How do I set up conversion tracking for inbound calls in Google Ads?

1. Google Forwarding Numbers via Call Assets

The simplest call tracking method uses Google's own forwarding number system:

1. In Google Ads, navigate to Tools > Conversions and create a new conversion action.
2. Select Phone Calls as the conversion type and choose "Calls from ads using a Google forwarding number".
3. Set a minimum call duration (we recommend 60 seconds) to exclude short accidental dials from counting as conversions.
4. Add a Call Asset to your campaign, which replaces your real phone number with a Google tracking number that records call details.

2. Tracking Website Clicks-to-Call via GTM

For calls initiated from your website's phone number link (not from the ad itself), use Google Tag Manager:

• Create a GTM Click Trigger that fires when a user clicks any element containing tel: in the href attribute.
• Link this trigger to a Google Ads Conversion Tag configured to fire a Phone Call Conversion.
• This tracks every click-to-call interaction from your landing page as a Google Ads conversion event, including mobile users.

3. Analysing Call Duration and Quality

Google Ads call reports provide call duration, caller area code, and call start time. Use these reports to:

• Identify which ad groups drive the longest, highest-quality calls.
• Adjust your minimum call duration threshold based on your average qualifying call length.
• Exclude area codes outside your service regions to prevent irrelevant calls from counting as conversions.

Combining call duration data with CRM outcome records (whether the call became a proposal or a sale) allows you to assign accurate conversion values and optimise bidding for genuinely high-value callers.

4. Attributing Calls That Do Not Come From the Ad

Google's forwarding numbers handle calls placed directly from the ad, but a large share of paid-search phone enquiries happen differently: the person clicks the ad, reads the landing page, leaves, and calls the number they saw two days later from a different device. None of that is captured by call assets, and accounts that only track call-asset conversions systematically undercount their phone volume.

Dynamic number insertion closes part of the gap. A script swaps the displayed number for a tracking number tied to the visitor's session, so a call placed later from that number is still attributed to the original paid visit. It is not free — you need a pool of numbers large enough for your concurrent traffic, or sessions will collide and misattribute — and it requires that the number in your Google Business Profile and other citations stays constant, since swapping those breaks local ranking signals.

5. Separating Calls That Matter From Calls That Do Not

Counting every call as a conversion feeds the bidding algorithm a badly contaminated signal. Wrong numbers, existing customers chasing an invoice, suppliers, and job applicants all register identically to a genuine enquiry, and on some accounts they account for the majority of volume. The standard first filter is duration — typically sixty seconds — on the reasoning that a real enquiry rarely finishes faster.

Duration is a blunt proxy, though, and worth replacing once you have the plumbing for it. If your call system records outcomes, or someone tags calls in the CRM afterwards, push the qualified ones back as offline conversions keyed on the GCLID and optimise towards those instead. The difference is substantial: an account bidding towards all sixty-second calls buys volume, while an account bidding towards calls a salesperson marked as genuine opportunities buys pipeline, and the two produce noticeably different keyword mixes over a quarter.