Touching Down With the Basics: What is Call Tracking
You most likely have an idea of what AI is. It’s all around us nowadays, it’s hard to escape from it. And even if you don’t know the technical details, you understand the basic concept. A machine that thinks on its own. But what about call tracking? Now, that’s a term you don’t hear often. It’s a marketing tool and even many marketers don’t know it. Let’s talk about it a little bit.
Your business probably gets phone calls. If it doesn’t, then this article isn’t really for you. Stick around though, you never know how life will evolve. Anyway, these phone calls are offline sources, meaning you don’t have any way to track, monitor, and extract data from them unless you sit down and record each call by hand. A time-wasting and messy process.
What call tracking does though, is that it provides you with tracking numbers that you place in your ads, emails, landing pages, or anywhere else you want. These tracking numbers will route calls to your business number and at the same time will track them. No, not in a spy way, but in a marketing way revealing the source of your calls down to keyword level. The call tracking software will keep a record of the call along with useful data that you can put to work by optimizing your marketing campaigns.
Call Tracking Definition
Call tracking refers to the technology that enables the monitoring and recording of inbound phone calls. It’s essentially a system that uncovers how callers discovered your business. By assigning unique phone numbers to different marketing channels, Marketers can pinpoint which ads, campaigns, or search keywords are generating calls. This data is critical because it shows you what’s working in your marketing strategy and what’s not.
💡 For the complete Call Tracking Guide, check out this step-by-step guide.
Is Call Tracking Really That Useful?
Short answer, yes. Long answer. Well, let’s see how can call tracking help you and your business.
- Measure Marketing ROI: Call tracking allows you to track which marketing campaigns, channels, or ads are driving phone calls. By assigning unique phone numbers to different campaigns, you can identify which strategies are generating the most leads or conversions. This helps in optimizing marketing spend and focusing on the most effective campaigns.
- Improve Customer Experience: With call tracking, you can record and analyze calls to assess the quality of customer interactions. This helps in identifying common issues, understanding customer needs, and training staff to improve service quality. Enhanced customer experience equals higher customer satisfaction and loyalty. You get the gist. A happy customer is a returning customer. They might even bring friends.
- Lead Attribution: Call tracking enables businesses to attribute phone leads to specific sources, such as online ads, social media, or email campaigns. This is particularly useful for businesses that rely heavily on phone interactions for sales, as it provides a clearer picture of the customer journey and which touchpoints are most influential.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: The data collected through call tracking provides valuable insights that can inform strategic decisions. For example, businesses can analyze call data to determine peak call times, geographic trends, and customer demographics, which can help in optimizing staffing, targeting specific markets, or adjusting marketing strategies.
- Enhanced Reporting and Analytics: Call tracking integrates with various analytics platforms, providing comprehensive reports on call volume, duration, and outcomes. These reports help businesses understand the effectiveness of their campaigns and make data-driven adjustments in real-time.
- Boosting Conversion Rates: By identifying the campaigns or keywords that drive the most phone calls, businesses can optimize their sales funnel to increase conversion rates. This includes refining ad copy, improving landing pages, and adjusting targeting strategies.
AI in Call Tracking
Like everything in life, call tracking is being infused with the magic powers of AI. And it’s changing the game in ways we couldn’t imagine. With the help of smart algorithms and tools that can understand language, AI can automatically transcribe your calls, figure out the mood of the conversation, and pick up on important words or phrases that show what your customers want or how they’re feeling.
This means you get a clear picture of what your customers are thinking, which helps you fine-tune your marketing and customer service efforts. Plus, AI can spot patterns and trends that you might miss, giving you more accurate and useful information.
On top of that, AI can help your team, whether they are in customer service or sales. You can let AI handle routine tasks like tagging calls, scoring leads, and even sending out follow-up reminders. This frees up your team to focus on the more complex stuff that really adds value, making things better for both your employees and your customers.
AI also helps you make decisions on the fly, like directing calls based on what the customer needs or the conversation’s context. As AI gets even more advanced, you can expect it to offer even more powerful ways to connect with your customers. Exciting isn’t it?
Let’s be more specific though about how AI can improve your call tracking experience and see some use cases as well.
Call Summaries: Condense 15-Minute Conversations into Key Insights in Seconds
Call summaries are cool. They contain all the important info from a call in just a few sentences. You don’t need to go through a 10-page transcription or listen to a 15-minute conversation. You just read a couple of lines and you get all the important data.
Imagine a sales team that uses call summaries to quickly review a customer’s needs and previous discussions before making a follow-up call. This helps them tailor their pitch more effectively, leading to higher conversion rates and better customer satisfaction.
AI-generated call summaries are even cooler. Nor you or your team member need to keep notes or summarize the call on your own. You simply allow technology to do it for you. It’s fast, it’s safe and it’s easy. All you need to do is activate them and let the Machine do the work.
In Nimbata, call summaries are free and activate automatically once you enable call transcriptions. To do that, simply go to Call Flows and add the Transcription add-on.
