With mobile becoming increasingly important to your online strategy, it’s surprising how many webmasters overlook the power of a phone call whilst trying to reach their target audience digitally through PPC. With so many people actively converting online, it is easy to assume that each user prefers to convert that way. However, by assuming this you are leaving out a large amount of potential customers due to their preferred way of connecting with you.
Underestimating Engagement
It isn’t easy to measure whether a phone call has been received due to your digital ads but it is critical that they are tracked so you can measure the impact on your amount of phone conversions. Spending the time encouraging your users to call you and get in touch is a waste of time and budget if you do not have the correct process in place to deal with the phone call. The difference between an online conversion and a telephone conversion is that a user who has gone out of their way to call you has already decided that they are interested in what you have to offer, whereas online conversions can fall flat if you do not respond to the lead promptly. Although most companies say they aim to get back to their customers within 24 hours, leads can often be missed and left too long.
Tip: Aiming to contact the potential customer after 1-2 hours will show that you are dedicated and value their custom.
Optimising Your Paid Search Campaigns
If you want to see the effects of phone call conversions on your business, an idea could be to create a new campaign where your contact number is in the headline or ad text so you are directly targeting users who want to connect that way. Alternatively, you could use an ad extension to ensure that your phone number appears on your current ads and use phone tracking through Adwords. You could consider using a local number here as people are more likely to trust a well-known location code than a 0800 number. One factor that is commonly overlooked when setting up a call campaign is the ad scheduling. Ensure that there is someone available to answer the phone for the hours you schedule the ads, if a customer is calling you and can’t get through it is going to look unprofessional.
Optimising the Phone Call
You’ve targeted your potential customers and the phone is ringing, now what? The success of the phone call depends on the customer experience and how the lead is dealt with. Improving the overall customer experience could lead to more business and your customers leaving good reviews of the service online which is great exposure. Try to make the phone call process more personal by removing any automated answering systems in place such as the famous “Press 1 for…Press 2 for…”. If this process is successful you could consider a larger scale call campaign and hire more staff to tend to the calls. This could prove to be beneficial for your business and effortless gain you more business and profit.
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