Thank you for the well thought out reply. Your comments regarding clickable numbers on mobile phones will make for some interesting discussions around the water cooler on Monday morning

I guess when it all comes down to it, you have to question the method in which Toll Free Numbers are being utilized to track conversions. When I say ClickPath is the “only” technology that will allow a company to track offline conversions down to the keyword level I am referring to the patent pending aspect of ClickPath’s technology - Dynamic Number Insertion. This is an intuitive algorithm that takes various things into account such as clicktrough rate and call volume to allow the departure from a 1:1 TFN to keyword ratio, and yet still allow individual keyword tracking.

There are some other solutioins out threre which are claiming to track down to the keyword level (including pay per call companies). But since it is uneconomical to have a 1:1 TFN to keyword ratio when tracking 60,000 keywords they track specific keywords that they have predetermined will be big performers and for the rest of the conversions, they track down to an adgroup. They pick what they think will be your highest performing keywords and assign those each a TFN and then create groups of 100 or so keywords and track each group. If you goal is to refine your PPC spend by eliminating garbage and discovering value keywords, this method isn’t going to work.

But to address the original topic of this tread - measuring absolute conversion down to the keyword level where it can actually begin to show you true ROI is a truly rewarding service to provide to anyone. ClickPath helps do this for companies which have a significant portion of phone driven business.

I’d say mobile applications with clickable phone numbers in Treos and iPhones are pretty cool. Mobile app pages show up just fine in analytics and close the loop on conversion tracking perfectly well. In Spain over 25% of cell users utilize their mobile phone for search. While in the USA it’s only 19% that number is going to rise in a huge way.

Pay per call, while it has not grown as quickly as expected, has a cool conversion measuring component. Let’s not forget that some online products (even some that are “high consideration” :)) do not have any phone component whatsoever.

For non mobile calls there are “physical world” ways to track the effectiveness of non-clickable phone calls from an ads- like special verbiage, SMS “coupons” to show the store clerk for a discount, unique items for sale net-only, and of course your company’s convergence tracking product (blocks of dynamic phone numbers served in ads and integrated into your proprietary analytics)- It’s all good.

However, in the foreseeable future, more and more phones (even land lines and VOIP) will become clickable making it easier and easier for guys like me to track physical-phone conversion in whatever analytics environment I like. Data without my preferred cross-segmenting tool is less actionable. For instance I don’t see any tools in your analytics that rival CT’s advanced labeling feature.

Marty

ClickPath is the only technology that will allow companies to track the conversion down to the keyword level.