LSA recently released survey results showing the impact digital media was having on consumer purchase decisions. As the survey showed, the majority of consumers’ offline purchases are being affected by the Internet. Customer call volumes are similarly being impacted by digital.

Phone calls are a common point on the customers’ path to purchase and are extremely important to local businesses. Increasingly these calls are being driven by digital media, particularly mobile. Specifically, a new Invoca study found that 92% of calls to businesses in 2015 were driven by digital.

Invoca’s second annual “Call Intelligence Index” captured insights and data from about 58 million customer phone calls across 40 industries. Broken up by media type, mobile (search and display) accounted for over half (51%) of total call volume in 2015, desktop (search and display) accounted for 28%, content/review sites 9% and email 3%.

With calls being a key performance indicator (KPI) for many marketing campaigns, the fact that digital is driving these calls is a very important finding. Marketers not engaged in digital marketing efforts are likely missing out on calls, especially given the ease of click-to-call as it relates to mobile searches.

The other 8% of calls were driven by traditional media. Radio, TV, newspapers and directories each accounted for about 2% of 2015 call volume. Traditional media drove half as many calls in 2015 compared to 2014, while digital driven calls grew about 10% compared to 2014 call data.

One of the more interesting findings was related to quality of calls. Using call duration as a proxy for quality (longer calls = better quality of calls), the study found that calls originated from newspapers had the longest average duration at about six minutes 10 seconds. Online review sites was second, coming in just under six minutes. The chart above highlights the average call duration for digital outlets, with the overall average being about five minutes.

Calls remain a critical point on the path to purchase. The study merely quantified the impact digital media is having on the origins of these calls. The study also broke out the data by industry, finding that “calls are increasing across industries and particularly for industries characterized by high-value purchases and/or customers who need personalized assistance.”