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Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses

DaRK9

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I assume you have done so already but just to be sure have you looked at?

https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/1722054#calls_from_websites

Google will track clicks that lead to calls by dynamically inserting a Google forwarding number on your website that measures the calls made by users who have clicked on one of your search ads.
I was thinking about using a Google Voice account to track leads. Put the Google number on the site and forward calls to the office. Track leads using the call log.

This way if anyone calls non-mobile because of my page I still get credit.
 
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marklov

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Just thought I would give this amazing thread a bump.
and add this little nugget http://www.cdfnetworks.com/83-proven-local-lead-gen-niches/

Lead gen is a great space to be in and pretty fertile
if you know where to look but many persons go after the
usual suspects leaving the real juicy ones open:cool:....as long as you keep
delivering results you will literally pick up 100 dollar bills lol.
 

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MyronGainz

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Andy, thanks a ton for sharing your knowledge, always enjoy reading your posts.

Quick question, of all the local-based service businesses you have worked with, which verticals (industries) do you feel have been the most successful?
 
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MyronGainz

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Just thought I would give this amazing thread a bump.
and add this little nugget http://www.cdfnetworks.com/83-proven-local-lead-gen-niches/

Lead gen is a great space to be in and pretty fertile
if you know where to look but many persons go after the
usual suspects leaving the real juicy ones open:cool:....as long as you keep
delivering results you will literally pick up 100 dollar bills lol.

Great link. I honestly think we are in a golden era for led-gen for local offline businesses, as Andy mentioned, the competition on Adwords is a joke right now.
 

Andy Black

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Andy, thanks a ton for sharing your knowledge, always enjoy reading your posts.

Quick question, of all the local-based service businesses you have worked with, which verticals (industries) do you feel have been the most successful?
I've run campaigns for many different verticals where the monetisation has been via many different methods.

To be clear, I've personally mostly monetised my AdWords skills by being an employee, contractor, or one-man-agency (so mostly slow-lane).

The businesses I build campaigns for might be the end merchant actually fulfilling the leads, a broker selling the leads, or might have a "platform" connecting consumers and merchants. If they have a platform then they could be connecting consumers and merchants via ads (PPC arbitrage), via form fills and phone calls (using a call centre or direct to the merchant), or by taking a commission of the online sale.

So it's hard to say which of the verticals I've generated leads for were the most successful since they monetised so differently, and each business had different goals.


I've been meaning to write down all the verticals I've generated traffic, leads, and sales for so I might as well do that here. I'll be interested in seeing that list spew from my brain too.

So here's a brain dump in no particular order, where the monetisation could have been any or all of the above, and to varying degrees of success (including outright failure):

Electricians, plumbers, appliance repairs, window repairs, roof repairs, pest control, locksmiths, personal trainers, dieticians, nutritionists, chiropractors, physios, dentists, doctors, plastic surgeons, estate agents, houses|flats|apartments|condos for rent|sale, car insurance, home insurance, travel insurance, breakdown cover, car finance, payday loans, car hire, limo hire, coach hire, tyres|tires, tickets, cinemas, restaurants, bars, cafes, afternoon tea, massage, spas, salons, hair-dressers, pedicures, manicures, car repairs|servicing, mechanics, health insurance, flights, hotels, B&Bs, gyms, training, courses, classes, photographers, wedding planners, wedding packages, graphic designers, programmers, developers, architects, builders, cleaners, jobs (all sorts), accountants, solicitors|attorneys|lawyers|law firms, security alarms|systems, letting agents, comedy clubs, yacht charter, cruise ship charter, opticians, laser surgery, yoga, salsa, pilates, teeth whitening, funeral directors, telemarketers, call centres, book-keepers, building materials, pre-cast concrete, print design, business cards, motorbike repairs|servicing, removals, bands, djs, wedding rings, schools, colleges, handymen, painters, decorators, home cinema, tattoo, tattoo removal, child care, vets, facials, dry-cleaning, paragliding, shooting ranges, hypnosis, zoos, boot camps, wine bars, helicopter rides, laser hair removal, nlp, liposuction, golf courses, things to do, the weather...

Maybe you can get some ideas from that list. :)
 

Andy Black

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Great link. I honestly think we are in a golden era for led-gen for local offline businesses, as Andy mentioned, the competition on Adwords is a joke right now.
Local lead gen is always going to be soft when you're competing with the local bricks and mortars businesses. When a player like booking.com comes in and dominates a vertical, then it gets tougher (but not impossible). So many verticals are still wide open though.
 
