Common marketing sources to use with call tracking

Not sure what marketing sources you can track with CallRail? In this article, we'll discuss the online and offline marketing sources you can track and the types of tracking numbers you should use with each marketing source.

Common marketing sources for visitor tracking

You should use visitor tracking with a website pool if you want to track the marketing sources driving the most calls and the path those callers took to reach your website.

Website pool configured to track all traffic (recommended)

This allows you to track all website traffic regardless of online source and report on the data within CallRail. We recommend creating a website pool and installing the tracking code on your website to enable visitor tracking on your website.

Configuring your website pool to track all traffic enables you to track these sources with a single pool of numbers on your website:

  • Google PPC and Organic
  • Bing PPC and Organic
  • Yahoo PPC and Organic
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Yelp
  • NextDoor
  • Spotify
  • DuckDuckGo
  • Pinterest
  • Direct web traffic

If we don't recognize a source from this list or find a UTM parameter to save, we'll default to a source of either "Direct" or the referrer domain if that's available.

Common marketing sources for online source tracking

A tracking number is considered online when it is used to track a specific marketing source on the Internet. Online source tracking requires the use of the tracking code and the swapping of the tracking number on a website. We recommend using a source tracking number for online sources like Google Ad Extensions, Google My Business (now called Google Business Profile), Apple Business Connect, and any other ad or listing you want to track separately from your website pool.

  • Google Ad Extension - We recommend using a source tracking number configured as a Google Ad Extension.
  • Google My Business  - We recommend using a source tracking number configured as a location extension and then configuring the Google My Business integration
  • Apple Business Connect - We recommend using a source tracking number configured to track Apple Business Connect.
  • Facebook Ads - We recommend using a source tracking number configured to track Facebook ads (e.g. utm_campaign=facebook). 
  • Social Ads and Referrals (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) - We recommend using a source tracking number configured to track a campaign. Alternatively, if you are looking to track traffic from a specific social referral, you can create a tracking number to track a web referral
  • Yelp Referral - We recommend using a source tracking number configured to track a web referral.

Common marketing sources for offline source tracking 

A tracking number is considered offline when it is directly placed on an ad, listing, or other marketing material. Offline source tracking does not require the use of the tracking code or the tracking number to be swapped on a website. Below is a list of common marketing sources that utilize offline tracking.

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