What Is a Tracking Phone Number & Why Should Real Estate Investors Use One?

Which of your marketing channels are delivering strong leads at low cost? Which are costing you money and time but failing to deliver results?

It’s not always easy to measure the return on investment (ROI) for your marketing channels. Enter: tracking numbers.

What Is a Tracking Number?

A tracking phone number is a unique phone number used for only one marketing channel. It helps you know exactly where every single lead came from. 

For example, say you run direct mail campaigns to different lists of prospective sellers. You send mailers to one list of properties in probate, and another list of properties you found by driving for dollars. 

To track which of your two lists deliver more (and better quality) leads, you provide one phone number in mailings to one list and a different phone number in the other. When leads call in, a real estate CRM software platform like REsimpli can automatically tag the leads as coming from a specific list based on the phone number they called. 

You can similarly use different tracking numbers for different methods of outreach. For instance, you give out one tracking number for phone dialer campaigns, another for ringless voicemail, another for direct mail campaigns, and so forth. 

Calculating ROI on Marketing Campaigns

When you can automatically track where each lead came from, you can easily assess how each marketing campaign is performing. 

Take the example above, with your probate leads list and your driving for dollars list. On REsimpli’s dashboard, you see that you spent $1,000 on each campaign, having sent out a thousand mailings at $1 apiece. (I’m making up numbers to keep it simple, so don’t take the actual numbers too literally!)

In the probate campaign, you see that 20 calls came in, you scheduled 14 appointments, made 10 offers, and closed on two properties, earning $10,000 real estate wholesaling fee for each. Your total revenue was $20,000, at a marketing cost of $1,000. 

In the driving for dollars campaign, 12 calls came in, you scheduled eight appointments, made five offers, and closed on one property. You earned $10,000 in revenue, at a marketing cost of $1,000. 

You earned 20 times your marketing costs for the probate campaign, and 10 times your costs on the driving for dollars campaign. So the following month, you double your probate campaign mailings, and perhaps leave your driving for dollars campaign as-is to gather more data. Perhaps the last month was a fluke, or perhaps your marketing ROI really is that outstanding. 

The bottom line? You can scale up or down different marketing campaigns with surgical accuracy when you know the exact ROI of each. 

How to Set Up Tracking Numbers

Plenty of online platforms offer unique phone numbers that you can then forward to the (real) phone number of your choice. Google Voice is a free option, for example.

If you want to integrate different tracking phone numbers directly in your real estate CRM, REsimpli offers built-in tracking numbers. You can select any area code you like to keep the phone number local for your leads. 

Once created, you can forward calls, text messages, and voicemails to any number you like.

Tracking lead sources lets you take full advantage of list stacking and multiple drip campaigns. Once you know how much you earn for every dollar you spend on a marketing channel, you know exactly where to invest more to scale your business. 

If you can earn $1.50 for every $1 you spend on a marketing channel, how much should you spend on it? As much as you can afford — as long as the ROI holds steady.