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so if i get this right, doing local lead gen is pretty much marketing a local business by creating a landing page and getting leads for that client?

If you choose a niche where most clients have a webpage already, is the value you are offering an alternative webpage where you have better copy writing and adwords?

also...what is the pro and cons of setting up a webpage that has multiple clients in a niche and charging them monthly, than say creating a webpage for each one?

I have no experience using adwords or marketing or even creating a landing page. But I do have a family relative who owns a local kitchen and bath store but the area it is in is mostly older population (also the customers from what I have seen). I doubt he will benefit much from it but im thinking I can create the landing page and set up adwords just for experience sake. Good idea?
 

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so if i get this right, doing local lead gen is pretty much marketing a local business by creating a landing page and getting leads for that client?

You may or may not need to create a landing page. The landing page is just a means to an end.


If you choose a niche where most clients have a webpage already, is the value you are offering an alternative webpage where you have better copy writing and adwords?
You could be using their webpage and acting as an agency, consultant, contractor, or employee.

Of course, if you're able to create a better landing page and AdWords campaign that generates better quality leads and more of them, then you're onto something.


what is the pro and cons of setting up a webpage that has multiple clients in a niche and charging them monthly, than say creating a webpage for each one?

Personally, I won't have more than one client who I'm providing a lead generation service for in the same vertical and location. If it got to the stage where I'm selling the actual leads on a first come first served basis, then I'd be ok to have more than one customer for those leads in the same vertical and location.


I have no experience using adwords or marketing or even creating a landing page. But I do have a family relative who owns a local kitchen and bath store but the area it is in is mostly older population (also the customers from what I have seen). I doubt he will benefit much from it but im thinking I can create the landing page and set up adwords just for experience sake. Good idea?

You won't know till you try. I think it's a good idea. Maybe AdWords doesn't work. Maybe Facebook does, or ads in local newspapers. Your goal is to generate good quality leads for them, so that they get a steady stream of new business.
 

Andy Black

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Picking up a new local client ...

(I'll do a video series on this soon, in the meantime I'll try and write it from memory).


I recently managed to pick up a small local hotel as a potential client.

The hotel is actually my "local", where I'll go for my lunch once a week, and where I might go for a few pints every now and then.

We were there on New Year's eve, and my wife was talking to the business owner. My wife was explaining how she thought they could use the funtion rooms better, and mentioned I might be able to help them generate more business. The business owner said she'd love to talk to me sometime.

A couple of weeks ago I popped in for my lunch. I saw the hotel owner outside struggling to bring some new crockery into the kitchen from the boot of her car. I held the door open, and then picked up a few cases and brought them into the kitchen.

Everyone in the kitchen laughed that I had a new job. We all know each other name btw.

Anyway, I said to the owner that I was going to grab some lunch and she's welcome to pop over and pick my brains.

The owner (who's probably near to retiring) came over with her daughter (who's there helping out a lot now-a-days, and I'm guessing will take over the business later). Bless 'em. The daughter came over with a notepad and pen, and they sat down next to me, and opposite me.

I smiled and asked what my wife had told them I do. (I find this is a good opening question so you can work out where they're coming from, and what they think they know about what you do.)

The owner said she thought I "did websites", and that they knew they needed to get their website updated.

I laughed and said I don't quite "do websites". That websites are a part of what I do, but at the end of the day, you don't want a website, you want phone calls and bookings.

They agreed 100%. (Always a good start.)

So I proceeded to explain that people searching on Google for their hotel by name would want to find their website quickly, and be able to ring or mail quickly. They got their phones out and did the search and didn't like what they saw. Booking.com was advertising on their brand name, and also had their brand name in the ad - even though they weren't signed up to Booking.com (yet, but they were in negotiations).

I then explained that these branded searches (I didn't say "traffic", because wtf does "traffic" mean to a hotel owner?) are the result of their hard work over the years, and this was the Repeat Business and Referrals that they've generated. Did they want Booking.com to swoop in and get those bookings and then charge them 15% for them?

I then explained how many people probably search for "hotels naas" (Naas being where I live). Again, they did this on their phone, and saw the usual suspects of Booking.com, Trivago.ie, and lots of other Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and directories. There was only one ad by an actual hotel showing.

I explained how they could signup to the directories, who then pay Google to get them bookings. Or they could have their own ad running.

