Analytics treats a phone visit and a computer visit as two strangers, so the enquiry is credited to the computer. Track calls from phones, ask how people found you, and never cut mobile spending on device reports alone.

Found on a phone, sent from a desk

A customer searches on a phone during a break, reads two or three pages, and saves the decision for later.

That evening, or the next morning at work, they open a computer, type the business name into a search or straight into the address bar, and send the enquiry.

Universal Analytics records two visits from two devices, with nothing to connect them. The enquiry belongs to the computer.

Look at the device report a few months later and phones seem to bring plenty of visitors and almost no business. That conclusion is usually wrong.

Why the phone visit disappears

The first is the root of it. Analytics recognises a browser, not a person, so the customer on a phone at lunch and on a computer next morning counts as two strangers, and the second one gets all the credit.

What the device report seems to say

The device report in Universal Analytics, under Audience, then Mobile, splits visits into desktop, mobile and tablet, and shows how each group behaves.

For many local businesses, mobile shows the most sessions, the highest bounce rate and the fewest completed goals. Desktop shows the opposite.

Read literally, the report says phone visitors are idle browsers. Read with the switch in mind, it says phones are where many customers start and computers are where the forms get filled in.

Reading it with the switch in mind

Add the hour of the day to the report. A pattern of phone visits in the evening and desktop enquiries the next morning is the switch showing itself.

Compare landing pages by device. Phone visitors often land on service pages and the contact page, the same pages that come just before an enquiry.

Look at how desktop enquirers arrived. Plenty of direct visits and searches for the business name often means people found you somewhere else first.

A first visit from a computer that arrives direct, goes straight to the contact page and sends an enquiry was almost certainly not that person's first look at you.

Counting calls from phones

The phone number on a mobile page should be a link that dials when tapped. Each tap can be recorded in Analytics as an event and counted as a goal.

A tap is not a completed call, since some people hang up or never connect. But it is a far better measure than nothing, and it turns many apparent bounces into what they were: calls.

Taps on a map or directions link can be counted the same way, which matters for any business people visit in person.

Some callers never reach the site at all, tapping the number on your listing in the search results instead. Google My Business Insights counts those calls, and they belong in the same picture.

A worked example

A food distributor supplying restaurants, cafes and caterers across a region has a website with its product range, delivery areas and an application form for opening a wholesale account.

The device report showed phones bringing most visits and almost none of the applications. The owner was ready to trim mobile spending on search ads and stop worrying about the phone layout.

Then the sales team started asking new accounts how they had found the company.

Chefs and owners described the same pattern: a search on a phone between lunch and dinner service, then the application filled in next morning on the office computer.

The application is long, with delivery details and invoicing information, which nobody types on a phone in a kitchen.

The company kept its mobile spending, started counting taps on the sales line as a goal, and added a short request-a-call form for phones, leaving the full application for later.

Asking how people found you

The simplest cross-device tracking is a question. Add "How did you first hear about us?" to the enquiry form, with a few choices and a space for anything else.

Ask it on the phone too, and note the answers somewhere consistent. A month of answers says more about where customers start than a year of device reports.

People misremember, so treat the answers as direction rather than measurement.

What Analytics cannot join up

Universal Analytics can only link devices when visitors sign in, through a feature called User-ID. A small business site with no customer accounts has nothing to sign in to.

So for most sites the gap is permanent. The answer is not a cleverer report but accepting that phone visits are undercounted, and measuring what can be measured: taps, form answers and the calls the office receives.

Before cutting mobile spending

Search ads shown on phones look worst in these reports, because the clicks are real and the enquiries arrive later, on another device.

Before cutting them, count tapped calls for a month and read the form answers. If in doubt, a short pause shows it: when phone ads stop, watch whether desktop enquiries fall with them.

Cutting on the device report alone can remove the very searches that start many desktop enquiries.

The counter-case

Some phone traffic really is worth little. Visitors from image searches, job seekers and people looking for a different business with a similar name inflate mobile numbers without ever becoming customers.

And a business whose customers genuinely research and buy at a desk, such as one selling to office managers, may find phones matter less.

Check what phone visitors were looking for before deciding, and count calls before judging phones by forms alone.

The first month

  1. Make every phone number tap to call.
  2. Record each tap as an Analytics goal.
  3. Count taps on directions the same way.
  4. Add hour of day to the device report.
  5. Ask enquirers how they first found you.
  6. Offer phones a short request-a-call form.
  7. Hold mobile spending until a month of taps is in.

Step two changes what the report says. Once taps are counted, phone visits that ended in a call stop looking like failures, and the device report starts to describe what customers actually do.

The third device in the same report is covered in tablet visitors in the device report.

Frequently asked questions

Why do phones show so few conversions?

Many customers find you on a phone and enquire later from a computer. Analytics sees two separate visitors and credits the enquiry to the computer visit.

Can Universal Analytics link phone and computer visits?

Only when visitors sign in, through its User-ID feature. Most small business sites have no customer accounts, so the two visits stay unconnected.

How do I count taps on the phone number?

Turn the phone number into a tap-to-call link, record each tap as an event, and count it as a goal in Analytics.

Why do phone visits show high bounce rates?

A visitor who reads one page and calls has done exactly what you wanted, but without a tracked tap Analytics records a single-page visit: a bounce.

Should I cut mobile ad spending?

Not on the device report alone. Count tapped calls for a month and ask enquirers how they first found you before deciding phones are not working.

What question should the enquiry form ask?

How did you first hear about us, with a few choices and a space for anything else. Treat the answers as direction, since people misremember.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Phones look worthless in your reports?

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