Here are some uses for AI-generated call summaries, to help you better understand their impact.
- 🔥 Customer Support Efficiency: In a busy customer support center, AI-generated call summaries can help agents quickly review previous interactions without having to listen to entire call recordings. For instance, if a customer calls back with an ongoing issue, the agent can instantly refer to the summary of the last conversation to pick up where it left off. This speeds up resolution times and improves the customer experience.
- ⚡️ Sales Follow-ups: A sales team can use AI-generated summaries to quickly recall key points from previous conversations with potential clients. For example, if a salesperson is preparing for a follow-up call, they can refer to the AI summary to remember the client’s specific needs or concerns discussed earlier. This allows them to tailor their follow-up more effectively, increasing the chances of closing the deal.
- 👀 Training and Quality Assurance: Managers can use AI-generated call summaries to review and evaluate calls more efficiently. Instead of listening to full call recordings, they can go through summaries to identify areas where agents excelled or need improvement. This can be particularly useful for training new employees or conducting regular performance reviews, ensuring that the team maintains high-quality interactions with customers.
Word & Phrase Spotting: From Competitive Analysis to Lead Classification—It does It all
Have you ever seen a movie where agencies like the CIA, NSA or MI6 spot terrorists by monitoring calls worldwide and listening for specific keywords, like a bomb for example? It seems really cool right? I mean, besides the potential human rights and privacy violations. Think of the marketing potential of such a tool though.
Lucky for you, AI has enabled call tracking platforms to do just that. You can ask them to sport specific words or phrases you consider important and the software will react to them, based on the instructions you have provided. This way you can quickly flag important calls, track trends in customer inquiries, or monitor compliance with scripts and policies. For example, a financial services company might use AI to spot phrases like “interest rates,” “investment options,” or “mortgage refinancing” in customer calls.
For more keyword ideas, check out our list of qualifying questions and keyword spotting examples to enhance lead qualification—from identifying budget readiness to spotting buying signals.
💡 For more keyword ideas, check out our list of 30 qualifying questions and keyword spotting examples to enhance lead qualification—from identifying budget readiness to spotting buying signals.
By identifying these terms, the company can prioritize follow-ups on high-value leads, ensure that customers receive relevant information quickly, and even analyze which products are generating the most interest, helping to refine marketing strategies and improve service delivery.
Word and phrase spotting is easy to activate and use. Simply, go to Automations, set it to trigger at the end of the call and the choose the Word and Phrase Spotting criterion. Add the keywords you want and then choose what you want the automation to do with it.
Here are some uses for Word & Phrase Spotting, to help you better understand their impact.
Make your CRM Smarter
- Automated Lead Entry and Enrichment: : Automatically create new contacts when the id isn’t found and update CRM fields such as Lifecycle Stage or Buyer Role based on important keywords like “budget,” “timeline,” and “requirements.” This process eliminates human errors caused by manual data entry. Having control of your data, ensures that lead profiles are always accurate and up-to-date, enabling better segmentation and personalized follow-up.
- Lead Scoring Based on Call Conversations: Automatically score leads in the CRM based on specific keywords mentioned during calls, such as “ready to sign,” “buying within a month,” or “urgent requirement.” The AI assigns higher scores to leads showing strong purchase intent, improving lead prioritization for marketing and sales teams and reducing the risk of missing out on hot leads.
- Triggering Automated Follow-Up Campaigns: Use keyword spotting to trigger specific automated follow-up sequences in the CRM (e.g., email drip campaigns, SMS follow-ups). After calls, leads can automatically be placed into the most relevant nurturing funnel based on the conversation content, enabling personalized engagement without manual effort.
- Sales Activity Insights: Aggregate and analyze sales team performance based on the keywords that surface in their calls. Track which approaches or phrases result in higher conversions. The CRM becomes a data-driven hub for coaching and improving sales techniques, helping the team refine their strategies based on real call data.
- Identifying Sales Cycle Stages: Automatically tag leads with the appropriate sales cycle stage (e.g., discovery, negotiation, closing) based on the keywords and phrases used in conversations. This reduces the need for sales reps to manually update CRM stages, while also ensuring that leads are nurtured with the most relevant content for their current stage.
Create Powerful Google Ads Connection
- Ad Campaign Performance Analysis: Track which Google Ads campaigns lead to calls with positive keywords related to conversions (e.g., “pricing,” “purchase,” “appointment scheduling”). Marketers can identify which ads drive high-value calls and quickly optimize budgets by pausing or scaling campaigns based on call quality, not just clicks.
- Ad Copy Optimization: Analyze call summaries and keyword trends to refine Google Ads copy based on the specific language that resonates with leads. By using the exact words and phrases customers use in their conversations, marketers can create ad copy that is more likely to attract qualified leads, improving click-through and conversion rates.
- Keyword Bidding Optimization: Use insights from call keyword spotting to adjust keyword bids in Google Ads. For example, if customers frequently mention a particular service or product that isn’t targeted in your campaigns, you can add these terms to your ad group. By adjusting bids and targeting based on actual customer language and demand, you can drive higher ROI and minimize ad spend waste on irrelevant keywords.
