Call Tracking for Print Advertising

In recent years, the majority of marketing agencies have focused their efforts on online marketing. Pioneers in this field have seen increased sales and huge reductions in scatter loss.

However, as the number of “co-players” in the digital marketing sector increases, competition for leads, placements and keywords is greater than ever before. The main battleground for early adopters now appears to be the print advertisement sector and making these offline leads, conversions and campaigns measurable.

Anyone who manages to combine traditional advertising media with the new world of digital marketing will get one step ahead of the competition.

Print advertising is a classic form of offline advertising. Flyers are printed, stickers are placed on vehicles, billboard space is reserved, adverts are shown in newspapers and magazines, and leaflets, catalogs and image brochures are produced.

Yet for many years, the main problem with this has been measuring the success of these print advertisement campaigns. Of course, there are methods such as “bounce-back”, “coupons” and “vouchers”, which are used to encourage consumers to bring the advertising material with them when they go to make a purchase. Unfortunately, this translates into action very rarely in practice. The actual response rate for these “bounce-backs” seldom has anything to do with the actual performance of a print campaign.

The use of QR codes brought the print sector a step closer towards the world of digitalization, but the number of people who actually scan QR codes is a lot lower than marketers would have hoped, unfortunately.

Alongside offline and print advertising, one would assume that this also affects the classic form of contact over the telephone. But this hasn’t been the case for quite some time now. The magic word here is call tracking. Offline media such as posters, adverts and flyers can now be measured, too, thanks to state-of-the art call tracking technology.

An example of one of the simplest uses of call tracking in print advertising:

A company is planning to appear at two trade fairs during the year. An individual call tracking telephone number is displayed across each trade fair stand (roller banners, flyers, display wall, brochures etc.). At the end of the year, the company analyzes which stand generated the most calls. Values can also be assigned to these calls by including conversion value tracking in this process, meaning they can analyze digitally which trade fair stand was “more valuable” to the company.

The owner of a is reserving some backlit poster space in his town and would like to know which of the spaces he books leads to the most appointment bookings. He books 20 locations through a backlit poster space provider and prints 20 posters. A different call tracking number is printed on each of these posters. All numbers redirect to his business number and are linked with the backlit poster campaign and respective poster (i.e. location) in the call tracking system.

At the end of the advertising period, he receives a detailed analysis of which poster (location) has generated the most calls. Call tracking technology can also assign a value to each call. This means the salon owner can analyze, for example, how many of these calls were from women or men, how many appointments were booked and how many calls turned out to be unprofitable inquiries.

This new information about the performance of individual locations means the hairdresser can focus on high-performing locations during his next backlit poster campaign. With the same investment, he can therefore keep posters in place for longer in these locations and achieve more bookings. Or he can decide to reduce his backlit poster campaign costs by keeping the posters in place for the same amount of time and achieve the same number of bookings.

A prints separate sales particulars for his most important luxury properties, or even a catalog showcasing his luxury properties. He assigns an individual call tracking phone number to each property. He forwards each of these call tracking numbers to an individual employee, e.g. an employee responsible for this location who is most familiar with the property in question. An individual “call announcement” is also assigned to each of these phone number configurations. This means a sound file is played to employees of the real estate agency before they actually speak to the caller (e.g. The following caller is interested in the property located at 33 Sample Street in Sample City). This information prepares the consultant for the conversation to follow.

There is also the option at the end to analyze calls about individual properties. If sales particulars are produced containing several designs or they are distributed in different locations, then different call tracking numbers can also be used here to obtain a granular analysis of the performance of individual designs or locations.

Nice to know:

Call tracking numbers can even be used in form letters so that each individual caller can be addressed personally.

Call Tracking for print media ranges from measuring a single item of printed material, to A/B testing of two versions of an item of printed material, right up to detailed measurement of large-scale print campaigns. In addition to simply measuring the number of callers, it is also possible to record the value (actual value in euros or assignment value such as “claim”, “purchase”, “appointment booking”, “complaint”) of a call and assign this to a printed media item.