The average Google Ads account running a service business has call extensions enabled. Almost none of them have set them up in a way that actually drives phone call leads. They’ve added a phone number, called it done, and moved on.
That’s leaving money on the table — specifically, the kind of money that comes from a high-intent prospect who searched “emergency HVAC repair near me” at 7pm on a Tuesday and wanted to talk to a human being right now.
If your business closes deals on the phone — plumbing, legal, roofing, home services, medical, financial advisory, any of it — your Google Ads account needs to be built phone-first. Here’s exactly how to do that.
- Call extensions (now called call assets) add a clickable phone number to your standard search ads — they don’t replace your landing page, they sit alongside it.
- Call-only ads replace the headline link entirely with a tap-to-call button — the right choice when your landing page can’t convert mobile traffic better than a phone call can.
- Google’s native call reporting tracks call duration, which is the only metric that separates real leads from wrong numbers and spam.
- You should bid on calls separately from clicks — call bid adjustments let you push more budget toward the inventory that actually drives phone leads.
- The biggest mistake in call campaign setup isn’t technical — it’s running calls 24/7 when your team only answers phones 9–5.
Call Assets vs. Call-Only Ads: Stop Confusing These Two Things
Most guides treat these as variations of the same feature. They’re not. They serve different user intents and different funnel stages, and mixing them up will cost you.
Call assets (Google rebranded “call extensions” to “call assets” in 2022 — same thing) attach your phone number to a standard search ad. The user still sees your headline, your description, your URL. They can click through to your site or tap the number to call. You’re giving them a choice.
Call-only ads remove the choice entirely. The entire ad unit is designed to generate a phone call. There’s no landing page click. The headline itself is your phone number. On mobile, tapping the ad calls you directly.
Use call assets when your landing page does real work — when it has strong social proof, a quote form, a video, or anything else that converts browsers into leads. Use call-only ads when your landing page is weak, your product is complex enough that people need to talk before they buy, or you’re targeting high-urgency searches where a human conversation is genuinely the fastest path to a conversion.
How to Set Up Call Assets the Right Way (Not Just the Fast Way)
Go to Assets → Call in your Google Ads account. Add your number. But don’t stop there — here’s what most people skip:
1. Enable Google Forwarding Numbers
When you use a Google forwarding number, Google tracks call duration, call start time, and whether the call connected. Without this, all you know is that someone tapped the call button. You have no idea if they got through, how long they stayed on, or whether it was your third call from the same spammer today.
Turn this on. It’s free. There is no legitimate reason to skip it.
2. Set a Minimum Call Duration for Conversions
Navigate to Tools → Conversions and configure your call conversion action. The default minimum call duration is 60 seconds. For most service businesses, that’s too short — a 60-second call can be a wrong number with hold music, a bot, or someone who called the wrong company.
We typically set this to 90–120 seconds for home services clients and 180 seconds for legal and financial clients. Test what correlates with your actual closed customers. Pull your CRM data, look at which call lengths led to booked appointments, and set your threshold accordingly.
3. Restrict Call Hours to When You Actually Answer
This is the single most commonly ignored setting in call campaign setup — and it’s destroying efficiency for businesses everywhere.
If your office answers phones Monday through Friday, 8am to 6pm, your call assets should only show during those hours. A click at 9pm on a Saturday that goes to voicemail is a wasted $15–$40 depending on your vertical. Schedule your call assets to match your answering hours. Set the rest of your ads to send traffic to a landing page with a contact form.
Building Call-Only Ads That Actually Get Calls
Call-only ads have a brutal character limit and zero room for a destination URL to do heavy lifting. Every word has to work harder than in a standard search ad.
Your Headline Is the Phone Number
Google displays your number as the primary headline. You don’t control this. What you control is the two description lines and the business name. These are doing all the selling.
Your description lines should answer three questions in order: What do you do? Why call you specifically? Why call right now?
A weak call-only ad: “We offer professional plumbing services. Call us today for a free estimate.”
A stronger call-only ad: “Licensed plumbers on-call 24/7 — most jobs same day. Senior technicians only, no subcontractors. Call now for upfront pricing.”
Specificity does the work. Vague claims about “quality service” cost you just as much per call as specific, trust-building copy — but they convert at a fraction of the rate.
Match Your Call-Only Ads to High-Intent Keywords Only
Don’t run call-only ads on broad informational searches. Someone searching “how much does a roof replacement cost” is doing research. Someone searching “roof replacement contractor near me” is ready to talk.
Build a dedicated ad group (or campaign) for your highest-intent, commercial keywords and point call-only ads at those. Let your standard ads handle everything else. This keeps your cost-per-call in check and your call quality high.
Bid Strategy for Phone Call Leads: Don’t Just Let Google Decide
If you’re running Maximize Conversions or Target CPA and you’ve properly configured call conversions alongside form fill conversions, Google will optimize toward whichever action it thinks is easier to get. That’s often a 3-second page visit counted as a micro-conversion, not a 2-minute phone call.
A few things that actually work:
Segment call conversions from form conversions in your bidding. If a phone call lead is worth 3x a form fill for your business (it usually is — calls close at a much higher rate), assign a higher conversion value to calls. Use value-based bidding with Target ROAS so the algorithm is chasing revenue, not just volume.
