Smarter PPC Starts with Better Calls: Lessons from the Front Lines
Most marketers obsess over the click. But for Chris Cabaniss, Co-Founder of Falcon Digital Marketing, real performance starts with what happens after the click—especially on the phone.
In this episode of Smart Route, Chris joins host Andrew Clark to share tactical advice from nearly a decade of running PPC campaigns and optimizing lead gen for home service businesses. From call tracking to AI-assisted automation, Chris breaks down how to turn call data into measurable ROI.
From Dorm Room Startups to PPC Pro
Like many agency owners, Chris never “dreamed” of a career in marketing. In college, he was simply trying to start different businesses with dormmates when he stumbled into the world of PPC. Over time, referrals and curiosity took over, and the entrepreneurial bug led him to launch Falcon Digital Marketing in 2016.
Today, he and his team specialize in lead generation campaigns for industries such as legal, insurance, and home services.
The Lead Quality Problem
“Leads aren’t hard to get,” Chris says. “What’s hard is making sure they’re actually good.”
And bad leads are, perhaps, the greatest stumbling block to a company’s growth that is investing in marketing.
That’s where call tracking comes in. Tools like CallTrackingMetrics help Chris and his clients understand what’s working by:
- Recording and scoring inbound calls
- Spotting keywords and patterns using AI
- Pushing conversion data back into CRMs and ad platforms
Regarding call tracking, Chris believes it’s no longer a nice-to-have tool. It’s downright critical to business success. To this end, he says, “It used to be a bonus. Now it’s critical. Don’t launch ads until your call tracking is set up.”
PPC Tips for Home Services
Chris has seen home services clients launch PPC campaigns with gaps in their marketing attribution, specifically during high-volume spring and fall seasons. To help marketers and business owners make sense of their data and scale what works, he recommends:
- Setting up minimum call durations: Filter out short, low-quality calls before they pollute your AI training data.
- Leveraging keyword-based scoring: Use tools that flag keywords like “appointment,” “quote,” or “time” to auto-score meaningful calls.
- Implementing platform integrations: Connect ad platforms with call tracking and your CRM to build a full-funnel view of what turns into revenue.
AI, Voice Assistants & What’s Next
Tracking is one piece of the puzzle—but what if you could qualify leads before they even reach your team? Chris sees this as the next wave in PPC performance: using voice AI to triage and filter inbound calls.
Instead of relying solely on live reps or expensive call centers, more businesses are adopting AI-powered voice assistants to answer calls, screen for intent, set appointments, and weed out low-value interactions like job inquiries or wrong numbers. Chris has already implemented voice AI with some of his home service clients and the early returns are promising.
The value proposition is simple: automate the parts of the funnel that don’t require a human. According to Statista, digital voice assistants are projected to surpass 8.4 billion devices globally by the end of 2024—more than the human population. Consumers are growing more comfortable with these tools every day.
Chris’s advice? Embrace the tech, but treat it like any other performance channel. That means:
- Training your voice assistant to recognize relevant phrases
- Monitoring call recordings to spot misfires
- Iterating based on outcomes
Whether it’s chat or voice, Chris sees AI as a way to scale smart processes, not replace the human element. For teams drowning in calls, voice automation can become a scalable triage layer that preserves team bandwidth for the conversations that matter most.
Advice for New Marketers
New marketers entering the digital advertising world are bombarded with advice—but not all of it is credible. Chris urges listeners to be selective.
“There are too many influencers giving advice who don’t actually do the work. Before you follow someone, look them up. Are they published outside Instagram? Have they spoken at real conferences?”
Rather than chasing trends, he suggests turning to established industry voices and educational platforms. A few of his favorites:
- Paid Media Pros (YouTube)
- Ed Leake and God Tier Ads
- PPC Mastery
- Search Engine Land, WordStream, HubSpot blogs
Whether you’re just starting out or years into your marketing career, one thing remains constant: stay curious, verify your sources, and never stop learning.
Where to Connect with Chris
About Chris Cabaniss
Chris Cabaniss has been in the online advertising space since 2009 and is the co-founder of Falcon Digital Marketing Ad Agency and The Online Advertising Academy YouTube channel, discussing all things PPC. Chris has managed ad accounts for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike in many different industries for years, focusing primarily on lead generation.
Additionally, he has trained other ad agencies, in-house marketing teams, PPC professionals, and numerous business owners in online advertising strategies. Chris actively manages ad accounts and shares his knowledge for publications in the marketing community, including Search Engine Land.
TRANSCRIPT
Andrew Clark: Hey everyone, this is Andrew Clark here at CallTrackingMetrics and the host of the Smart Route podcast. Thanks again for tuning in today.