I also explained "the smarter way of doing things"... that we ("we" not "they") should just load up some campaigns and see how much volume there is. If there's enough potential, then that would justify rebuilding their website. If there's no people searching, or we can't get them to our site ("our" not "your"), then why build the website? They liked this.

Lunch arrived and they left me to eat it. As I was leaving, the daughter handed me a piece of paper with things they thought people might search for.

I said I'd do a quick report and mail it to them. "Can I have your email address?"



I sent the report a few days later. (I'll attached it later.)

The next week when I popped in for lunch, she said the report was very interesting (with a widening of eyes and nodding of head).

She agreed to do €100 ad spend. At the end she also asked how she'd pay me. I said let's just see what the potential is first, and if they wanted to take it further after the "test", then we could do mates rates later on.

I got a free lunch out of it anyway. Lol.



The campaigns have been running for almost 10 days.

Here's the highlevel stats. (I showed them this last week, and they were really pleased there was search volume, and they loved the ads when we searched on their laptop.)

jlazoD8.png



Here's the stats segmented by device:

m0o9Way.png



Over half their visitors have come via mobile devices!

They've already checked their website on a mobile, and they hate it (the copyright at the bottom of the website says 2004 - 2007, so you can imagine).

They've asked me if I know of people who can build the website, and I of course said yes.


Next time I'm in, I'm going to angle for the work of creating the website, and will propose they DON'T spend a few €k upfront getting something built, but that it's an iterative process where we learn and the site evolves based on "feedback" from the site visitors (i.e. does their phone ring more or not?).

So I'll angle for a flat monthly fee to get the website built, and to cover the AdWords fee.

I'll be happy with something like €200/mth (mate's rates, and excluding ad spend), and use this as a case study.





My question for you:

Who are you uniquely positioned to help?
 
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Andy Black

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If you're pitching to local service businesses, then this Periscope I did might help you.

It's my post-mortem where I got a yes in principle, in spite of screwing up the pitch.


I posted it into this thread:
 
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Andy Black

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Andy Black

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Andy Black

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There's a hidden setting that allows Google to bleed your AdWords local lead gen campaigns.

Make sure you understand how it works, and then go and change it!

Here's a video explanation:
 

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Tom.V

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Andy Black

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#AndyTalks 043 - Radio Interview on AdWords and Business

I did a local radio interview on AdWords and Business... dropped here.
 

Andy Black

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Andy Black

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#AndyTalks 047 - Help the people in motion (3 mins)

Another quick video about how I often sell AdWords (following on from video 046 above).

 

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Andy, thanks for all of the amazing information. +Rep

I want to add a bit about one of your points regarding the google keyword traffic research before getting into a niche.
I've recently went into a new local service niche - it is a high average transaction value (average $2,000/job), and google keyword tool from adwords showed there were about 500 monthly impressions, after adding many different keywords and variations. I was a little hesitant to get in, but decided to just test it with a campaign and see what happens.

The test results were crazy. I got 25X more traffic from long-tail and keyword variations using phrase matches, to the tune of 400 impressions per day (v.s. only 500/month that Google showed initially).

I think this was due to a few reasons:
-Google averages their resulsts - so if a certain keyword or long tail variation got 4 searches last month, it will show up as 0.
-Long-tail & variations are huge - if there are hundreds of variations and long-tails, this means thousands and thousands of impressions that just show as 0 before you actually test out.

So I can't agree enough about how important it is to use Adwords as a testing tool, and being very skeptical of the traffic estimations. Within a day or two you can already know if the traffic is there or not at a minimal cost.

In this case, it worked out really nicely for me. I've discovered a huge niche where others just passed on as their "check box" wasn't ticked in a quick research. This was in a pretty big metro area, so I had a hunche there should be more traffic than Google showed in the traffic tool.
 
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Andy Black

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Last week stats for a local lead gen client.
We've now dropped desktop/tablet bids.
(A conversion is a phone call.)

upload_2016-8-4_15-42-53.png
 
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Last week stats for a local lead gen client.
We've now dropped desktop/tablet bids.
(A conversion is a phone call.)

View attachment 12924
Thats a huge difference but over a small sample size.
Is mobile outperforming desktop for most of your local clients?

BTW do you use call only ads for mobile or do you give users the opportunity to visit a landing page?
 

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Thats a huge difference but over a small sample size.
Is mobile outperforming desktop for most of your local clients?

