Google has had a feature in its AdWords ads for about two years now called, “click to call”. You can learn more about it here: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/01/introducing-click-to-call-phone-numbers.html. This is a feature whereby mobile viewers of your ad could click a link an immediately be connected to your business via an intermediary number. As a business, you pay per call placed. There’s a number of metrics Google uses to help you measure the effectiveness of your investment in this technology which you need to pay close attention to.

More recently, Google is rolling out “call extensions”. These are somewhat similar, but instead of clicking on a phone number, you actually dial an intermediary phone number that Google displays in your ad. The user is then connected to your business. Businesses bid on these ads similar to other ad types. Read more here:  http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173346.

Before you jump into this technology, you need to understand how you will be able to measure the calls and report on the performance of the leads.

1. I suggest making sure the phone number you use is unique to this and only this medium. This way you know all inbound calls are related to the campaign.
2. Ensure that your sales team denotes that the lead originated from the call extension campaign when they create the lead in whatever CRM or lead management system you are leveraging.
3. Not all calls will result in leads. You can reduce the number of “dead” calls through solid ad copy and making sure that when current customers search for you they can find you organically. Since not all calls turn into leads, you’ll need to calculate your CPL and compare this to other channels for bench-marking.
4. Once you have tracking in place, you will want to measure sales metrics such as sales volume, closing time, sales amount, etc. These metrics will ultimately tell you if your investment is paying off.
5. Finally, make sure you allow enough time to measure your campaign’s performance. If you sales cycle is typically 90 days, you don’t need to run your campaign for 90 days, but you need to allow for 90 days to reach your “final” conclusions as to whether this medium is right for you.