The Best Way to Track Calls from Google Ads

Google Ads call tracking lets you see which ads, keywords, and campaigns drive phone calls to your business. It's what makes it possible to:

• Prove that your PPC campaigns are working
• Identify which specific ads and keywords work better than others

Let's say your Google Ads campaigns generate 500 phone calls this month. Great news, right?

Not necessarily. Without call tracking, you have no way to prove that your marketing was responsible for those calls. Even worse, when your sales team tells you that only 20 of those calls became customers, you can't identify which campaigns drove those valuable conversions versus the 480 that didn't convert.

This attribution gap creates a major problem for marketers. In fact, only 39% of companies carry out attribution on "all or most" of their marketing activities. That means the majority of businesses are making advertising decisions based on incomplete data.

This results in two critical blind spots:

1. You can't prove the ROI of your Google Ads spend
2. You can't optimize your campaigns to drive more valuable calls

Basic Google Ads call tracking solves the first problem—but advanced call tracking with WhatConverts solves both. This guide breaks down the difference and shows you how to set up call tracking that actually helps you grow revenue.

Plus, you'll see a real example of how one of our customers used advanced call tracking to obtain a 15x marketing ROI.

Let's start with the basics—what exactly is Google Ads call tracking and how does it work?

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What Is Google Ads Call Tracking?

Marketers use Google Ads call tracking to find out how many people have called their business after seeing an ad. With Google’s native call tracking tools, you can learn which ads are driving the most calls, how long the average call lasts, and when users call the most.

Google recognizes four main ways that calls can originate from campaigns:

1. Call extensions: Phone numbers displayed directly in your ads
2. Call-only ads: Mobile ads designed specifically to generate calls
3. Website calls: Calls made after clicking through to your site
4. Manual tracking: Importing call data from third-party platforms

What Google's Call Tracking Can and Can't Tell You

Google’s call tracking, while essential, is limited. It can tell you:

• Total number of calls per campaign
• Call duration and timing
• Which ads generated the most calls

It cannot tell you:

• Whether individual calls were qualified prospects or spam
• Which calls actually became customers
• The revenue value of each call

To gain these further insights, you need to set up advanced call tracking with WhatConverts.

Why Advanced Call Tracking Is Essential

Let's return to our 500 calls example to see why call quality matters more than call quantity.

Your Google Ads data shows Campaign A generated 400 calls while Campaign B generated only 100. Based on volume alone, Campaign A appears to be outperforming Campaign B by 400%—so you'd naturally shift more budget toward the "winning" campaign.

But here's what Google's data can't show you: When you track those calls with WhatConverts, you discover that all 20 customer conversions came from Campaign B's 100 calls. Campaign A's 400 calls? Zero customers.

The real performance picture:

• Campaign A: 400 calls, 0 customers (0% conversion rate)
• Campaign B: 100 calls, 20 customers (20% conversion rate)

Without advanced call tracking, you would have made a costly mistake: cutting budget from your only profitable campaign and doubling down on one that's generating pure waste. Instead of optimizing for results, you'd be optimizing for more junk calls.

This is why successful marketers go beyond Google's basic call data. They need to see not just which campaigns drive calls, but which campaigns drive customers.

What is Advanced Call Tracking?

Advanced call tracking goes beyond lead count to track the information you need to optimize your ads for lead value instead of lead volume.

WhatConverts equips you with complete call tracking data, allowing you to:

• See which pages and ads leads have interacted with in the past (customer journey)
• Hear and read what individual leads said on calls (call recording and transcription)
• Determine which calls came from leads that are worth pursuing (lead qualification)
• Learn which calls result in a sale — and how much each sale is worth (lead valuation)

In other words, advanced call tracking is the only way to get all of the data you need to determine true ROI.

Is Google Ads Call Tracking Right for Me?

Google Ads call tracking isn't universally beneficial—it works best for specific business types and marketing strategies. Here's how to evaluate if it's the right fit:

Call tracking is essential if you:

• Generate leads primarily through phone calls (rather than form fills or eCommerce)
• Run campaigns across multiple ad groups and keywords
• Need to justify ad spend with concrete ROI data
• Struggle to connect phone leads back to specific campaigns
• Want to optimize bidding strategies based on call quality, not just call volume

Consider your business model:

• Service businesses (HVAC, legal, medical, home services): High-value calls often lead directly to bookings
• B2B companies: Phone calls typically indicate serious buyer intent
• Local businesses: Call extensions and call-only ads can drive immediate action

Companies in industries like retail or e-commerce won’t benefit as much from call tracking because their entire transaction takes place online. Calls to these types of businesses tend to be about customer support, not about prospecting.

The Two Main Methods for Google Ads Call Tracking

There are two ways to track calls from Google Ads: using Google’s native call tracking tools, or using a third-party call-tracking platform that integrates with Google Ads.