BTW do you use call only ads for mobile or do you give users the opportunity to visit a landing page?
Out of curiosity, I'll work out the statistical significance. However, this client didn't get positive ROI in the last few weeks, so we're taking this as an indication to focus even more on mobile, which we've been doing for all clients that want phone calls.

Phone calls are more serious enquiries, and it makes sense to get people on mobiles to make phone calls.

A lot of clients are seeing more than half of all estimated searches on mobiles.

We've a dedicated mobile landing page with a tap-to-call button, and very minimal copy. Google forwarding numbers have been implemented recently and this additional data is really helping.


....


I don't like the call only ads on mobiles. I lose my carefully crafted and highly relevant headline which gives me my nice CTR, and I think people don't really expect it to be a tap-to-call ad anyway. Worth testing again no doubt, but way down on our list of priorities.
 

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I don't like the call only ads on mobiles. I lose my carefully crafted and highly relevant headline which gives me my nice CTR, and I think people don't really expect it to be a tap-to-call ad anyway. Worth testing again no doubt, but way down on our list of priorities.

I have a hypothesis that they work extremely well for some things, like restaurants and stores, and extremely poorly for others, like local service.

I haven't tried em though
 
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Andy Black

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Ha! Was looking at inbound email leads for a client in Dublin.

I didn't realise they got so many till I did a search in my inbox!

We really must get conversion tracking working...

HlHMiSx.png
 

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Andy - quick question on the Google forwarding numbers...
Do the phone numbers available from Google match up to your local prefixes?
(Meaning - does it look like a local phone number to potential customers?)

If not, how would you use conversion tracking?
 

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Lead Gen for Local Service Businesses
(Originally posted here.)

So you're trying to increase inbound calls or email enquiries for a local service business?


Start by watching this 4 min video:

When someone searches for "window repairs", they could be looking for a local service, or they could be looking for articles showing how to do it themselves. We can't tell from their search term.

They could have a cup of coffee and notepad next to them when they search (browsing/researching), or they could have their phone and credit card next to them when they search (shopping/buying).

When someone searches for "window repairs dublin", we know they are looking for a local service - in Dublin. I picture them searching with their phone to hand so they can ring the local service business.

So when someone searches with a geo-modified search term (a search term with a location in it), they are MORE likely to convert.

If you can't sell to these searchers, then don't try and tackle the non geo-modified search terms (window repairs, blacksmiths, shepherds, etc).

So start with geo-modified searches.


...


Next, get your head round the fact that:

Your landing page does NOT convert!

Read this fella:

When you say your Dublin Plumber landing page converts at 20%, you really mean that 20% of people who visit your page searching for a plumber in Dublin convert into an enquiry.

If I send people looking for Car Insurance to your Dublin Plumber landing page, then they ain't converting into enquiries at 20%.

TIP: Always specify what conversion rate you're talking about. In this case I might call it my click-to-enquiry-rate.


...


If you're going to use AdWords paid search to generate leads for a local service business (and I suggest you start there and at least rule it out) , then you need to know the difference between search terms and keywords. You're going to be bled to death if you don't.

Read these three posts here:

...


Sales happen when you get the right person to the right offer at the right time.

This is why I love AdWords paid search.

The right person is the person searching for your offer.

The right time is the moment they are searching.

All we have to do is get them to the offer that matches what they were searching for.

Get people searching for a service with a location in their search term, to a page that shows that service and location right in front of them.

Here's a quick exercise: Google for "tax attorney chicago" and see how many of the ads mention "Tax Attorney" and "Chicago" in their ad. If you're not based in the US, then do a search for something similarly expensive and for a large city.

Even for something this expensive (Google estimates €33 CPC for top ad positions for search term "tax attorney chicago"), less than half of the ads manage to echo back what you were searching.

Don't click on the ads because you're costing those advertisers a fortune, but I can guarantee that a lot of the landing pages you get sent to won't make it obvious that they are Tax Attorneys, or that they cover Chicago.

Maaan, the competition for local lead gen is soooo poor. I love it.

I can throw up the simplest ugly ugly landing page, and get a 10% click-to-enquiry-rate because I'm just echoing back what they were searching for in my landing page.

When a graphic designer gets involved and beautifies my crappy page, the click-to-enquiry-rate can be 20%-40% for a local service business.


...


My page might be a two column layout.

