by Cindy Li, Marketing Specialist & Content Writer
January 15, 2021 17:08
Static vs Dynamic Call Tracking Numbers: What’s the Difference?

What is Call Tracking?

Call tracking allows marketers to track calls using a dedicated number to determine the source and outcome of each cal. Picture one number placed on a newspaper ad, another on a social media advertisement, and a last number displayed on a television ad. Each of these unique static phone numbers provides simple insight to the source of their resulting calls. Routing calls through a digital phone network such as Retreaver allows marketers the ability to utilize dynamic phone numbers to take their analytics and segmentation to an entirely new level.

What are Static Phone Numbers?

A static phone number is a single number that is hard-coded on your page, it does not change under any circumstance on your page which is why it is considered "static". The downside to using a static number on your webpage is that you have limited metrics that you can infer from leads calling that number on the page, it makes scaling your campaigns more difficult especially if you intend to break-down your generated calls beyond a single source, page or ad.

If you have a landing page with one static number displayed, you would have to clone that particular landing page for every source that sends traffic to your page. This will force you to create dozens of identical web pages just to support various numbers that point to a particular source, one to indicate a call came from Google, Facebook or any other sources.

What are Dynamic Phone Numbers?

A dynamic phone number is displayed programmatically on a website or landing page and changes depending on the data associated with the caller’s context and journey. For instance - If a user finds your landing page via organic search, they will see Phone Number A; Otherwise if they click through an ad to the same landing page, they will see phone number B. The process of substituting numbers automatically on web pages is called Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI).

Dynamic Number Behavior
The caller will be presented with a unique tracking number depending on the context and source of a potential call, this dynamic behavior allows for better targeted call analytics.



Benefits of Call Tracking Using Dynamic Phone Numbers

Attribution and Tracking

Ads and emails deliver great conversion data when prospects click through and are taken to a landing page, but you lose that visibility when they call a static phone number listed on that page.

Dynamic phone numbers enable the same website or landing page to be used for different ads without sacrificing the metrics you get with a campaign-specific phone number. This is perfect for campaigns that need to be tracked separately but have the same messaging.

DNI is also capable of tracking custom attributes to describe the caller journey and even build a caller profile before the call is processed through a call center. Your dynamic phone numbers can automatically fetch page data, profile data or URL parameters and append it to any resulting calls. This data can then be used to influence routing decisions, inform agents of critical caller information, or trigger follow-up actions at the end of a call.

Localization

Local numbers help businesses with a local presence be more attractive to certain customers. It is why many businesses list multiple local numbers on their contact page. When the number of business locations increases, it becomes harder for visitors to know which number they should call in order to be connected to a local department.

Dynamic phone numbers automatically present phone numbers aligned to a prospect’s context. DNI can automatically present the local number aligned to the prospect’s geographical area or desired service. It’s more efficient and scalable than juggling dozens of phone numbers and landing pages. Any resulting calls will then be broken-down by geographical area or desired service and routed according to the callers context using Retreaver's routing system.

Number Recycling

One other little-known benefit of using dynamic phone numbers is that it helps marketers manage and recycle unused phone numbers to lower costs. Marketers using call tracking software to generate campaign-specific phone numbers tend to get carried away and create more numbers than required or they create a large volume of numbers for every potential source or advertisement, only to use them once and forget about them.

Retreaver's call tracking platform allows marketers to recycle available numbers and reintroduce them into new campaigns, lowering monthly number leasing costs. This saves them from buying new numbers and helps keep their inventory of phone numbers more manageable.


Interested in setting up dynamic tracking numbers on your page?

View our Dynamic Number Insertion Guide and start taking advantage of dynamic numbers on your webpages today!


Looking to implement Dynamic Number Insertion on your web assets?

Contact Retreaver for an online demonstration, We will provide you with all the resources you need to optimize your advertising outreach, maximize sales results and deliver excellent customer service.


Start Tracking With Retreaver Today.