Website Call Conversions: Tracking Phone Calls In Google Ads

 

A big announcement came down from Google today about their new AdWords tool called Website Call Conversions.

This feature allows dentists advertising for new patients to better identify and measure calls from their website – or landing pages – that occur after an ad click.

According to Google, 70 percent of mobile searchers have called a business directly from search ads. For dentists using Adwords for new patient acquisition, Google already lets advertisers track this with AdWords click-to-call ads, call metrics, and calls as conversions.

But today’s release is specifically for those calls that occur AFTER the user (potential new patient) has moved on to navigating the dental practice website…or landing page.

 

Google Adwords for Dentists Desktop Landing Page

Desktop Landing Page Example

 

Before today, it was necessary to employ 3rd party call tracking to count the calls originating after the ad click (and still is…given some key differences we’ll discuss down the page).

 

Adwords Clicks That Lead to New Patient Calls

 

Here’s how Google lays it out for dentists to play it out…

Let’s say your Google search ads send people to your website (or landing pages) where they research and learn more about your practice.

Of course, the way we do it any person seeing and clicking on your ad would also be able to call your practice directly with that first click – depending if they are on a mobile device or not – instead of visiting your website (or landing pages).

But everyone loves choices, right?

You see, before the major new release there was some gray area in the Google Adwords call tracking realm.

If people didn’t click on the call button (phone icon on mobile preferred ads), or dial the custom Google forwarding number (on desktop ads for example), but rather chose to click the headline (without limiting people to call as the only option), they would then be routed to the practice website or landing pages to do some further sniffing around about the dentist in question.

The problem was if they did that (moved on to your website/landing pages BEFORE calling your office), which obviously a lot of people do – especially with healthcare – then made a call to the office, it was not tracked unless a 3rd party tool was in place to capture that contingency.

If not, the Google forwarding number was useless – because it’s only attached to the ad click and/or the dialed call conversion.

Now, with Website call conversions Google dynamically inserts a Google forwarding number on your website (or landing pages) that measures the calls made by these prospective new patients – the ones that didn’t call immediately, but rather browsed your website or landing pages first.

Whether they click on the number or dial it directly from their phone, dentists can now attribute the call conversion and conversion value back to the ad campaign (even the specific keyword) that drove the new patient to call the practice.

If you’re of the DIY digital dental marketing sort, you can learn more about setting up website call conversions here.

If you’d rather do the drilling while someone else does the appointment book filling, check out how Social Dental Network gets your phone ringing and your door swinging with new patient appointment requests by clicking this link.

 

If Google Does It, Why Use 3rd Party Tools?

 

Yes, this Google Adwords website call conversions feature equals another significant value added attribute to new dental patient acquisition via paid search but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to dig deeper.

My guess is for a lot of dentists out there, tracking new patients falls on the front desk….and it stays there and wiggles if poked or prodded.

From my experience the methods in place and the diligence with which those methods are undertaken are sorely lacking.

For example, asking a patient “how did you hear about us” is great – but don’t just take that pat answer “On Google” as proof of anything. Dig deeper, and use data to back up the answers with proof.

Without getting into the weeds about online vs. offline conversions and first click over last click attribution, 3rd party call tracking tools can still be useful in identifying and quantifying positive ROI for any digital dental marketing campaign.

Here are 4 reasons why 3rd party call tracking is still better than Google website call conversions:

  1. Call recording
  2. Lead scoring
  3. Conversation analytics
  4. Local numbers

Google can quantify the amount of calls received post-click from your website or landing pages, but they don’t currently offer the call recording, lead scoring, or conversion analytics options. Conversion analytics is basically just marketingspeak for call handling.

Call handling is another sorely under-trained and mismanaged – but integral – part of the scheduling coordinator or front desk person’s job.

But that’s a topic for another post, for this one we’ll just stick to highlighting the Google Adwords website call conversions tracking news.

Lastly, with what might be one of the most important differentiators in the call tracking vs. website call conversion equation, all Google forwarding numbers are toll-free – they do not offer the use of local numbers.

That could make a big difference in the new patient tally, as it’s generally thought that local numbers get more clicks and calls than 800 numbers.

 

Google Adwords New Patient Call Tracking Comes Standard With Social Dental Network

 

In this digital age, any dentist not effectively employing or at least experimenting with paid search (Google Adwords, Bing/Yahoo Ads…etc.) is missing out on potential new patient calls every single day.

By the same token, any digital dental marketer worth their salt should be using some type of call tracking to define success – in our case we use both Google forwarding numbers, unique local call tracking numbers, and 3rd party tools for our new dental patient acquisition campaigns.

So again, we totally understand if all of this digital dental marketing mumbo-jumbo would rather have you pulling teeth.

If you’d rather do the drilling while someone else does the appointment book filling, check out how Social Dental Network gets your phone ringing and your door swinging with new patient appointment requests by clicking this link – or the image below.

 

Get MORE New Patients With Social Dental Network

 

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