When shoppers want immediate communication with a company, they often (still!) pick up the phone and call. That's especially simple to do now as online and mobile click-to-call features become more popular.

However, nearly one in five calls driven by paid search ads goes unanswered, according to a recent study of nearly 400,000 inbound phone calls by call-tracking and analytics company DialogTech. And more than half (57%) of those voice messages indicated a high-purchase-intent consumer!

That means marketers are wasting money encouraging calls that are never answered, and it also means that valuable customers are having a negative brand experience.

DialogTech put together an infographic based on the results of its study, suggesting ways marketers can solve the voicemail problem, including the following:

• Don't run call-only ads when the business isn't open or staffed to answer calls.
• Understand how paid search drives qualified callers to each location.
• Optimize spend for the ads and keywords that drive the most good calls at the lowest costs.
• Route each caller to the best agent or location right away to convert them to customers.