hi, i’m amr. if prospects can phone your b2b business, “calls” probably sit in the conversion column of your google ads account. few teams can say what counts as one. google’s page on phone call conversion tracking answers it, and it leaves one number out on purpose.
what google says, in its own words
- for calls from ads and calls to a number on your website: “You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.”
- for clicks on a number on your mobile website, google says it can “only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves”
- clicks on call ads and call assets are counted as conversions based on google’s own estimate, with no forwarding number involved
- tracking calls from ads and from a website, and importing call conversions, require google forwarding numbers, and those numbers are available only in some countries
- website calls also need the google tag and the matching event snippet to be set up correctly
- calls tracked in another system, such as a CRM, can be imported into google ads, and you can choose to count only the calls that led to a sale and attach values
the page doesn’t state a default minimum call length or a range for it, so i won’t guess one.
my reading, not google’s wording: two accounts can both report 40 call conversions and mean different things. one might count anything over a few seconds, another only conversations long enough to qualify a lead. the number in the column depends on a setting someone chose.
what to check this week
- open your conversion actions and find every call action. write down the minimum call length on each and who set it
- listen to a sample of recordings if you have them, then set the minimum from what your real qualifying calls look like, not from a blog or a default. as an illustration only, a wrong-number call and a sales conversation rarely last the same time
- keep click-to-call from a mobile number separate in your reporting. google’s own page says those are clicks, not calls
- check that forwarding numbers are available in your country before you plan a call-tracking setup around them
- if your CRM logs which calls became deals, import those outcomes so bidding learns from sales and not just from call length. i covered the import side in an earlier post
where this stops applying
the page gives no benchmark for a good call length, no call conversion rate, and nothing about lead quality. if phone isn’t part of your funnel, none of this applies. i haven’t audited any account for this post, so treat the list above as a starting point.
start scaling — if your call conversions look healthy but sales says the phone isn’t bringing buyers, a one-hour review of your conversion actions will show what’s being counted. let’s connect.
Sources: Google Ads Help, “About phone call conversion tracking” (support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6100664). Figures are published product documentation, not verified results from Amr’s own client accounts.