- Conversion Attribution Based on Call Outcomes: Attribute Google Ads conversions to specific campaigns by analyzing whether certain keywords or phrases (e.g., “signed contract,” “booked demo”) were mentioned in the call. AI provides more accurate attribution models, allowing marketers to tie ad spend directly to revenue-generating calls rather than just clicks or form submissions.
- Dynamic Retargeting Based on Call Interactions: Use call summaries to retarget users in Google Ads based on the specific content of their previous phone conversations (e.g., retarget those who mentioned price objections with discount offers). Retargeting becomes more precise and personalized by aligning ad creative and messaging with the exact needs or objections expressed during calls, boosting conversion rates for retargeting campaigns.
- Identifying Negative Keywords: Spot patterns in calls where users mention irrelevant services or products, and use this data to update your negative keyword lists in Google Ads. By refining negative keyword lists based on actual call data, you reduce wasted spend on irrelevant clicks, ensuring that your ad budget focuses only on high-quality traffic.
- Adjusting Geo-Targeting Based on Call Data: Analyze the locations of callers and the keywords they mention to adjust your Google Ads geo-targeting. If specific regions generate more high-quality calls, marketers can focus ad spend in those areas, or exclude regions that yield low-value calls, improving the efficiency of regional campaigns.
- Call Extension Optimization: Assess the effectiveness of Google Ads call extensions by reviewing call summaries and keyword spotting to determine the quality of leads generated through these extensions. If call extensions lead to high-quality conversations, you can allocate more budget to these ad formats, otherwise adjust to focus on more effective ad types.
- Smart Bidding Strategy Adjustments: Feed keyword insights from call tracking into Google Ads smart bidding strategies, so bids are optimized not just on clicks but also on the quality of conversations. Smart bidding can be adjusted to focus more on driving calls that result in valuable conversations, ensuring better alignment between ad spend and business goals.
and some more Use Cases…
- Competitor Analysis: Monitor conversations for mentions of competitors and their offerings to understand how your brand is positioned in the customer’s mind. Provide a list of your Competitors and track the conversations that being mentions. Gain insights on competitor strengths or weaknesses as mentioned by customers, enabling you to adjust marketing strategies accordingly.
- Personalization at Scale: Tailor follow-up marketing efforts based on specific topics discussed during calls (e.g., product preferences, urgency, objections). Keyword Spotting allow for personalization of emails, ads, or content based on the customer’s previous interactions, increasing the chances of conversion without needing individual manual attention.
- ROI Attribution: Track which keywords correlate with actual sales and tie these back to specific marketing efforts for more accurate ROI attribution. AI simplifies the process of connecting marketing activities to outcomes, ensuring that ad spend is optimized for maximum return.
How to use AI Call Tracking with real life examples
Let’s check some use-case examples now.
Assigning High Potential Leads to Your Best Sellers
Imagine you run the sales team of a SaaS software business. You operate on an international level, but you recognise that your best leads come from specific countries. Let’s say the USA. And since these leads bring great value to the business, you want your top sellers to handle them. Here’s what you can do then.
First, you will create a custom Tag and name it something like “USA Leads” or “Priority Lead”. Simply go to Data Management > Tags and add a new one.
Then you will create a new automation. Like we said, you will set it to activate at the end of the call. At the criteria, you will select United States as a calling country. But not everyone who calls from the USA is an actionable lead. This is why you need to set word and phrase spotting. You can choose keywords like demo, to indicate that the caller is interested in a demonstration of your product. Or appointment or any other word and phrase you believe is relevant in your case.
When you are done, you can set the automation to tag the call with your custom tag. This way, your top sellers will know that this is a lead they will have to handle with utmost care. You can also ask the automation to send the lead to Google Ads and/or any other software you have integrated with Nimbata.
Supercharge your Customer Support Team
Another use-case scenario. Customer service. A very sensitive and crucial aspect of any business. In this case, you want to respond immediately to any customer that expresses some kind of disappointment in your product or services. So, in this case, you will use words that you believe fit such a situation. If you are running a marketing agency for example, these words could something like “low conversions”, “not worth the expense”, “underperformance” and negative feeling keywords.
Then you can ask the automation to send you an email notification and add a note or tag the call, like in our previous example. This way, you can take action immediately and try to salvage the situation.
Takeaway
AI is an up-and-coming technology that will completely change the way we do marketing. The process has already begun. No matter your opinion on AI, it will keep getting better and with time will become an integral part of our daily work. People fear it. They should embrace it instead. In this article, we show how it can help us improve our call tracking, only a subset of the whole marketing game.
It makes our workload lighter with automatically generated call summaries.
It removes the grind from boring tasks, like listening to whole conversations or searching for keywords by hand.
It makes our work more efficient and frees us to focus more on creative things, strategy, and planning.
Just imagine what else will be possible in due time.
AI is not a threat. It will change many things and if anything, it will make our lives and jobs easier and more productive.
