Ifbyphone mashes up with Google Analytics

Essentially, the solution “uses Google Analytics as part of call reporting system,” he said. Technically, the first step is “to make each [inbound] call into a page view. The second step is [to cross reference] it with five or six other variables that Google provides, like campaign, media and source” to provide more fodder for analysis.

For marketers, all they need is to input their Google Analytics ID into the Ifbyphone platform, and the link between the two worlds are established, Shapiro said.

An early user of the system is Closed Loop Marketing, a search engine optimization and conversion company. By tying the phone and Web, “advertisers with multiple sales channels will finally be able to judge the true performance of their campaigns at a very detailed level,” said Closed Loop CEO Lance Loveday.

Ifbyphone engineers linked the two systems via published APIs; the two companies do not have a partnership relationship, though they are talking, Shapiro said. Ifbyphone has also linked its system with one other Web analytics platform, which he declined to name.

While companies can obviously get call-detail data from their traditional providers, as well as multiple phone numbers for different campaigns, the big difference is the real-time feed of information in a form that can be easily mashed up with Google Analytics’ Web data, Shapiro said.

“What’s so different about online media is that you can go in, watch a campaign’s results day to day, and adjust your Web site to better capitalize on the trends you see,” he said. “Now you can have the same concept with the telephone.”