Method 1: Tracking Calls Using Google’s Native Tools

Google offers built-in call tracking through Google forwarding numbers. This provides basic data like total call count, call duration, time of calls, and general location data.

Google provides four methods to track calls:

Calls Directly from Ads

Phone numbers appear directly in the ad itself, and calls are tracked and passed to your business via a Google forwarding number.

Setup process:

1. Navigate to your Google Ads account → Extensions → Call extensions
2. Add your business phone number
3. Set call reporting options (track calls as conversions)
4. Configure conversion tracking with a minimum call duration (typically 30-60 seconds)
5. Enable Google forwarding numbers for attribution

Best for: Campaigns where you want the phone number visible in the ad itself

Google Ads Setup Guide: Track calls from ads

Website Call Tracking

Your website phone number is replaced with a Google forwarding number that tracks calls made from your site.

Setup through Google Tag Manager:

1. Create a new tag in your GTM container
2. Configure phone call conversion tracking with your conversion ID and label
3. Set up triggers for phone number clicks
4. Test in preview mode before publishing
5. Verify tracking with Google Tag Assistant

Configuration requirements:

• Minimum call duration settings (recommended: 60+ seconds for lead gen)
• Conversion counting method (one-per-click vs. many-per-click)
• Attribution window settings

Google Ads Setup Guide: Track calls to a phone number on a website

Mobile Click-to-Call

Google counts each call placed by users that click on your phone number directly from your mobile site. Tracking is limited, since this method doesn’t use a Google forwarding number or a third-party tracking platform.

For mobile-focused campaigns:

1. Create call-only ad campaigns specifically for mobile devices
2. Configure phone call conversions with appropriate bidding strategies
3. Set up call assets to provide additional business information
4. Monitor call length and call interactions analysis

Google Ads Setup Guide: Track phone number clicks on a mobile website

Manual or Third-Party Call Import

Calls are tracked using a third-party platform like WhatConverts, and Google allows users to import data-rich call leads to Google Ads as conversions.

For businesses using third-party call tracking software:

• Import conversion data with enhanced attribution
• Sync call data with Google Ads conversion types
• Enable advanced analytics integration

Google Ads Setup Guide: Import phone call conversions

Testing Your Google Ads Call Tracking Setup

Essential validation steps:

1. Test call conversions by calling your own numbers from different devices
2. Verify conversion tracking appears in your Google Ads reports within 24-48 hours
3. Check call length reporting to ensure minimum duration settings work correctly
4. Validate attribution by testing calls from different keywords and ad groups
5. Monitor call data synchronization between Google Ads and your CRM or lead management system

Key metrics to verify:

• Call conversion rates align with your business goals
• Form tracking and call tracking data don't overlap (avoid double-counting)
• Phone numbers display correctly across different devices and ad formats

Method 2: WhatConverts (Recommended)

To get more comprehensive data on your Google Ads calls, you can integrate with a third-party platform like WhatConverts to capture more thorough information.

Platforms like WhatConverts provide comprehensive call tracking that captures deeper insights, like:

• Complete marketing attribution
• Individual lead profiles
• Call recordings and transcripts
• Revenue tracking
• Customer journey mapping
• Lead scoring and qualification

WhatConverts setup is quick and simple. You can start tracking calls in as little as 20 minutes (even if you're not very technical).

All it takes is four easy steps:

1. Create an account
2. Install a tracking code (made easy with a helpful plugin)
3. Select your tracking phone numbers
4. Connect to your Google Ads using our native integration

That’s it.

To see a more in-depth breakdown of setting up call tracking in WhatConverts, check out the guide below.

Read More: WhatConverts Step-By-Step Setup Guide

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Optimizing Your Call Tracking Strategy

Getting call tracking set up is just the beginning. Here's how to use your data for better campaign performance.

Refine Your Bidding Strategies

Once you can see which keywords actually drive valuable calls, you can make smarter bidding decisions:

• Feed call conversion data back to Google Ads as enhanced conversions to increase bids for high-performing keywords
• Create separate campaigns for call-focused versus form-focused conversion types
• Implement target CPA bidding based on actual call value, not just call volume

This approach ensures Google's algorithm optimizes for revenue rather than just activity.

Improve Ad Group Performance

Start by identifying which ad groups consistently drive qualified phone calls, then look at the content of these calls to learn which messaging resonates.

For example, you can use call recordings and transcripts to improve ad copy by incorporating the language customers actually use. Draw from often-repeated terms to identify new potential keywords to target.

Advanced Campaign Structure

The more call tracking data you collect, the more advanced your strategies can be. As you begin to identify patterns in your data, this will enable you to:

• Separate campaigns by call intent (informational versus purchase-ready prospects)
• Build negative keyword lists based on patterns in unqualified calls
• Create custom audiences based on callers who actually converted to sales

These high-value audience segments can then guide your targeting decisions across all campaigns.

