be a useful encouragement for consumers and help drive visits.

Interested consumers just need to tap or click on your extension to source more details from your location page, which can also incorporate a phone number or call icon to make calling your business easier.

You can source instructions on setting up location extensions direct on the Google website or in your Google Ads account

Business users may find this method of measuring the duration of calls can be a very helpful indicator of which ads, marketing campaigns, or keywords are driving the highest quality customer interactions.

You will also find a message and call reporting added to the main extensions tab within Google Ads, making it much easier to monitor the ways individual extensions are performing and achieving essential results from phone calls and messages.

Other new metrics on the service include chat rate and phone-through rate, to ensure business performance is optimised.

 

Development of the Closed Loop Framework

Our original post also highlighted some of the benefits of our own call tracking service. These include:

Since then we’ve gone on to develop our software.

The Closed Loop Revenue Attribution Framework takes marketing analytics onto another level entirely.

The closed-loop framework is a metric which relies purely on revenue measurement, rather than analysing conversions and goals.

With this system in place, it’s possible to define revenues exactly, so ROI from any marketing activity is entirely quantifiable.

Marketing professionals understand the difference between leads and sales.

Ultimately, any lead could convert into a high-value sales prospect or be entirely without value to your business.

There are lots of problems associated with online lead measuring and many businesses find that Google just doesn’t provide the essential tools.

With a Closed-Loop Framework, businesses don’t just need to rely on the metrics available in tools like Conversions or Goals and can focus attention on the subject that is far more important to the company: revenues.

This type of system closes the gap between sales and marketing, so any sales revenues can be accurately matched to appropriate marketing activities.

Closed-loop tracking offers businesses:

If your business is generating heaps of leads which don’t seem to convert into solid business sales, Closed-Loop Revenue Attribution could be the solution to your problem.

You’ll also find it easy to identify just how many sales have been generated by different marketing campaigns and can follow up on these with additional marketing activity.

Lead creation can be an expensive activity, so any system that offers ways of identifying the keywords and campaigns that physically generate your leads is a valuable tool for your marketing department.

Guessing and estimating the ROI of your marketing campaigns is inaccurate and can lead any business into costly errors of judgment, with closed-loop systems in place all the guesswork associated with the assessment of your ROI is eliminated.

Analytics alone rarely provide an accurate picture of the source of leads, as it’s quite common for consumers to visit websites on a number of occasions prior to making contact.

So, marketing campaigns that rely on tracking leads alone don’t offer the comprehensive information needed to make a complete assessment.

Closing the loop really does fill that gap between sales and marketing, so you can identify exactly which campaigns are working for your function and build future goals accordingly.

When you have closed-loop technologies in place you’re opting for the accurate tracking solution that works.

 

Disadvantages of Google Website Call Conversions

We already highlighted some problems with the Google system, including:

Some of the additional problems with using Google’s Website Call Conversions service is that it is difficult to set up and the recording feature is not fully implemented or established.

When it comes to choosing a reliable call tracking service, business customers are sure to discover the system from Ruler Analytics offers advantages that outweigh the current services provided by Google.

Rather than compete with Google’s website call conversion feature, our aim is to assist the platform. We’re an official Google technology partner, so any visitor call data captured by our platform can be sent to your Google products with simple integration.

Google's website call conversion - www.ruleranalytics.com_censored

You can find more about how to integrate Ruler call data with Google Ads here.

Our Closed Loop Framework service is available to all business customers and really does enhance the service provided by any marketing department.

Closing that gap between sales and marketing means you can build more valuable customer relationships and work hard on generating more sales from your existing customers, in addition to helping you identify the most successful ad programs in your stable.

We offer a free demo of the system so you can see just how easy it is to operate, the simple way it integrates with your current CRM systems and the high quality of analytical data that is provided.