For many local service campaigns, the most valuable interaction never touches the website. Someone searches "emergency plumber near me", sees a call button on your ad and taps it. If that call is not tracked as a conversion, Google Ads sees a click with no result, and your bidding treats your best leads as wasted spend.
This post focuses on calls placed directly from ads: call assets, the "calls from ads" conversion action, call reporting, call length, scheduling and how to optimise once the data is flowing. For calls made from your website, see my guide to website call conversions with Google forwarding numbers, and for a summary of every option, my Google Ads call tracking overview. My video above covers the general conversion tracking setup on a WordPress site, which you will still need for form and website conversions.
What is a call asset in Google Ads?
A call asset is a phone number or call button attached to your ads, so people can call your business straight from the search results. It was previously called a call extension. On mobile it usually appears as a tappable call button; on larger screens it can show the number itself.
You can add call assets at three levels:
| Level | When I use it |
|---|---|
| Account | One business, one phone line, every campaign should show it |
| Campaign | Different numbers or schedules for different services or locations |
| Ad group | Rarely; only when one service needs its own line |
Lower levels override higher ones, so a campaign-level call asset replaces the account-level one for that campaign. Google decides whether to show an asset in each auction, so adding one does not guarantee every ad shows a call button.
How does call reporting work?
Call reporting lets Google show a Google forwarding number in your call asset, route the call to your real number and record details about it. Without it, you see far less about what happened after someone tapped the button.
Where forwarding numbers are supported, call reporting gives you:
- Call start and end time and duration
- Whether the call was received or missed
- The caller's area code
- Which campaign, ad group and asset generated the call
Forwarding number availability varies by country, so check Google's current help article for the countries you advertise in. Call reporting is switched on in your account or campaign settings, though Google has moved the setting more than once.
How do you set up the "calls from ads" conversion action?
You set it up as a phone call conversion action in the Goals area of Google Ads, choosing the option for calls from ads using call assets. The steps, in general terms:
- Start a new conversion action and choose Phone calls.
- Choose calls from ads (Google's wording may mention call assets or call ads).
- Pick a goal category such as Phone call lead.
- Set a value, either a fixed estimate per call or none.
- Set Count to One for lead businesses, so a customer who calls twice from the same ad interaction counts once.
- Set the call length: the minimum duration for a call to count as a conversion.
- Save, then link it to your call assets.
How do you link a call asset to the conversion action?
Each call asset has a conversion setting. By default it uses your account-level setting for calls from ads; you can also pick a specific conversion action for that asset. I keep one calls from ads action per account unless a business genuinely needs to separate, for example, emergency and routine service lines.
How long should the call length threshold be?
Choose the shortest duration that usually separates genuine enquiries from noise in your own call logs. Google pre-fills a default, but your business is the better guide. A drain-unblocking enquiry with questions about access and price runs longer than a quick "are you open today?" call. Listen to or review a sample of calls before settling on a number, and revisit it once you have a month of data.
Why should you schedule call assets to business hours?
You schedule call assets so the call button only appears when someone can answer. A call that rings out at 10 pm is a lost lead you still paid for, and with call reporting it shows up as a missed call rather than a conversion.
In each call asset's advanced options you can set start and end dates and an asset schedule by day and time. My approach:
- Match the schedule to the hours your phones are actually staffed, not the hours on your website.
- If you offer emergency service with an on-call line, keep that schedule separate and make sure the number reaches whoever is on call.
- Check the call details report for missed calls by hour, and tighten the schedule where missed calls cluster.
- Remember the schedule controls the call asset only; your ads can still run and drive form leads outside those hours.
The asset schedule uses the account's time zone, which matters if you manage a US client from another country, as I do.
Are call-only ads still available?
Google has been moving advertisers away from call-only ads, now called call ads, in favour of responsive search ads with call assets. Google has announced a phase-out, and the timing has varied by account, so check the current Google Ads help or account notifications before building anything new around call ads.
In practice the switch is straightforward. A responsive search ad with a call asset can still drive calls from mobile searchers, and it also gives people the option to visit your site. If you have existing call ads, the calls from ads conversion action keeps working for call assets, so your conversion history carries on.
How do you measure and optimise calls from ads?
You measure calls from ads by looking at conversions from that action, call details and asset performance together, then adjusting schedules, numbers and bidding signals. These are the checks I run monthly:
- Segment conversions by conversion action to see calls from ads separately from forms and website calls.
- Compare phone calls with calls from ads conversions. A big gap usually means many short calls under your threshold.
- Review missed calls by hour and day, then adjust the asset schedule or staffing.
- Look at search terms behind call conversions. Calls on irrelevant searches waste staff time as well as budget.
- Check the number in the call asset is still correct after any office or phone system change.
- Cross-check a sample of calls against the business's own phone log.
Should calls from ads be a primary conversion?
For most local service businesses, yes. A call from an ad that lasts beyond your threshold is a direct enquiry, and Smart Bidding needs it to understand which searches lead to customers. Keep it primary alongside your form conversions, and make other call signals, such as click-to-call taps on the website, secondary so the same person is not counted twice. I explain how bidding uses these signals in Smart Bidding strategies explained.
Duration still does not tell you whether the caller booked. If you want bidding to favour calls that became jobs, the next step is importing qualified call outcomes from your CRM or call-tracking tool.
What does this look like on a real account?
For TalkBar, a restaurant in Bengaluru, calls and reservations were previously untracked. I set up Google Ads conversion actions for calls, reservations and form submissions, and the account now has live conversion actions for calls from ads alongside the package form, reservation form and WhatsApp clicks. A restaurant reservation call is often short, which is a good example of why call length should be set per business rather than copied from another account.
Final thoughts
Calls from ads are often the cleanest lead signal a local campaign has. Turn on call reporting, set a sensible call length, schedule call assets to staffed hours and review missed calls regularly. If you would like help with campaign setup and optimisation, see my Google Ads management for local services.