4 More Reasons to Use WhatConverts for Call Tracking in Google Ads

Setup alone is easier using the WhatConverts method, but there are many more reasons why WhatConverts is the obvious choice for Google Ads call tracking and lead attribution.

1. Clearer Picture of True Lead Quality

WhatConverts gives you access to a wealth of lead quality data that you can't get directly from Google. Data like:

• Complete marketing attribution (which keywords, ads, campaigns generated calls)
• Call recordings and transcriptions
• User contact information
• Customer journey (which of your pages leads have visited before)
• Other conversion actions leads have taken (filled out forms, sent emails, chats with sales/support, etc.)

So how exactly does this comprehensive data helps you optimize your ads budget to prioritize qualified and valuable leads?

Let's say you’re a marketing agency, and you're generating leads for a dental clinic. When you're evaluating your leads, advanced call tracking data can help you quickly identify:

• Bad leads: Filter out calls that only last a few seconds, are off-topic, or come from existing customers
• Valid prospects: Qualify calls from ads for high-value procedures like "veneers"
• High buying intent: Prioritize calls whose transcripts include urgency-signaling keywords like "appointment" or "emergency"

You can quickly sort through your leads, mark valid prospects as qualified, and then send them over to your client's sales team—all from a single dashboard.

Simple.

In fact, you can even do all of this automatically using WhatConverts's Lead Intelligence feature. Just set up your filters and criteria and the platform will sort your leads for you, accomplishing hours of work in just seconds.

For more on Lead Intelligence, check out the guide below.

Read More: Lead Intelligence: The Smarter Way to Score, Qualify, & Value Your Leads

2. Tie Revenue Back to Your Marketing w/ Closed-Loop Attribution

One of the best things about WhatConverts is it lets you tie revenue back to the exact marketing that generated it.

Knowing you got 60 calls from Google Ads is great, but what's better is knowing exactly how much money you made from those 60 calls—and which campaigns and landing pages were responsible for bringing in the big spenders.

Once you know what services individual callers are interested in, you can add corresponding sales values to each of those lead profiles. Now, you no longer have a pile of generic leads—you have a database of future patients who need $200 cleanings, $1500 root canals, and $2000 veneers.

With those sales values added, you can then generate reports that tell you which campaigns, ads, keywords, and landing pages drove not just the most leads, but the most qualified leads, the most overall value, and even the highest value per lead.

This is just one example; you can learn more about our many reports here.

3. Smarter Integration for Strategic Optimization (Maximize ROAS)

Google Ads trains its bidding algorithm to target the keywords that generate the most conversions. But since they're only working with lead count and not lead quality or value, that algorithm can't distinguish between keywords that are generating valuable leads versus those that are generating spam.

Once you're qualifying and valuing your leads in WhatConverts, you're working with a much more valuable dataset than the one Google is using—and WhatConverts allows you to send that valuable dataset back to Google, so that it can start targeting keywords that bring in real leads that result in real sales.

By configuring your conversion triggers, you can set up filters that determine which conversion data is sent back to Google Ads. For example, you might tell WhatConverts to send conversions for leads where:

• The call lasted over a certain duration (e.g., more than 60 seconds)
• The lead was marked as “qualified” post-call
• A sales value was been added to the lead

By only sending these "good" conversions, you can effectively train the Google Ads algorithm to only target high-quality, high-value leads.

To learn more about how that works, check out the guide below:

Read More: How to Optimize Google Ads Automated Bidding for Better Results

4. Access to Bottom-Line Data (Like CPL) for Better Decision Making

Every marketer knows that, while generating valuable leads is great, it doesn't mean anything if it cost of generating those leads is more than the leads themselves are worth. And while cost per click can be a useful metric for calculating ROI, WhatConverts gives you access to an even more valuable measurement: cost per lead (CPL).

Since WhatConverts tracks the actual sales values, it gives you the ability to see how much it cost you to acquire actual leads to calculate the true marketing ROI on your advertising efforts. It filters out spam, so that your data isn't muddled by junk leads. With cost per lead data, you can allocate your budget toward the campaigns that bring in the most value for the lowest cost.

WhatConverts Roadmap: Grow Your Leads by 30% Discover the proven 6-step process trusted by over 20,000 agencies and marketers

See How It Works

Free Course: Six Steps to Growing Your ROI

Try Out WhatConverts for Google Ads Call Tracking Today

Native solutions for Google Ads conversion tracking for calls are great for collecting baseline call data.

But with WhatConverts, you collect richer lead data that provides more valuable insights. And getting your WhatConverts account set up for Google Ads call tracking takes mere minutes.

WhatConverts lets you:

• Understand true lead quality
• Tie revenue earned back to your exact marketing
• Maximize ROAS with a powerful Google Ads integration
• Access important data like CPL for better decision making

So if you’re an agency looking for a way (or a better way) to track calls from Google Ads, be sure to try WhatConverts today.

Try the powerful call tracking and lead tracking of WhatConverts by starting your free 14-day trial today!