What is Dynamic Number Insertion and How Does it Work?

Laura Caveney
21st February 2022

Looking to understand dynamic number insertion and if it could be a good fit for your business, struggling to properly track offline conversions? 

Are you one of the 50% of marketers who use calls as a conversion tool? Hopefully, you’re not one of the 62% who subsequently struggles to effectively track inbound calls too. 

But, given you’re here, we’re going to assume you might be and you’re considering if dynamic number insertion could be a solution. 


Well, let us help you. 

In this blog, you can learn:

Let’s dig in!

What is dynamic number insertion?

Dynamic number insertion, or DNI, is a call tracking feature that assigns a unique number to each and every online source. It allows a unique number to be displayed to website visitors who arrive at your site via that source.

Sources include organic search, social, PPC advertising and more.

This data can loop into your marketing apps, such as Google Analytics, so you can both pinpoint the source of your calls, but also understand which ones are resulting in revenue.

Related: How to track revenue in Google Analytics

Why is DNI useful?

Put simply, dynamic number insertion is the core of call tracking. It can’t be done without it.

In order to accurately track inbound phone calls, you need to install dynamic number insertion via a call tracking tool.

Without call tracking, you as a marketer are missing potentially hundreds, or even thousands, of data points where your customer engages with your business, offline.

While you can track online actions like form submissions or even ‘add to cart’, tracking phone calls means you get a full 360 view of where your customers are coming from and how they’re engaging with your website.

And that’s before we even get onto PPC advertising. How often do users search online, and then immediately pick up the phone? The answer is a lot.

Differentiating those inbound calls generated by your PPC ad from those generated from your BAU content is essential to understanding your return on ad spend. And think about it this way. If you better understand where your leads are coming from, you’ve got more data behind you to help you optimise your marketing.

🚀 Pro Tip

Ruler Analytics is a call tracking solution that can help you track every inbound call and link it back to an online web session. Learn more about our call tracking feature here.

Which companies need dynamic number insertion?

If your business generates leads over the telephone, DNI is essential if you want to find out which of your online marketing efforts is generating the best results. This applies to many businesses including hotels, restaurants, solicitors, tradesmen, hairdressers, I.T. services and more.

And if you’re using PPC, well, then DNI is a necessity.

Related: How to set up call tracking in Google Analytics

Not only can you track (and record) every call, but you’ll be able to see which campaign, which ad, and even which keywords are driving the most calls.

So, any business needing to measure the impact of their online advertising on their inbound phone calls needs dynamic number insertion (DNI). It is an essential part of call tracking; without it, you are unable to assess the effectiveness of your campaigns accurately.

How dynamic number insertion works

When someone visits your website via an organic search or clicking on an ad, DNI technology generates a number unique to that ad campaign, website, keyword or other source depending on your business.

It is normally used to assess the performance of a campaign or channel when it comes to driving inbound calls. But what if it could go one step further?

Remember, customer journeys aren’t simple. The sad reality is, customers rarely see a PPC ad, call and convert right away into a sale.

So, what if you could understand calls as part of full customer journeys?

Dynamic number insertion with Ruler Analytics

Ruler Analytics’ dynamic number insertion offers you a greater insight than other packages. Ruler assigns an individual phone number to each individual visitor to your site.

✏️ Note

Read exactly how call tracking with Ruler Analytics works from end to end. You’ll be able to track every inbound call plus accurately link it to an individual lead too.

By doing this, you are now able not just to determine how each user found your site, but also:

You know what that means? Full visibility of your leads. By upgrading from call tracking, to full marketing attribution, you can track every lead and every single touchpoint.

This means you’ll get proper ROI and ROAS from your campaigns and channels and be better placed to make smarter marketing decisions.

Getting started with DNI and attribution

Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Book a demo of Ruler Analytics to find out how you can track each and every call, and every other touchpoint too.

Ruler works like this…

A user will visit your website, at which point Ruler will begin tracking them using a special piece of code added to your site

Ruler will continue to track them and their marketing and lead data.

When they convert into a lead, whether that’s by phone, form or live chat, Ruler will fire all the lead and marketing data on that user to your CRM.

From there, Ruler will continue to track until that user converts into a sale. Then, Ruler will scrape the revenue data attributed to that user and fire it back to your preferred marketing apps.

So, revenue will be attributed to the correct channels, campaigns and keywords all without you lifting a finger.

🚀 Pro Tip

Ready to go one step further and attribute every lead, not just those that come in via call? Read exactly how Ruler attributes your closed sales and revenue back to your marketing.

Get started with dynamic numbers and so much more by booking a demo with one of our team. We’ll give you access to the data you need to work smarter, not harder.

book demo - revenue attribution - www.ruleranalytics.com