I’m joined by a CTM partner and co-owner/co-founder of Falcon Digital Marketing out of Houston, Texas—Chris Cabaniss. Chris, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us.
Chris and I have been in touch over email for, I guess, more than six months now. He wrote a guest post for our website, which we’ll make sure to link in the episode notes.
Chris is an industry veteran, with a particular focus on PPC—that’s how I best know his work. And that’s exactly what we’ll be covering today: his work, insights, and lessons learned, especially in relation to CallTrackingMetrics. If you’re a hands-on marketer, especially in paid media, this episode’s for you. There’s a lot of tactical knowledge packed in.
Chris, I’ll turn it over to you. Can you introduce yourself to our listeners?
Chris Cabaniss: Yeah—thanks for having me on. I’m excited to share some PPC knowledge here. Hopefully, it’s useful and gives people a few tactics they can apply right away.
As you mentioned, I’m the co-founder of Falcon Digital Marketing. We specialize primarily in lead generation, especially for more competitive industries—things like home services and local businesses.
I’ve been using CallTrackingMetrics for a long time. It’s honestly been a critical tool for evaluating lead quality, especially from calls. We run a lot of paid ads—on Google, Facebook, and other platforms—and it’s one thing to generate leads, but another to know if they’re actually qualified. That’s where CTM comes in.
With CallTrackingMetrics, we can listen to calls, use AI keyword spotting, evaluate the lead quality, and push that data into the CRM. You can even track forms and live chat, but calls were always the piece that was missing for us—and now we have full visibility.
We’ll get into some of the technical details later, but I’ve basically been using CTM for as long as I’ve been doing PPC.
I started my career doing freelance work, then moved into agency life. I worked with some really large agencies and handled accounts for big companies. Then in 2016, I co-founded my own agency, and I’ve been at it ever since.
CTM Marketing: Love that. And I’d love to dig into the earlier part of your story a bit more. What first sparked your interest in marketing, and eventually led you into PPC and advertising specifically?
Chris Cabaniss: It actually started from trying to market a few of my own businesses, right around college and just after graduating. Some friends and I were learning about online marketing—it seemed exciting. Like, “Hey, you can build a website, make some money, launch your own thing.” So we tried a few ideas. Sort of the classic dorm-room-startup story… except ours didn’t become a billion-dollar company!
But that experience led people to ask, “Hey, can you do Google Ads for my business? Facebook Ads?” (which wasn’t Meta back then), or “Can you build a website or do some SEO?”
So I started doing a little of everything. One referral led to another, and eventually I realized—this could be a full-time job. And I loved it.
From there, I just dove in. Books, blogs, courses, conferences—I was constantly trying to learn more. At the time, YouTube wasn’t as big as it is now, but I found every training resource I could get my hands on. It all started with marketing my own businesses, and then turned into, “Okay—I’ll market anyone’s business. And people will pay for that.”
Chris Cabaniss: And that’s when it really turned into a career. I spent some time at larger agencies, but being an entrepreneur at heart, I eventually wanted to get back to building something of my own. So in 2016, my wife and I—she has a similar career path—co-founded our own agency together.
We’ve both stayed passionate about it. The space changes so fast—Google overhauls everything, Meta follows, and now with AI evolving, the rules are constantly shifting. It feels like things reset every 3 to 6 months, so it never gets boring.
CTM Marketing: Yeah, totally. So much of what you’re describing really resonates with me. I’m kind of a late entrant to the field—I pivoted into marketing in 2014 and eventually got into podcasting and digital campaigns. But I’ve always found PPC to be the most daunting. Even though it gives you more control over budget and targeting, there’s a lot to manage.
SEO has its own challenges too, of course, especially since you’re not always working with ad dollars to test and iterate. And like you said, all of these platforms keep shifting the game—Google, Meta, everyone.
That brings me to what I really want to dig into today. Can you walk us through what you’re doing right now with your clients, and how tools like CallTrackingMetrics help you qualify leads and generate better ones?
Chris Cabaniss: Absolutely. And yeah, we should definitely link to the guest post I wrote—it’s a good companion piece to this conversation. If you’re more of a reader and like to go line-by-line through actionable details, that article expands on a lot of what we’re touching on today without repeating too much.
So, the biggest thing we’ve found with lead generation is that lead quality matters more than volume. Especially in industries like home services, legal, or insurance—it’s not hard to get leads. You can buy them. There are companies that sell leads for $20, $100, whatever the rate is.
