The bad news: Your business may be missing calls, and losing revenue because of it. An estimated 25% of searches take place on mobile devices and that number is rising. The good news: There’s an easy solution for the bad news. Enter: Mobile click-to-call. This technology provides visitors with a way to call your company by “clicking” a button on their mobile devices. While click-to-call can’t provide you with the full picture, because it’s limited to mobile calls only, it does allow you to glean valuable insights into visitor behavior, should you choose to implement tracking initiatives. This small addition to your site can offer a big impact on usability and lead generation.

Let’s dive right in.

What is It?

Click-to-call is a useful and user friendly call-to-action that allows visitors to easily call your company from their mobile devices with the tap of a button.

Why is it important?

There are benefits for both the site owners and the visitors: For business owners, click-to-call links can ultimately lead to faster conversions, and it’s important for site visitors, because they can get better usability out of the experience. Click-to-call eliminates a step the visitor has to take and gives them an instant way to get in touch with your business.

Furthermore, in addition to being a best practice, not having a click-to-call button can actually negatively impact (opens in new window) your businesses perception to the consumer due to a perceived lack of trust. Giving your customers a quick and easy way to connect with another human is crucial to earning their trust. In fact, 36% of consumers reported that they are likely to pursue other brands if your company doesn’t have this technology in place. So what are you waiting for? We’ll show you what you need to do to make this happen!

Implementation

The process can be as basic as implementing the required code into your website, but to take full advantage of the data, we recommend following all the steps outlined below:

Step 1: Ensure that you are using Universal Analytics (opens in new window). Some companies may still be using Classic Google Analytics, in which case they’ll need to upgrade to universal analytics in order for the functionality to work.

Step 2: Implement the code into the back end of the site where any instance exists. Here’s what the basic code looks like, but we’re not ready to add it in just yet:

+1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx

Now that we know the parameters of what the phone number code will look like, we have to set up a way to track interactions. Within Google Analytics, you will need to set up event tracking. The final code that you will need to implement on your website will look like this:

<a href=”tel:1xxxxxxxxxx” onClick=”ga(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘mobile’, ‘click to call’, ‘xxx-xxx-xxxx’);”>1 (xxx) xxx-xxxx</a>

Note: We recommend including the full international dialing code with the number – this ensures that the call will be successfully placed regardless of where the site visitor is calling from.

And voila, you now have click-to-call setup!

However, you don’t have to stop there.

Step 3: You can setup a custom report that will make it easier for your company to distinguish valuable information, such as: Traffic Source, City and Region, just to name a few–by clicking one button within the dashboard, instead of having to search various metrics within analytics.

Are your calls coming from organic search, direct traffic, or referrals? By creating this custom report, you’ll be able to tell in a snap!

To create a custom report, you’ll need to do the following within the Analytics dashboard:

Click on the customization navigation option

New Custom Report

Give the report a title–”Call Conversions” and a name, “Click to Call”

Under “Type”, select “Flat Table”

Add your desired dimensions

If other events are currently taking place, you’ll need to exclude current events from this custom report using the filter option.

Click Save

That’s one small change for your website, one giant impact on usability and lead generation. Adding click-to-call technology is a no-brainer – allowing mobile users to forgo the pen and paper and instantly connect with your company. From a data tracking standpoint, click-to-call can help you leverage powerful data about where your leads are coming from.

If your company needs assistance implementing this technology, contact us today!