In this article, we will answer the main questions of users just learning to analyze calls in the Google Analytics interface.
Session
A session is a period during which a user interacts with the site or app.
A single user can open multiple sessions. Those sessions can occur on the same day or over several days, weeks, or months. Once one session ends, there is an opportunity to start a new session.
There are two cases when a session ends:
Time-based expiration:
after 30 minutes of inactivity;
at midnight;
Campaign change:
if a user arrives via one campaign, leaves, and then comes back via a different campaign.
Pay attention!
Direct traffic source never overrides data of such traffic sources as organic, referral or paid ads.
Direct traffic that interacts with your content within the 30-minute session window has the same effect as leaving your website for less than 30 minutes. The existing session opens and continues from where it's left off.
Events
While the client is on your site, he interacts with its content and generates events.
Ringostat sends each visitor's call (self-dialled or through the Callback form) to your Google Analytics as an event.
Go to Behavior → Events —> Top events to view this report.
What is the "Event Category"?
The event category in the GA report corresponds to the call status in the Ringostat call log:
ANSWERED — a non-target answered call
NO+ANSWER (NO ANSWER) — a missed call
FAILED — a call failed when the call forwarding number was not connected correctly (there might be some mistake in number/sip-account authorization configurations)
BUSY — a call was missed when all locations in a call routing scheme were busy
REPEATED — the call was repeated after the first target one within the sale cycle
PROPER — a target call, which is defined (calculated) depending on the configurations of a target call length and a sale cycle settings
NO-FORWARD — a call which was missed because the call forwarding scheme didn't work or a number the call was made to wasn't set to the call routing scheme
VOICEMAIL — a call that was redirected to the voicemail
WRONG+EXTENSION — a call from the visitors who input a wrong extension number after the last try and wasn't redirected to a reserve call routing scheme (only for IVR schemes)
NO+EXTENSION — a call from the caller who didn't enter an extension number and wasn't redirected to a reserve call routing scheme (only for IVR schemes)
CLIENT+NO+ANSWER (Callback) — a call from a visitor who sent a request for the callback but didn't answer the callback
FAILED+FORBIDDEN+DESTINATION (for outbound and Callback calls) — an outgoing or a Callback call which was made/requested to a blocked destination (for example, the project allows calls only to the USA, and the call was made to Ukraine)
Total events or Unique events?
Earlier, we figured out that all events and goals in GA are considered within the user session on the site. We also know that Ringostat defines each user's call from the site or a call from the Callback widget as separate events.
Therefore, the user can create several events during one session by calling twice or more. In the column "Total events", you can see two or more events from the same user.
But are all these events unique?
Let's look closer at the examples:
1. Within one session, the user calls you twice. And both times, no one picked up the phone.
In this case, we get two new events; only one is unique since both calls are identical in their characteristics.
2. Within one session, the user calls you twice: their call isn't answered the first time. Then, when he calls back the second time, the agent answers.
As a result, we have two new events, both unique because the calls have different categories (for example, NO ANSWER and PROPER).
Goals
A configuration setting allows you to track valuable actions or conversions on your site or mobile app.
In this example, we will consider the goal for calls from the site.
You can find the manual for configuring the goals for the calls in this article.
Go to Conversions —> Goals → Overview to see the results of achieved goals
In Google Analytics, one goal can be achieved once within a single session.
It means that if the user calls you two, three, or more times while being on the site, only the first call will be defined as the achieved goal.
All calls from the same visitor per session are considered one goal completion despite the number of calls and their statuses (for example, proper, answered, repeated, etc.)
Pay attention!
We recommend setting up more than one goal for the calls. It'd be better to set different goals for different call categories (PROPER, ANSWERED, BUSY... etc.). It will allow you to understand better all the goal completions of the "call" within a single session.
Summarize
Now that we know:
All calls are sent to Google Analytics as events.
Only a part of these events is unique.
We figured out the principles of goal completion in Google Analytics
So, comparing statistics for one period of time in the call log and Google Analytics reports, the following principles should guide you:
The number of calls in the call log = Total events in GA
(All incoming calls are transferred to GA as events.)The number of calls in the call log ≠ Total unique events in GA
(During one session, the visitor called twice, and both times, no one picked up the phone — we have two calls, two events, and one unique event)The number of calls in the call log ≠ Goal completions in GA
(Several phone calls within one session are defined as one goal completion)Total unique events in GA ≠ Goal completions in GA
(The visitor makes a phone call to the company. Later he calls again but doesn't get an answer. Then we get two unique events (target and missed), but the goal is defined as one.)
Differences in call statistics between Ringostat Call tracking and Google Analytics are typical situations because both services are created for different goals: Ringostat CallTracking registers all incoming calls. At the same time, Google Analytics processes them according to its own rules.
Thus, both systems supplement each other and allow you to analyze calls and their advertising sources from different perspectives.