But when you buy bundled leads, they’re often shared with multiple companies, and that seriously impacts quality. Or maybe you’re running Facebook or Meta ads, YouTube ads, or—of course—Google search ads.
Now, Google Search itself has splintered into several options. You’ve got things like Local Services Ads, also called Google Guaranteed. On the surface, paying per phone call sounds better than paying per click. But you really need to listen to those calls.
CTM Marketing: Right, makes sense.
Chris Cabaniss: Exactly. There’s a reason traditional PPC still exists—because some of these newer models don’t deliver great quality. With LSAs, I’d say maybe 50% of the calls are good. It’s not useless, but it’s messy. That’s why layering in software like CallTrackingMetrics is critical.
I’ve been using CTM for more than a decade. I used it at previous agencies, and when I started my own shop, it was the first platform I wanted to bring in. Yes, there are other options, but CTM has always delivered for us. I’ve tried others, but we always come back to it.
When I first used it, it was like a bonus feature—you could listen to calls, and it would pick up the keywords the caller searched before dialing. That blew me away back then.
Chris Cabaniss: At first, features like keyword spotting on calls felt like a cool bonus. But especially over the past three years—with all the automation and AI, and Google changing everything constantly—it’s become critical. You have to track your calls. You just can’t afford not to.
It’s easy to think, “I’ll just buy some leads,” or “I’ll run some SEO,” or “I’ll use Google Guaranteed and pay per call.” And sure, you might get a bunch of phone calls and think everything’s working.
But if you’re not listening to those calls, if you’re not tracking quality and tying it back to revenue, then you’re guessing. You absolutely need to record and score calls, leave notes, mark whether it was a good or bad lead, and ideally track whether that lead converted.
CallTrackingMetrics gives you a mini-CRM to do that out of the box. And if you’ve got the budget, you can integrate with bigger platforms—Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, ServiceTitan, whatever fits your business.
That’s the big shift I’ve seen. What used to be “nice to have” is now non-negotiable. If our clients are running ads, we don’t launch anything until CallTrackingMetrics is set up. It’s that important.
CTM Marketing: That’s awesome to hear. You mentioned some of the clients you’re working with—what are the common pushbacks or hesitations they have about adopting call tracking tools like CTM? Especially for small and medium businesses, are they just overwhelmed? Because from the outside, the benefits seem pretty clear.
Chris Cabaniss: Yeah, totally. For the smallest businesses, I’d say it usually comes down to cost. Let’s just say, for example, CTM is around $50 a month. That might feel like a lot to a one-person operation or a small four-person team. They’re thinking, “Fifty bucks just to track phone calls?”
But it’s about what you get from that. Same thing with marketing budgets in general—small businesses say, “$1,000 a month on Google Ads? That’s a lot.” But then I ask, “What are your goals? Are you trying to expand? Hire more people? Reach a new part of town?”
You need to invest to grow. And cutting out call tracking so you can put more into ads or SEO doesn’t make sense. You’re flying blind. Even if you’re doing mailers, you can still use CTM—buy a phone number, print it, and track which campaigns drive actual calls.
Chris Cabaniss: This isn’t just for ads or billboards. You see vanity numbers all the time—CallTrackingMetrics can do that, too. But if you’re not attaching a trackable number to each campaign, you’re flying blind. That $50 or $100 a month to track calls might seem like a luxury at first. But if you’re not evaluating how your mailers performed, for example, how are you really measuring success?
People say, “Oh, I’ll just ask them how they heard about us.” But in reality, marketing has so many touchpoints. Maybe one out of ten people will say, “I got your mailer last Tuesday,” and that’s assuming there weren’t multiple versions or promos running at once.
With Google? Forget it. Nobody remembers what keyword they searched. They probably searched three times, saw a remarketing ad, checked out a Facebook group, Googled your name again, looked at your reviews, and then finally called. It’s just too many steps.
And that’s why asking customers isn’t enough. They either don’t remember, or they say something vague like “I Googled you”—which tells you nothing if you’ve got hundreds of keywords running.
CallTrackingMetrics gives you that extra layer of clarity. You can pinpoint where the lead came from and stretch your marketing dollars further. And if you’re not super technical? You don’t have to be. CTM’s documentation is great, and there are resources to help you get started. But once you’re overwhelmed enough—and most business owners eventually get there—it’s time to start budgeting to outsource. Whether that’s a freelancer, an in-house hire, or an agency, you can’t wear every hat forever.
CTM Marketing: Absolutely. I’ve seen that same evolution of thinking, especially with clients at different levels of marketing maturity. And you’re right—it’s when those “aha” moments happen that real progress begins.
