CallRail Releases Report Benchmarking Marketing

CallRailthe AI-powered lead intelligence platform, has unveiled a new report on which marketing channels are most impactful for small businesses, titled “From Conversations to Conversions: How Small Businesses Can Market Smarter.” The research, based on 1.1 million leads in key industries – including automotive, financial services, health care, home services, legal, real estate and real estate investments – provides one of the first sets of data for companies to benchmark marketing performance in their industry.

“It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by today’s marketing landscape, especially for small business owners who need to make sure their resources are going to the areas with the highest return on investment for their business”

Every small business dreams of growth, but limited budgets, resource constraints and the complexity of multiple channels make it difficult to identify marketing efforts that drive meaningful leads. By identifying which channels work best, businesses can optimize marketing spend, increase customer acquisition and fuel profitability.

“It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by today’s marketing landscape, especially for small business owners who need to make sure their resources are going toward the areas with the highest return on investment for their business,” said Laura Beussman, Senior Vice President of Marketing at CallRail. “Our findings offer actionable insights that help empower these businesses to make data-driven decisions, allowing them to fine-tune their marketing spend and strategy by identifying the highest-performing marketing channels and keywords that drive conversations and conversions by industry.”

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Key findings from the report include:

• Key channels that drive conversations: Understanding what drives the calls and text messages a business receives is crucial to making data-driven decisions about marketing spend to attract a higher volume of qualified leads that can truly drive business growth . The top three channels driving conversations remain consistent across industries and include Google Ads (37%) followed by Google My Business (23%) and organic search (22%).

• Missed calls are missed opportunities: Not answering the phone can have a major impact on a small business’s bottom line – up to 85% of customers whose calls go unanswered don’t call back. Healthcare came in as the industry with the highest missed call rate at 32% followed closely by legal (28%), home services (14%) and real estate (9%).

• Channels that drive qualified leads and sales appointments: Qualified leads are often identified by the length of the call, specific questions, or high-interest actions such as scheduling an appointment – and represent the most likely to yield conversions. The key channels that produce the highest number of qualified leads include Google Ads (47%), organic search (23%), and Google My Business (15%). Additionally, for businesses looking to convert leads into tangible sales opportunities, the primary channels include Google Ads (36%), Google My Business (32%) and organic search (18%).

• Connect keywords with customer intent: Using the right keywords ensures that your ads reach the right audience and should reflect their search behavior. While the top keywords are often industry-specific, common trends emerged including “near me” searches (such as “plumbers near me”), industry-specific searches (“personal injury attorney personal”) and niche phrases (eg “bridge financing” in financial services and “land for sale” in real estate).

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“Equipped with these insights, small businesses can unlock more growth by focusing marketing efforts on the channels they know optimize opportunities—from generating new leads to sales—while meeting the unique needs of their industry” , said Emily Popson, Vice President, Growth. Marketing at CallRail. “Now is the time to reassess marketing efforts and assess where they are falling short so you can refine your strategy. One thing is clear in the industry, the insights of conversations play an invaluable role in the success of small businesses” .

CallRail’s Call Tracking and Conversation Intelligence^® remain key to unlocking growth with actionable conversational insights, providing clarity on which channels drive the most qualified leads, appointments and sales, empowering businesses to make data-driven decisions that optimize performance.