How many tracking numbers do I need?

If you are reading this, you are probably familiar with call tracking, how it works and its unique benefits. While setting up an account, a question that pops up quite often is “How many tracking numbers do I need?”.

The answer to this question depends on which channels, campaigns or even visitor sessions you want to track - and to what extent. In the following paragraphs we will try to answer the question in detail and provide an in-depth guide (with specific examples) that you can return to each time you setup a new client or campaign.

Types of tracking:

1. Offline Sources

2. Online Sources – Static Tracking

3. Online Sources – Number Swapping

4. Visitor Tracking – Number pools

1 .Offline Sources

TV, Radio, Print, etc.

For each medium you can use 1 tracking number.

Examples:

• Placing a tracking number on a billboard
• Running a radio ad which mentions the tracking number
• Airing a TV ad which prompts viewers to call the tracking number

In all of the above cases, you assess the impact of each offline marketing campaign, by counting the number of calls each medium generated.

2. Online Sources – Static Tracking

Google My Business, Google Ads Extensions, Online Listings, Landing Pages

For each medium you can use **1 **tracking number.

Examples:

• Count the number of calls your Google My Business listing drives
• Count the number of calls your Google Ad Extension generates
• Place the tracking number on a listing site (e.g. Yelp) and count how many calls the listing drives
• Place a tracking number on a landing page and count calls the landing page generates

3. Online Sources – Number Swapping

Direct, Organic, PPC, Newsletters, Referrers, Social Media, etc.

1 tracking number per online source

**Example: **

John wants to learn which online channels are responsible for driving calls, from customers that visit his website.

To do this he assigns 1 tracking number to every source.

• Direct – XXXXXX1
• Organic – XXXXXX2
• PPC – XXXXXX3
• Newsletters – XXXXXX4
• Social Media – XXXXXX5
• Referrers – XXXXXX6

With Dynamic number swapping, visitors see a different number depending on which channel or campaign drove the lead, and John gets a detailed breakdown per source

4. Visitor Tracking – Number pools

The most advanced level of call tracking is combining the visitor journey with the call. Nimbata’s DNI script combined with number pools, allows you to track calls back to visit details such as the page the visitor called from, UTM sources, campaigns, keywords and click IDs. This method should be used if you wish to setup conversion tracking in your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads or Facebook business manager accounts.

Single pool for all visitors

All(or remaining) Digital.

You can use a single pool of tracking numbers which will show to any visitor that lands on your website. Nimbata will then attribute the call back to the source/medium/channel that drove it and capture session level information for that call.

**Example: **

Mary wants to track all calls that originate from her client's website and have a breakdown by source, plus the ability to send calls back to Google Ads and Facebook as conversions. To do this Mary creates a single pool of numbers with source = All(or remaining) Digital. Nimbata will then attribute each call to the source/medium/campaign that drove it.

Multiple pools per marketing channels

Google Ads, Organic, Social Media, Microsoft Ads, etc.

Sometimes you wish to get visitor level insights – only for a specific group of visitors (e.g. track calls only from visitors who have clicked on one of your Google Ads). Nimbata allows you to create a pool of numbers only for the specific channel, so all other visitors will continue to see your regular phone number, and only visits from Google Ads will see a number from the pool.

You can even add more than one pool of numbers for any sources you wish to get visitor level insights.

**Example: **

Mary wants to send calls back to Google Ads and Facebook as conversions. To do this Mary creates a pool of numbers for Google Ads and a pool of numbers for Facebook. Nimbata will show tracking numbers only to visitors from these two sources and send calls as conversions back to Mary’s Google Ads and Facebook accounts.

To calculate the optimal amount of numbers to add to your pool see this guide: https://help.nimbata.com/en/article/estimating-the-pool-of-numbers-for-keyword-level-tracking-k4cca9/

Updated on: 24/07/2024