Digital Marketing Agency Increases Client Retention Rate by 20% with Call Analytics

Adster Creative, a digital marketing agency located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, specializes in SEO, Google Ads (formerly AdWords) management, and website optimization strategies for local service-based businesses. While many agencies were slow to adopt call analytics, implementation was an easy decision for Adster, since many of their clients rely on phone calls as their main driver of revenue. They initially attempted to create their own call tracking tool, but were limited by the amount of data they were able to pull.

“We knew we needed call tracking because of our client base. Ultimately, they measure their ROI via phone calls. That’s how they are running their businesses, and we couldn’t gain visibility into those calls by using tools like Google Analytics,” said David Forster, President of Adster Creative.

Many of the businesses who work with Adster know that phone calls are their most qualified source of inbound leads, but in order to optimize and improve upon the amount and type of calls they were receiving, they needed  to qualify and quantify those leads by understanding which marketing channels were driving them.

“CallRail enables us to provide that much more value. Not only can we quantify leads and show clients how much their calls are costing, features like call recording allows us to  listen to calls for lead qualification and coach our clients on how to convert those leads into customers,” said Forster.

After noticing the shift towards mobile marketing, Adster started using CallRail call extension phone numbers in their Google Ads click-to-call campaigns for data accuracy and lead qualification.

“A click is one thing, but an actual call is a separate conversion that you can’t track through Ads alone. Not only that, but an actual sale is another thing altogether. Even if an ad drives a click, and ultimately a call, if that lead isn’t handled correctly over the phone it won’t become a sale,” said Forster.

Using CallRail, Adster can listen to calls to understand how leads are handled and track calls back to the landing page or keyword that drove them. They also use CallRail for data accuracy, proving whether or not their ad campaigns are actually driving calls and not just clicks.

“Sometimes the calls we see in CallRail aren’t matching the amount of clicks we’re seeing in Google Ads. CallRail allows us to distinguish between clicks and calls, allowing us to prove or disprove the effectiveness of call only ads,” said Forster.

CallRail shows Adster exactly how many calls they receive, even if Google Ads or other reporting tools showed different measurements of clicks and calls, they knew the calls they viewed in CallRail’s dashboard were accurate.

Client and Agency Accountability

One of the positive side effects of call analytics for Adster was transparency in their client agency relationships. It enables them to have frank and honest conversations with their clients about what leads they were driving for them, and if those leads were being handled appropriately by their clients.

“Call tracking gives us insight into how many leads are actually being followed up on and handled properly. We can prove that our marketing is driving leads – and we can also prove if they aren’t handing the leads we were sending them correctly, ” said Forster.

CallRail also gave them confidence when showing their clients which strategies they should implement into their marketing campaigns, and which ones they should leave behind.

“Even with offline call tracking, we’re able to show our clients what ads are driving the most calls. When we use keyword level call tracking we can show them the exact keyword that’s driving conversions. It gives us factual data to run our campaigns and show our clients real results,” said Forster.

Simple Approachable Reporting

Initially, Adster was using multiple tools to run marketing initiatives for their clients, but siloed data resulted in disjointed reporting that didn’t show their clients the full picture behind how their campaigns were working.

CallRail gave them the ability to view call data, but their other reports were housed in spreadsheets, Google Ads, MailChimp, etc. Adster wanted the ability to aggregate all of this information in an efficient way that would make it easy to report data to their clients.

“CallRail’s API access allows us to pull the data we need to integrate into our customer reporting tools. Our clients like knowing what calls come from existing customers versus new customers and because it’s easy to show them that information, we created a dashboard for them,” said Forster.

Adster Creative developed SuperDash, a custom dashboard allowing them to aggregate all of their data points into one place. SuperDash shows a comprehensive picture of how many leads clients are receiving, and which channels they are receiving them from. They no longer have to manually report on items or put them together by hand. CallRail enabled them to focus more of their time on client and campaign management instead of campaign reporting.

“Our clients love the simple reporting. It’s approachable for everyone, plus it changes the conversations that we’re having with our clients. Every lead, every call, all of the data  is in one area,” said Forster.

With SuperDash, it’s easy for Adster to answer questions for clients– answers that mean something to small businesses that rely on calls. They can show what marketing channel generates a call, what it cost to generate a lead, and the real cost behind making the phone ring.

“SuperDash with CallRail call analytics allows us to speak to our small business owners in a language they understand. Not bounce rates or other KPIs that don’t mean much to them, but what it really cost to make the phone ring.”text in bold

An Unexpected Result: Client Retention

Because Adster can prove actual ROI with their client reporting, they’ve seen an unexpected rise in client retention. This is most likely due to the efficacy of SuperDash, as well as the client’s dependence on visual, easy to understand evidence of how their marketing is working.

“Client reporting with CallRail’s API, puts us in a much more powerful and confident position, enabling us to demonstrate the value we provide. With real numbers and real data you can’t hide behind marketing fluff,” said Forster.

Since utilizing CallRail’s call analytics within their customizable dashboard,  SuperDash, Adster has seen their client retention rate increase by 20%.  

“When it comes to the types of customers we have, small service businesses, CallRail allows us to give them the information they need. Easy customizable call reporting. It doesn’t get better than that.”