CallTrackingBlog.com Launched

by Andrew Miller on 06/09/10

COMMENTS: No Comments | Analytics, YSA

Call Tracking Blog LogoJust a quick post from the self-promotion category. A couple of weeks ago I launched a new blog at CallTrackingBlog.com.

To get things started, I’ve begun a 5-part series on creating and optimizing Google AdWords click-to-call ads for mobile devices. I have tons of good content ideas in the hopper so please subscribe to the RSS feed or sign up for the email newsletter to get updates!

Why this? Why now?

The goal is simple: de-mystify phone call tracking for marketers. Nobody is really talking about how to measure phone calls from online sources and most online marketing books and blogs gloss over the subject if they even mention it at all. Even Avinash Kaushik, analytics evangelist for Google and author of Web Analytics 2.0 only devotes 1 page (out of 475!) to the topic.

Given that more than 50% of leads and contacts generated by websites are phone calls, I was amazed that more people are not using and discussing call tracking as a necessary marketing analytics function.

It boils down to 2 things:

  1. Call tracking is vital for anybody buying online ads or trying to generate leads through a website. Without it, more than 50% of leads are not calculated into ROI metrics or conversion optimization and testing!
  2. There is no centralized, unbiased site for best practices, vendor reviews or industry news…unless you want to believe the hype coming directly from the vendors’ blogs.

If you have a moment, please check out the site and let me know what you think. Want to submit a case study, question or post? Please leave a comment here or contact me.

Words Without Numbers

by Andrew Miller on 05/30/10

COMMENTS: No Comments | Analytics

Today’s thought-provoking nugget:

“Words without numbers are as meaningless as numbers without words – you need the right balance, so that eloquent arguments are backed up by reality as depicted by numbers.”

From Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes by Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne. (Introduction, p. xix)

Siri: Mobile Search, Apple Style

May 19, 2010

This looks cool. Is Siri a Google-killer? Probably not, but if you step back to read my review of 4 other voice-activated mobile search engines, it’s pretty clear to see that Siri is a great leap forward. What does this mean for your business? Underneath the slick iPhone UI and the powerful voice recognition programs, [...]

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PPC in 5 Years: An Intractable Problem

May 18, 2010
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Every now and then I like to get out my crystal ball and think about where I see the search industry heading. It’s impossible to predict because every day brings new changes, but there are certain trends that are likely not going away. The way I see it, there’s an intractable problem between the breakneck [...]

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New Site Launch – Colonial 1st Mortgage

May 10, 2010
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I am pleased to announce a new client site launched last week: RVAMortgage.com. The site supports Colonial 1st Mortgage‘s objective of capturing more qualified leads and we’re pulling out all the stops to support the site and increase traffic: Pay Per Click advertising Organic Search Engine Optimization Content Marketing Dan Dougherty and his team of [...]

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