iNet Media is a digital marketing agency primarily focused on improving online presence for their clients and marketing them online. Most of their client base are small to medium businesses that depend on phone calls, and iNet has always understood the need for call tracking as a means to proving ROI to those clients.
Problem
The agency first implemented call tracking through Marchex, but after using the system for nearly two years their marketing needs weren’t being accomplished and iNet ran into multiple technical issues that got in the way of efficiently running their call tracking campaigns.
“Marchex did a lot of what we wanted it to do at first, but we were getting frustrated about how cumbersome the platform was and how dated it felt, then we started running into technical issues,” said Julian Winfield, Managing Partner at iNet.
Issues iNet Media ran into while running campaigns through Marchex included siloed reporting data, a two-day call tracking campaign set up period, and the inability to track calls from mobile searches.
“The offering wasn’t mobile friendly, which seems daft, we had to keep having to use their proxy service, and since we report through Agency Analytics, we had to run two separate reports, one for calls, and another for Google Ads (formerly AdWords), SEO, and Social Media.We wanted to pull all of that data into one central report,” Julian continued.
Solution
After speaking with Agency Analytics about their call tracking platform of choice, iNet Media decided to switch to CallRail.
“We did some research and sat on a call with CallRail and saw how easy it was. The difference was quite dramatic. It wasn’t just a slight improvement, it was a major improvement to what we had. The interface and the usability were far superior. It was a no-brainer to move to CallRail,” said Julian.
Results
Streamlined Setup
The major advantage of switching systems for iNet has been the quick and easy setup. They’re now able to set up in just 60 seconds, a 99% decrease in the time it took them to set up campaigns through Marchex.
“The key thing is time. Instead of taking 24 hours to set up a campaign we have a campaign set up in less than 60 seconds. This morning, for example, I had a campaign I have to make live, and the client just got back on whether they want a local or toll-free phone number. I go into CallRail and I choose the option to use the number online, I say I want to track a campaign, choose my number and I’m done. There’s no longer the issue of having to ask, ‘have we ordered the numbers.’ With Marchex, it was 24 to 48 hours to just order a number, and if you want to order in advance you have to order a batch and pay for them when you don’t need them and go through the whole process. CallRail has a ready selection of toll-free or local numbers to choose from, you then select the numbers quickly and you’re done.” said Julian.
Focused Spend on What’s Working
The agency has also seen a boost in client spend and retention now that they can easily prove what drives calls with CallRail. In one instance, a client was spending $2,000 a month on a campaign but after implementing CallRail the client is now spending $8,000 on that same campaign, an increased spend of 300%.
Mobile Search Attribution
One of the biggest issues iNet ran into with Marchex was the inability to track calls from mobile search, a huge attribution gap considering the rise calls driven from mobile.
“Marchex wasn’t doing number swapping for mobile search, and since 60% of traffic comes from mobile that was an issue,” said Julian.
iNet started running their mobile campaigns with CallRail, and noticed that along with mobile attribution they were also able to get more data behind customer interactions with their site.
“CallRail also keeps cookied customer information during the buying cycle for longer than Marchex. With Marchex you can view the data for up to 48 hours, with CallRail we can track leads coming from advertising and view all of their interactions for up to a year. But with Marchex, even three days later we weren’t able to view the interactions,” said Julian.
The agency is happy with the results they are receiving with CallRail, and so are their clients.
“Let’s say it’s a business that relies on calls like an auto glass company relies on the phone ringing to run business. We get that phone ringing and we tell them how many calls we generate as well. They can listen in, they can see the value in that ad spend. When they see that they know it’s working, they are a customer for life. That’s why it’s so important.
To learn more about how to track calls and how this can improve your business, request your free CallRail demo.
