Ok marc just finished up with Black Friday events so I can answer this post in detail now.
There are lots of ways to ping back Google Analytics each time a number is called. It truth there is very little value to this as you can get the same and more data from the call tracking providers own reports, all you get in Google Analytics is a tic mark.
What Jerry is referring to is Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI). DNI provides a great deal more data about the user’s behavior but comes with some significant drawbacks.
1. All your numbers in the site will have to be readable text within the html code. This is the only way a dynamic number that is unique to each visitor can populate throughout your site, if any of your numbers are in an image or flash ect. They cannot be read and cannot be changed by the tracking cookie.
2. This requires a lot of numbers to rotate between visitors so it can get real pricey.
3. This requires code and in most cases reconstructing naming conversions on your site pages with your provider and Google Analytics. This also could get pricey assuming your website provider will even do it.
Getting the user session data is very important without that behavior you’re really not learning anything. Merging that behavior data with the call tracking demographic data can get even more revealing.
We have perfected a method of tracking calls and merging user session data without DNI so there is no code to have to install no issues with images and flash and we have merged user session data with call tracking data and even with Trade appraisal data and credit pre approval data. Then it gets really interesting.
So Marc at the end of the day if you’re just looking to track calls stay with your current provider, If you’re looking to track channels well that can be tricky but can be done it take call tracking and a landing page management platform (LPM), I don't know of any other provider other than my company that tracks online and offline conversion by channel. Finally if you are looking to deep dive into data analytics, well you are going to need all of the data in one place with the ability to drill down to the user session level, again I don't know anyone doing that level of analysis other then my company MicrositesByU, but there might be.
Marc what are you trying to accomplish?
There are lots of ways to ping back Google Analytics each time a number is called. It truth there is very little value to this as you can get the same and more data from the call tracking providers own reports, all you get in Google Analytics is a tic mark.
What Jerry is referring to is Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI). DNI provides a great deal more data about the user’s behavior but comes with some significant drawbacks.
1. All your numbers in the site will have to be readable text within the html code. This is the only way a dynamic number that is unique to each visitor can populate throughout your site, if any of your numbers are in an image or flash ect. They cannot be read and cannot be changed by the tracking cookie.
2. This requires a lot of numbers to rotate between visitors so it can get real pricey.
3. This requires code and in most cases reconstructing naming conversions on your site pages with your provider and Google Analytics. This also could get pricey assuming your website provider will even do it.
Getting the user session data is very important without that behavior you’re really not learning anything. Merging that behavior data with the call tracking demographic data can get even more revealing.
We have perfected a method of tracking calls and merging user session data without DNI so there is no code to have to install no issues with images and flash and we have merged user session data with call tracking data and even with Trade appraisal data and credit pre approval data. Then it gets really interesting.
So Marc at the end of the day if you’re just looking to track calls stay with your current provider, If you’re looking to track channels well that can be tricky but can be done it take call tracking and a landing page management platform (LPM), I don't know of any other provider other than my company that tracks online and offline conversion by channel. Finally if you are looking to deep dive into data analytics, well you are going to need all of the data in one place with the ability to drill down to the user session level, again I don't know anyone doing that level of analysis other then my company MicrositesByU, but there might be.
Marc what are you trying to accomplish?
