Call tracking
Call tracking shows which advertising channel a phone call to the clinic came from. Each source gets its own number, and calls are automatically attributed to the right channel.
≈ call-tracking · tracking numbers · dynamic number insertion · call attribution
Many patients would rather phone than fill in a form on the website. Without call tracking, those calls belong to nobody as far as marketing is concerned: the phone rings, but you cannot tell which advert prompted it. Call tracking gives each source its own number — the website, Google, Facebook, billboards — and logs which number was dialled. On the website, the number can switch automatically depending on where the visitor came from.
What it shows the clinic
- how many calls each channel brought and how many ended in a booking;
- patient acquisition cost per channel rather than a clinic-wide average;
- missed calls broken down by source, and the hours when most of them happen;
- combined with call recording, which channels bring people with a real need and which bring only casual questions.
The basic calculation: spend on a channel divided by the number of patients from that channel who actually came in. A call on its own is not yet a result.
Common mistakes and what to do
- Calls are not linked to bookings and payments. The caller's number should land in the CRM; otherwise you only see call volume.
- New and existing patients are mixed together. A regular patient who found the number in an advert makes the channel look better than it is.
- Calls come in, but nobody answers. If call tracking shows lots of missed calls, the problem is not the advertising, it is the front desk.
- Only the website is tracked. Calls from the sign outside, leaflets and business cards can have their own numbers too.
Before adding ad budget, make sure the front desk can handle the calls that already come in. You can estimate what missed enquiries cost in the loss calculator.