So once a client has that baseline attribution set up in CallTrackingMetrics—what’s next? What do you typically recommend as the next step in optimizing lead quality?
Chris Cabaniss: For small businesses, the next step is usually just digging deeper. If you’re only getting a couple of calls a day, it’s totally doable to listen manually. Just note what’s working—was that call from a Facebook ad, a Google ad, a mailer?
But with bigger clients, where you’re spending $50,000 or $200,000 a month on marketing, even a small 30% swing in lead quality has a huge impact. That extra layer of insight from CTM isn’t just helpful—it’s essential.
Chris Cabaniss: When you’re dealing with high call volumes, you need a system that can scale. That’s where CallTrackingMetrics is invaluable. You can review every single call without manually listening to hundreds of recordings. Their AI can spot keywords—like “appointment,” “booking,” “estimate”—and flag calls that likely converted.
We help clients automate this further. Using CallTrackingMetrics and integrations via API or tools like Zapier, we can sync call outcomes directly into the client’s CRM. So if a call results in a booked appointment or sale, that data pushes back to CallTrackingMetrics, where it’s tied to the exact keyword or campaign that generated the call.
It can even carry over revenue numbers. So now we know: this call came from Google, it was triggered by this keyword, and it led to a $10,000 sale. From there, that data can be sent to Google Analytics or your reporting dashboard. That gives you real ROI on lead generation.
Now, if you’re a smaller business, you might be thinking, “I have no idea what you just said.” And that’s fair. But for clients spending $50K to $200K a month on advertising, this kind of insight is mission-critical.
We do this across the board for our clients. We can show them: you spent $50K on Meta this month, and you brought in $120K. Here’s how many good leads, bad leads, and how many turned into customers or scheduled jobs. That kind of visibility is a game-changer.
CTM Marketing: Totally. And I’d also add that on top of that, we’ve got some new VoiceAI and ChatAI tools launching around the time this episode airs. They build right on top of everything you just described—automating lead engagement while still giving marketers control over the experience.
It’s all about removing friction. If someone is looking for information or wants to connect quickly, tools like this help us show up at the right time, with the right answers.
Also curious—just recently, Google made headlines with its new AI capabilities for local service businesses. They’re piloting AI that can call businesses to ask about pricing and availability. Are you seeing clients start to explore that already?
Chris Cabaniss: We are, actually. A few of our clients have already started using it and they’re happy with the results.
Now, whether it’s AI, a call center, your nephew, or the business owner picking up the phone—it all comes down to the same thing: listen to those calls. Even if it’s AI, you’ve got to make sure the conversation sounds natural. That’s a big concern—people are afraid it won’t sound human.
But the AI we’ve seen in action does sound very natural. Of course, you still want to review calls and tweak the AI where needed, but so far it’s been impressive.
Home services is especially well-suited for this. So many of those calls are basic: “Can you come today?” “How much would this cost?” The AI can handle that back-and-forth, offer available time slots, or pass it off to a technician for a more detailed quote. Just like a call center would—but automated.
Chris Cabaniss: “Can we come out at 2 p.m. and take a look?” That kind of interaction is something AI can now handle really well—just like a live call center would. But those call centers are expensive, sometimes hundreds or even thousands per month. Voice AI is becoming a great alternative.
Live chat AI has come a long way too. It used to just spit out canned responses, but now it’s much more sophisticated. Voice AI is following that same evolution—and you can plug both right into CallTrackingMetrics or into your CRM. But whether it’s AI or a human answering the phone, the process is the same: you have to evaluate the outcome.
CTM Marketing:
Totally. And since this episode is dropping in August—prime time for home services—I’d love to get into some tactics for that industry. Let’s say I’m a home service business owner gearing up for peak season. What should I be prioritizing?
Obviously, step one is getting a call tracking platform in place. But beyond that—any tips from your guest post with us or lessons learned from working with these clients over the years?
Chris Cabaniss:
Yeah, a few things come to mind. First, automation within CallTrackingMetrics can save you a ton of time—especially if you’re getting 50 to 100 calls a day. Some companies have dedicated data analysts reviewing all those calls in spreadsheets. Most don’t have that luxury. They don’t have a five-person marketing team to comb through Excel all day.
So automation is key. One of the simplest but most powerful tactics we implement for every client is setting a minimum call length before a call is counted as a conversion. CallTrackingMetrics makes that easy. So do Google and Meta—they now let you set minimum durations like 30 seconds or 2 minutes.
It sounds basic, but it’s critical. For example, home services businesses get a ton of calls from people just asking, “Are you hiring?” That’s not a lead. By setting a minimum call length—say one minute—you can filter most of that noise out. AI can help too by flagging or filtering calls with keywords like “hiring” or “job.”
