Paying for every channel because you daren't stop any
Your locksmith business has a Google Ads account, a map listing, two directory subscriptions and a monthly fee to a lead site that sends lockout jobs. Every one of them claims to be working. The ads dashboard shows clicks and calls. The directory shows views. The lead site shows leads sent. None of them shows whether the job happened, how much it paid, or whether the customer would have found you anyway.
So the owner keeps paying for all of them. Cancelling one feels like a gamble, because the phone might go quiet, and nobody can say which one is doing the work.
Where the link between call and job breaks
Calls from every source arrive on the same number. The person who answers does not ask where the caller found you, or asks and writes it in a note nobody reads. The job is booked in the job system with no source, and the payment is taken on a card machine with no link to either.
- One phone number is used everywhere, so calls cannot be told apart.
- Lead sites and directories report their own numbers, which count leads, not jobs.
- Calls that were price enquiries are counted the same as booked jobs.
- Job value is in the accounts, sources are nowhere.
- Repeat customers and agents are mixed in with new callers.
Money spent on the wrong channels
Without the link, spending decisions follow whichever sales rep called last. Money stays in channels that bring price shoppers and no jobs, while a channel that brings well-paid commercial work is under-funded because it looks quiet by call count.
There is also the matter of disputes with lead sites. Some charge per lead, and without your own record of which leads became jobs, you have nothing to query their invoices with.
Every call tagged, every job traced back
We set up a small tracking layer using a call tracking provider or Twilio numbers, and connect it to your job records and accounts.
- Each source gets its own number: ads, map listing, each directory, each lead site, the van livery, the website. All of them ring through to your normal phones.
- Your website shows the right number to each visitor depending on how they arrived, so web calls are attributed too.
- Every call is logged with its source, time and duration, and matched to the job that is booked from it, either automatically by caller number or with one tap by the person who books the job.
- When the job is invoiced or paid, its value is attached, pulled from your job system or your accounting software's API.
- A monthly report shows, per source, calls, booked jobs, paid jobs and job value, next to what you spent there.
- Leads sent by lead sites are matched to their invoices so you can see which leads never became jobs.
| Source | What the platform tells you | What your own report adds |
|---|---|---|
| Paid search | Clicks and calls | Calls that became paid jobs, and their value |
| Map listing | Views and calls | Booked jobs and job types |
| Directories | Profile views | Whether any call came from them at all |
| Lead sites | Leads sent | Leads that turned into paid work |
| Van and word of mouth | Nothing | Calls to the livery number |
We keep the report plain. It shows your own numbers from your own jobs; decisions about budgets stay with you.
Budget decisions based on your own jobs
After a few months of records, the owner can see which channels bring lockouts, which bring commercial work, and which bring mostly calls asking for a price. Cancelling a directory becomes a decision based on evidence rather than a gamble. Talking to the ads agency or lead site becomes a conversation about paid jobs, not clicks.
The office also gets a small operational benefit: the call log shows unanswered calls by source, which ties back to how well the phones are covered.
Could this be your marketing spend?
- You use one phone number on every listing and ad.
- You could not say which channel brought last month's best jobs.
- Lead site invoices are paid without checking them against jobs.
- You keep paying for a directory because you are afraid to stop.
- Your ads reporting shows calls, but not what they turned into.