Understand Call Tracking

Call tracking connects inbound phone leads to the marketing source, campaign, or keyword that drove the call. Understanding your call tracking options helps you choose the right setup for your business goals and ensures accurate attribution across your marketing efforts.

Call Tracking Basics

Understanding the key terms and number types in WhatConverts helps you set up call tracking correctly and interpret your lead data accurately.

Phone Number Types

• Swap Number: The phone number displayed on your website that WhatConverts replaces with a tracking number. This is your business's original phone number that visitors would see before dynamic number insertion occurs.
• Tracking Number: A phone number purchased through WhatConverts that monitors and records calls made to it. Every call to a tracking number captures caller details, call duration, and marketing attribution data.
• Destination Number: The phone number where calls are forwarded after someone dials a tracking number. This is typically your business line where your team answers calls.

Local vs. Toll-Free Numbers

When purchasing tracking numbers, you can choose between local and toll-free options:

• Local Numbers: Phone numbers with area codes specific to a geographic region. Local numbers often increase trust and response rates from callers in that area.
• Toll-Free Numbers: Numbers that begin with prefixes like 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, or 833. The business pays for the call rather than the caller. Toll-free numbers work well for national campaigns or businesses serving multiple regions.

Tracking Methods

• Number Pools: Used for tracking calls from your website or landing pages. Number pools utilize the WhatConverts tracking script to dynamically swap numbers based on visitor source. This method automatically captures complete user attribution through first-party cookies and UTM parameters, giving you keyword-level tracking and full campaign visibility.
• Offline Sources: Phone numbers assigned to offline marketing channels like Yelp listings, mailers, billboards, or TV ads. These numbers use static attribution, meaning you manually assign specific source and campaign information that gets applied to every call. Number types for offline tracking include Static Numbers and Offline Numbers.

Call Tracking Options

There are several ways to track calls in WhatConverts, each designed for specific marketing use cases.

Keyword Level Tracking using Dynamic Number Pools (Recommended)

Keyword-level tracking uses Dynamic Number Pools (DNPs) and Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) to automatically swap the phone number displayed on your site based on each visitor's source.

Using Dynamic Number Pools gives you the most complete and actionable call tracking data. You can see the entire customer journey, from click to call, across every source, keyword, and campaign.

This allows you to identify which marketing efforts drive the most valuable calls, analyze trends, and optimize ad spend based on real lead quality, not just volume.

When you use Dynamic Number Pools, WhatConverts captures:

• Source and Medium
• Campaign, Content, and Keyword
• Lead Page and Landing Page
• User-based data (IP Address, Browser, Operating System, and Device)

Dynamic Number Pools also allow you to send call conversions back to ad platforms such as Google Ads and Bing Ads for campaign optimization.

To learn more, see:

• Set Up Tracking Numbers
• Understand Tracking Numbers
• Create a Dynamic Number Pool for All Traffic

Marketing Source Tracking with Dynamic Number Insertion

This method assigns a unique tracking number to each specific marketing source you want to measure, such as Google Organic, Facebook Ads, or Bing Ads.

When a user arrives from that source, WhatConverts swaps the number on your site with the matching tracking number using DNI.

This method is useful for tracking individual marketing channels or directing calls to different destinations based on their source.

To learn more, see:

• Create a Dynamic Number Pool for a Specific Source & Medium
• Create a Dynamic Number Pool for Organic Traffic
• Create a Dynamic Number Pool for Direct Visits
• Create a Dynamic Number Pool for Search Engines

Offline and Third-Party Site Tracking

Offline call tracking lets you assign a unique tracking number to marketing campaigns that occur outside your website. These numbers use static attribution for incoming calls and can be configured during setup.

Examples include:

• Flyers, print ads, billboards, and mailers
• Google Business Profile, Ad Extensions, or social media listings
• Partner or directory sites

Each offline number forwards calls to your destination number while recording caller details such as caller ID, call duration, and location. Optional features like Call Recording and Call Transcription provide deeper insights into lead quality and sales performance.

To learn more, see:

• Add a Phone Number to Track Offline Calls
• Add a Phone Number to Track Google Ads Extension Calls
• Add a Phone Number to Track Google Local Service Ads Calls
• Add a Phone Number to Track Google My Business Calls
• Add a Phone Number to Track Bing Ads Extension Calls
• Add a Phone Number to Track Facebook Ads Extension Calls

Related Topics

• Introduction to Lead Tracking
• Get Started: Track Phone Calls
• Dynamic Number Pool for All Traffic