Use call bid adjustments on mobile. Go to Devices in your campaign settings and apply a positive bid adjustment for mobile — typically +20% to +40% depending on how call-dominant your funnel is. Mobile users who see a call extension can call without ever leaving Google. That’s a frictionless path to a lead you want to pay up for.
Don’t apply call bid adjustments blindly. Pull your call conversion data by device first. In some B2B verticals, mobile callers have shorter call duration and lower close rates than desktop users who call from a landing page. Follow the data, not the conventional wisdom.
The Call Reporting Setup That Most Agencies Completely Ignore
You can see every call detail inside Google Ads under Reports → Predefined reports → Extensions → Call details. This shows you call start time, duration, whether the call connected, and the caller’s area code.
Here’s what to do with it:
Filter for calls under your minimum conversion duration threshold. If you’re seeing a spike in 10–30 second calls, you either have a spam problem, a voicemail problem (your lines are going to voicemail and callers are hanging up), or your ad copy is attracting the wrong audience.
Look at call volume by hour of day. If you’re getting a surge of calls between 5pm and 7pm but your team leaves at 5pm, you have two options: extend your answering hours or run a call scheduling rule that switches your ads to landing-page-only traffic during those hours.
Export the area code data. If 40% of your calls are coming from area codes outside your service area, your geo-targeting is too loose. Tighten it and watch your cost-per-qualified-call drop.
One Campaign Structure That Works for Phone-First Businesses
Here’s the structure we’ve seen perform consistently for local service businesses running phone-first funnels:
Campaign 1 — Branded: Standard search ads + call assets. Protect your brand name, capture navigational intent, keep impression share above 90%. Calls here are cheap and highly qualified.
Campaign 2 — High-Intent Non-Brand (Mobile Focus): Call-only ads plus standard ads with call assets. Tight geo, exact and phrase match keywords with clear commercial intent (“emergency,” “near me,” “same day,” “cost,” “pricing”). Positive mobile bid adjustment. Call conversion tracking with 90+ second threshold.
Campaign 3 — Broader Non-Brand: Standard search ads, landing page as primary CTA, call assets enabled but not the focus. This catches earlier-funnel searches and feeds the remarketing list you’ll use to re-engage non-converting visitors.
Keep these campaigns separate. Don’t let your emergency HVAC keywords compete with your informational content keywords for the same budget — the intent is too different and the bid strategy will be wrong for one of them no matter what you do.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between call extensions and call-only ads in Google Ads?
Call extensions (call assets) add your phone number to a standard search ad that also has a headline link to your website. Call-only ads replace the website link entirely — the whole ad exists to generate a phone call. Call assets are additive; call-only ads are exclusive.
Do Google call extensions cost extra?
No — adding call assets to your ads doesn’t cost anything extra to set up. You pay when someone clicks the call button, and the CPC for a call click is generally similar to a regular click in the same auction. The cost comes from clicks, not from the feature itself.
How do I track phone call leads from Google Ads?
Enable Google forwarding numbers in your call asset settings, then create a call conversion action under Tools → Conversions. Set a minimum call duration that aligns with what a real lead looks like for your business (usually 90–180 seconds). Import these conversions into your bidding strategy so Google optimizes toward actual leads, not just call button taps.
Should I use call-only ads on desktop?
Almost never. Call-only ads are designed for mobile tap-to-call behavior. On desktop, a standard search ad with a call asset performs better — users can choose to visit your site or call. If you’re running call-only ads and not segmenting by device, you may be wasting budget on desktop impressions that can’t convert into calls the same way.
What’s a good cost per call for Google Ads?
It depends entirely on your vertical and what a closed customer is worth. HVAC and plumbing businesses often see $30–$80 per qualified call. Legal verticals can run $100–$300+ per call. The number that matters is cost per closed customer from calls, not cost per call click — and most accounts don’t track that far down the funnel, which is why they can’t answer this question about their own campaigns.
Can I run call ads if I use a call tracking service like CallRail?
Yes, but it requires some care. You can insert your CallRail tracking number into your call assets instead of your main business number — this lets CallRail record and attribute calls. If you also want Google’s forwarding number data, you’d need to choose one or the other per asset, or use CallRail’s Google Ads integration which can sync call data directly into your conversion tracking. Don’t run both tracking numbers simultaneously on the same asset.
Is Your Google Ads Account Actually Built for Calls — Or Just Hoping for Them?
There’s a difference between an account that has call assets turned on and an account that’s been genuinely engineered to drive phone call leads. The gap between the two is usually tens of thousands of dollars per year in wasted spend or missed revenue.
If your current setup doesn’t have proper call duration thresholds, call scheduling aligned to your business hours, and a segmented campaign structure for different intent levels — you’re not running a call-first strategy. You’re running a general search campaign with a phone number attached.
If you want a straight assessment of whether your call campaign setup is costing you leads, we’ll audit your account and tell you exactly what’s broken — no sales pitch, no fluff. That’s the kind of second opinion that’s worth getting before you spend another dollar on calls you can’t close.