One of the things I always hated about advertising in general was not knowing if my advertisement, direct mail piece, radio ad, insert, post card or any other type of marketing and advertising was working or not. And if you don’t know if your reverse mortgage advertising is working or not; how do you know if you should keep paying for advertisements?
Would you like to know if your Yellow Page reverse mortgage ad is generating calls before renewing it for next year?
Would you like to know how many calls the last direct mail campaign generated?
Would you like to know if your display ads in the Sunday newspaper are generating any phone calls?
Would you like to know if your radio ads are generating leads?
Would you like to know if you are getting calls from your website from people using the desktop, mobile or tablet version of your site?
Would you like to know if you are getting calls from pay per click advertising or display ads online?
You Have Two Ways To Track Your Reverse Mortgage Ads To Determine If Your Are Getting Calls, Closing Loans and Getting A Return On Your Investment or if You Are Losing Money
1. Ask
This is by far the easiest and cheapest way to determine if your ads are working or not. The main problem with this, if you are anything like me, you forget to ask half the time. This is a huge problem in that you really don’t know how many calls you are getting, and you don’t know where they are calling from.
There are other problems with this method. People may write your number down or put it in their phone to call you late. They may not remember where they got your number. They may tell you an ad they remember but are calling from a different ad.
Finally, people don’t like to get harassed about this stuff to much either. Can you imagine asking a lead “How did you hear about us?” they say, “Your website.”. Then you ask “Were you on your phone, desk top of tablet?” they say, mobile. Then you ask “How did you find our website?”. It is too much and an easy way to irritate a lead and lose their trust before you even get started.
2. Reverse Mortgage Call Tracking
By far one of the easiest ways to know if an ad is working or not is to use call tracking. With call tracking you can set up specific phone numbers for specific reverse mortgage ads that you are running. Most call tracking comes with some very specific features to know if you are getting calls or not from the marketing and advertising you are doing.
Features and costs will vary depending on the service you sign up for.
For basic tracking there are a couple of things that I want for call tracking:
Call Recording
I love the call recording feature. Obviously you can see which advertisement they are calling from. But what is really cool is that you can listen to the calls. This is a great way to get better on the phone because you can hear places you may have stumbled and questions that may have thrown you for a loop.
You could have your sales manager listen to the phone calls and give you advice.
You can also write down questions you were asked. Being prepared for questions will help you handle phone calls better. Plus you could use these questions as potential blog posts as well.
Each state has different rules in regards to call recording. Some states allow for calls to be recorded as long as one party to the call knows they are being recorded. Other states will require a message prior to answering that states something like “Calls May Be Recorded For Training and Customer Service Purposes”
You can find out if your state is a “one party” or “two party” state by going to https://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide/state-state-guide
Whisper
The whisper feature will play a very brief message when you pick up. For instance, if you had a display ad in a local newspaper, when you pick up the phone it could say “call from The Tribune”. This way you know where they are calling from. This information is then in your notes (assuming you write it down) and can be added into your CRM.
This feature can be very handy when you are advertising to solve a specific issue.
For example, let’s say you were advertising reverse mortgages as a solution to pay off a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. You know that this person more than likely is currently in a Chapter 13 BK or maybe even recently had a CH 13 discharged. You know that this is something that needs to be addressed.
Dynamic Numbers
This is something you definitely need if you do any sort of digital advertising such as pay per click advertising, Facebook, display ads, Yelp advertising or anything else online.
Dynamic numbers can be set up with a simple piece of code. This is the way it works.
Let’s assume you are using Google Adwords ads to promote your reverse mortgage business. Someone clicks on your ad. When they land on your site, the phone number changes dynamically. In other words, the person that clicked on your ad will see a different number than someone that just found your site organically through a search.
You can set up dynamic numbers for as many online properties and ads you want.
Call Routing
Most loan officers are out of the office a good portion of the week. Networking, meeting with clients, power lunching etc. With call routing you can set up the call tracking to reach you where ever you are.
Reverse Mortgage Advertising Call Tracking Services
Call Rail – The basic package starts at $30 a month and includes 10 numbers, 500 minutes. They have a robust feature list which includes everything I mentioned above. This would be my top recommendation as it has everything most loan officers would need to track. With everything you get, the cost just can’t be beat. Visit CallRail
Call Fire – The basic package is $.05 a minute and phone numbers are $10 a month. From there it jumps to $99 a month with 2500 minutes and phone numbers are $2.50 a month. They have all the same services mentioned above but do not have dynamic numbers. If you are only tracking one campaign at a time this would be a good choice. Visit CallFire
Analytic Call Tracking – This is what I personally use for call tracking. It is a self-hosted program. What this means is that you install it on your own server with your website. The cost is $99 a month. You pay for phone numbers and minutes directly through Twilio. Numbers are usually about $1 and minutes are less than $.02. Visit AnalyticCallTracking
I bought Analytic Call Tracking several years ago and paid a one-time fee. Since then they have moved to the monthly subscription.
Tracking Your Return on Investments Beyond Phone Calls
Determining if you are getting phone calls is great. But there is more to this than just phone calls. You need to determine if you are making money, losing money or breaking even with your advertising. Always remember you can’t deposit phone calls. You can only deposit checks from commissions. You can read about a direct mail campaign I did where I got tons of calls but did not close a single loan.
The only way to do this is with a simple spread sheet. You can track as much as you want, but you really only need the basics. Here is what I track in my spreadsheets.
| Campaign | Lead Name | Qualified | Closed | Commission |
| Tribune / Debt | Smith | Yes | No | 0 |
| Tribune / Debt | Jones | No | No | 0 |
| Tribune / Debt | Dawsom | Yes | Yes | $4,500 |
When you track like this then you know what kind of return in investment you are getting. You know if you should continue the ads or kill them. In the example above, if I ran an ad for debt consolidation every Sunday for a month and it cost me $1000. Then I am getting $4.50 for ever dollar I invest.
This tells me that this newspaper ad for reverse mortgages targeting debt consolidation is a winner. It also tells me that I should keep running it. It also tells me that I should think about running it in other newspapers as well.
Tracking must go beyond just getting calls. You need to track the number of loans you close, how much commission you earned and your return on investment. Knowing your numbers empowers you to make smart decisions with your advertising dollars. Plus you’ll never fall victim to advertising sales people again.
