Customers use mobile devices to conduct a large volume of research when looking for products and services, and an increasing number of consumers are going “old school” by using click-to-call and other Pay Per Call features to make direct contact with a business. For all the marketers focusing intensely on mobile advertising and marketing, it is important to also recognize the importance of a phone call in the overall customer journey.
Why Customers Call
There are a number of factors that push a customer to actually call a business rather than make an online purchase or fill out a lead form. The most common reason for customers to call is assistance. An overwhelming number of consumers, 75%, say they love to call a business when they need a rapid response to a problem or other question. The other reasons are a desire to purchase (61% of consumers) and continuing their mobile research with direct communication (51%).
Power of the Call
Measuring the effectiveness of marketing and advertising efforts will always come down to conversion rates. What marketing channels and ad tools are actually generating leads that result in revenue? The answer is, without question, phone calls. While clicks on online banner ads result in 2% conversion rates, phone calls boast conversion rates that average between 30 and 50%.
Read More: Why Inbound Customer Calls are Important for Your SMB
Mobile Drives the Calls
Pay Per Call ads aren’t limited to smartphone devices. Modern consumers research companies and brands across multiple devices, from smartphones and tablets to desktops. For all of the effort put into advertising, it is the mobile device that is generated the greatest percentage of overall phone calls placed to businesses.
Read More: Mobile Marketing Drives Pay Per Call
Offline directories, email, and newspaper ads generated a combined total of 7% of all phone calls, while mobile display, desktop search, and desktop display ads contribute to 8%, 9%, and 11% of phone calls, respectively. However, mobile search platforms generate a staggering 45% of all phone calls.
The reason behind this is simple. When consumers are conducting research on a mobile device, it is easy to use click-to-call features in a Pay Per Call campaign and make a quick, direct connection to the business.
All factors in the customer journey from research to purchase are important, and this post isn’t meant to downgrade the value of other factors. However, it is important to understand the massive role of phone calls in the customer journey. Mobile search generates the highest volume of phone calls, and helps your business boost conversion rates with high quality leads.