In the left column:
  1. Top left is the company-name and/or service-location (e.g. Dublin Blacksmith Services).
  2. Below the company-name and/or service-location I might have a relevant tagline (Domestic & Commercial Blacksmith Services throughout Dublin).
  3. Then I might have a heading such as "Looking for a Blacksmith in Dublin?". Something where they go: "Yes! That's exactly what I'm looking for!".
  4. Then I might have 3-5 bullet point benefits.

In the right column:
  1. Top right I typically have the phone number on the page (big and bold and where people expect to see it).
  2. Then I have a call to action heading above a form. The heading is "Request a Callback", since we want people to fill in the form who want a callback. Often these enquiries aren't as strong as a phone call, but this caters for people who're doing a quick search at work and can't make a personal phone call, and who don't want or can't send an email from their work PC.
  3. Then I ask for "Your name", "Your phone number", "Your email address", "Your message".
  4. The call to action on the button isn't "Submit"... it's "Request a Callback >".

...


Most businesses want the phone call, or people who want to talk on the phone. Hence "Request a Callback" rather than a "Contact Us".

Maybe half the calls will be new enquiries. The rest might be returning customers who Googled for the phone number, or people ringing back about an enquiry that's in progress.

Obviously more of the form fills are new enquiries.

I've been using Callrail and other solutions to track inbound calls. This is good if the Blacksmith company has a few offices in the country, and we're using a different tracked number for each office. Sometimes we can see that one office is missing 20%+ of their calls (and typically screaming the loudest that they're not getting leads... go figure).

The keyword can be captured in Callrail reports, and I think can be passed back to AdWords. I typically just download both the AdWords and call tracking data and join it up. I'm working on a better solution at the moment though.

So not all calls and form fills are new enquiries, and not all new enquiries will be logged as a new lead.

Not all leads will convert into sales.

So these intermediate steps of Calls/Form-fills -> Enquiries -> Leads are actually just INDICATORS of performance. We really need to see the number of sales that are made each week/month/quarter to really see wtf is going on.

This might mean hooking up to their CRM (downloading their data and joining it up). Or (often), trying to pull teeth to get them to log leads and report on sales.


...


You should also read these two posts:

And read posts you might have missed in here:

I’m glad I caught this post and thanks for the info @Andy Black . Your approach to understanding customer conversion behavior is very similar to what’s been coined “customer journey mapping.” It’s definitely a much more holistic view of what’s happening than just looking at points individually (such as landing pages). I enjoyed your "Landing Page Doesn't Convert" post too.

One of our businesses is a local real estate team. Between that site and another, we have just signed with Google for a special local Adwords program. We’re spending enough that they are going to assign two ad engineers to work with us. They’ll use us for a “case study” and in exchange, they are going to take over management of the ads account and optimize it for us over the course of 3 months.

Pretty exciting to be partnering with Google on this. It should be very interesting and I hope to learn a lot.

I didn’t expect this, but they want to roll out of the gate with Display Ads only. I’ve never used their Display Ads before, so should be interesting.

They are also planning on getting hyper-local and targeting local websites to display the ads on. They should we should “be everywhere” for our local audience.

I can share information as we go, if people want.
 
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Andy Black

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I’m glad I caught this post and thanks for the info @Andy Black . Your approach to understanding customer conversion behavior is very similar to what’s been coined “customer journey mapping.” It’s definitely a much more holistic view of what’s happening than just looking at points individually (such as landing pages). I enjoyed your "Landing Page Doesn't Convert" post too.

One of our businesses is a local real estate team. Between that site and another, we have just signed with Google for a special local Adwords program. We’re spending enough that they are going to assign two ad engineers to work with us. They’ll use us for a “case study” and in exchange, they are going to take over management of the ads account and optimize it for us over the course of 3 months.

Pretty exciting to be partnering with Google on this. It should be very interesting and I hope to learn a lot.

I didn’t expect this, but they want to roll out of the gate with Display Ads only. I’ve never used their Display Ads before, so should be interesting.

They are also planning on getting hyper-local and targeting local websites to display the ads on. They should we should “be everywhere” for our local audience.

I can share information as we go, if people want.
Be careful. Keep a tight rein on the Google guys. I've never seen this work out well for the business footing the AdWords bill.
 

Andy Black

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Andy - quick question on the Google forwarding numbers...
Do the phone numbers available from Google match up to your local prefixes?
(Meaning - does it look like a local phone number to potential customers?)

If not, how would you use conversion tracking?
I've only just started using the Google forwarding numbers. Previously we just used the client's call tracking data.

I don't know if they look local. Good question... I'll have to find out.
 

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