That one-minute rule is our standard. You could set it to two or three minutes, but don’t go overboard. Don’t be greedy—especially in industries like law or insurance. And in home services, legit calls are often quick. Someone says, “My house is 100 degrees, can you come today?”—you say yes, book the job, and hang up. That whole interaction might be 40 seconds.
So while the calls are short, they’re meaningful. If you’re not applying a minimum length filter, you risk counting junk as conversions—and that messes up your reporting.
CTM Marketing: Totally agree. And we’ll make sure to link to your article—it includes those screenshots showing exactly how to set that minimum call duration.
Chris Cabaniss: Exactly. And the reason it matters now more than ever is that platforms like Google and Meta are going all-in on automated bidding and AI-driven optimization.
Take Google’s Performance Max campaigns or their new AI Max for Search. These systems rely on feedback. If you don’t teach them what a good lead looks like—and what a bad one is—they’ll just optimize for any conversion. Even those 20-second junk calls.
So yeah, minimum call length is a small thing, but it can have a huge impact—especially when you’re training these ad platforms.
Chris Cabaniss: If you don’t set up qualifiers—like a minimum call length—you’ll end up saying, “Wow, we got 100 calls today,” but 30 of them were job seekers, 30 were hang-ups, and 10 were wrong numbers. Meanwhile, Google or Meta just sees 100 conversions and tries to get you more of the same.
But if you set the rule—like “only count calls that are 2 minutes or longer”—the AI gets much smarter and optimizes toward meaningful conversations. That’s one of the most important things we put in place, especially when ramping up spend or doing large-scale tests.
Roofing is a great example. After a hailstorm, everyone’s running ads like crazy. You want to move fast, maybe target a 50-mile radius or hit a bunch of ZIP codes with Meta or Google ads. That’s fine—but if you don’t attach call tracking and minimum call lengths to filter quality, it’s a guessing game. You spend $10,000 in two weeks and can’t say for sure if it worked.
With proper tracking, you can say, “Yep, we booked 20 jobs,” or “Nope, a bunch of clicks, barely any estimates.” That’s the difference. You need to know.
CTM Marketing: Totally. And honestly, as a homeowner, I’ve been on the receiving end of those campaigns after storms. It’s always a mix of online ads and door-to-door soliciting. So I love the idea of combining new-school and old-school tactics, but… tracked.
Chris Cabaniss: Exactly. Solar companies do that a lot too—knocking on doors because they bought a list of homes that qualify. But I’m biased. If someone’s actively Googling “I want solar for my house,” that’s going to be a much better lead.
Sure, it seems cheaper to go door-to-door, but you’ve got to factor in how much you paid those canvassers. You can take that same list, run targeted Google or Meta ads, add tracking, and compare results. I’d bet digital will convert better. I’ve never bought anything from someone coming to my door.
CTM Marketing: Absolutely. And Chris, just as we wrap up—one question I always like to ask: what advice do you have for people just getting started in marketing today? Or even folks mid-career looking to stay sharp?
Chris Cabaniss: A lot’s changed since I started. And one big shift is the rise of self-publishing—especially on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Some creators are great. Others? Not so much.
When someone says they’re a “Facebook expert” or they’ve found “the hack” for Google Ads, check their credentials. Google them. Are they published anywhere else? Do they have a company? Have they spoken at real conferences? If they only exist on one social channel, that’s a red flag.
Look at real publications and vetted sources. I’d recommend the CallTrackingMetrics blog, of course, but also HubSpot, SEMrush (or SE-M-rush, if you’re old-school), WordStream, and Search Engine Land. There’s also a great group of legitimate PPC experts on YouTube:
- Paid Media Pros
- Ed Leake from God Tier Ads
- Miles McNair (PPC Mastery)
- Aaron Young, Ben Heath, Darren Taylor
These folks all run real businesses, publish content, speak at conferences—you can vet them. And if you’re already in the industry, just keep learning. Don’t get stubborn. I didn’t love Performance Max when it first launched, but now? You’ve got to know it.
Whether you’re just starting or deep in your career, make sure you’re learning from legit sources. Stay sharp. This industry moves fast.
CTM Marketing: Couldn’t agree more. Thanks so much, Chris, for joining us today. And for our listeners, we’ll make sure to link to Chris’s guest blog post and some of the other resources he mentioned. He’s also published on Search Engine Journal, so definitely check him out there.And as always, thanks for listening to Smart Route. We’ll see you next episode. Take care.