Report: Calls Have 30 To 50 Percent Conversion Rates, Most Come From Mobile

A call is, generally speaking, a better lead than a click. But how much better is striking: calls have 30 to 50 percent conversion rates while clicks top out at 1 to 2 percent. That’s according to a new Call Intelligence Index report from Invoca.

The data in the report represent “more than 32 million phone calls placed to businesses across 40 industries in 2014.” The analysis determined that mobile marketing (search, display, etc.) was responsible roughly 54 percent of all calls to businesses. And 45 percent of calls to businesses came as a result of a mobile search.

Beyond this the overwhelming majority of business calls (75 percent) come from mobile phones.

 Source: Invoca

Above is the breakdown of marketing-based call sources according to Invoca’s data.

Invoca explained that call durations on average were “16 times longer than a website interaction.” Tuesday, Monday and Wednesday saw the highest volume of calls during the week, in that order. As the chart below also shows, calls from landlines are an increasingly small part of the pie.

 Source: Invoca

The report broke down the top 10 marketing channels driving phone leads. As indicated below, mobile search is driving much higher call volumes than PC search. This either indicates the much more immediate need of mobile callers or, conversely, the frustrations and challenges of getting needed information from mobile websites — so people just call.

Another interesting finding is that PC display advertising generated more calls than desktop search results.

 Source: Invoca

As a counterpoint to some of the above findings, an earlier Marchex report affirms the value and importance of calls but argues that only a minority of calls are new “good leads.” Nonetheless, marketers (especially mobile marketers) must recognize, plan and optimize around driving phone calls from digital ads especially in a mobile context.

There’s a great deal more information, including vertical and industry specific data and trends, available in the Invoca report (reg. req’d).

About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.