Call Tracking and Adwords: A How-To Guide

by Maggie F. Marketing & Communications

Looking for new ways to draw customers to your business and transform those calls to conversions? Google Ads and call tracking are ways you can promote your product and boost sales. Here’s a guide on what call tracking is and how to set it up with Google Ads.

Call Tracking and Google Adwords: Why You Need These Tools

Call tracking is a marketing strategy designed to help you determine where calls are coming from and what marketing efforts are successful. For example, it lets you know whether your website is attracting more clients or whether your social media activity is contributing to conversions. Based on this information, you can choose to increase or decrease marketing tactics in certain areas.

Google Adwords or Google Ads allow you to create online ad campaigns to advertise and promote your products and services. Here you can design ads and select specific keywords related to your business for which the ads will display on search results. This way, when customers are looking for, say, “graphic designers,” your graphic design or marketing business pops up.

Now, how do you track where customers are searching for services like yours and where your callers are calling from? Using these two tools together. One way to track calls is by purchasing multiple virtual numbers from a virtual phone service provider like Global Call Forwarding (www.globalcallforwarding.com). Then, you can advertise these numbers on different platforms like Facebook, Google, social media accounts, etc.

Or, you can create different ad campaigns in Google Ads and assign numbers to each campaign. You can have input numbers for your different offices and departments. When set up this way, users searching from their smartphones will see the number of the closest physical location. Desktop users, on the other hand, will see the number based on “Relevance” and ad rank. Either way, you can identify which locations and campaigns are drawing more clients to your company. And this information can help you expand in that area as well as improve marketing efforts in other places.

Creating Call Campaigns and Ads on Google Ads

1: If you don’t already have a Google Ads account, now is the time to create one.

2: On the left menu, click on “Campaigns.”

3: Click the plus button and select “New Campaign.”

4: Then, depending on what type of campaign you want to run, choose the “Sales” or “Leads” goal. Or, choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance” to build one without a goal.

5: Next, select the “Search” campaign type to enable your ads to show in search results.

6: Then, under “Select the ways you’d like to reach your goal,” select “Phone Calls” and insert your business number. Click on “Continue.”

7: Enter your campaign name and in the “Add Display Network” option, make sure you select “No.” Note: call ads won’t show on the Display Network.

8: Finally, select your target goal, adjust bidding options, enter your budget, and fix other settings. Save and continue.

9. Now that your account is set and ready, go to “Ads & Extensions” and then click “Ads.”

10. Click on the plus button and select “Call ad.”

11. Then, click on “Select an ad group” to save the ad and choose an ad group.

12. Enter information to design your ad (headlines, business name, descriptions, URL, etc.)

13. Next, under “Conversion action,” select a conversion action you want to implement and save your ad.

Call Extensions and Location Targeting

With the above steps, you will have created a call-only ad for specific keywords. Now, when users search for the keyword, your ad will be listed above the search results. Furthermore, users will be able to click it to call you instantly. However, if you want your business number to be displayed, you will have to add call extensions to your ad campaign. To add call extensions:

1. On the page menu, click “Ads & extensions.”

2. Then, click “Extensions” and the plus button.

3. From the list of options provided, pick “Call extensions” and in the “Add call extension” view, select whether you want to add the extension to your Account, Campaign, or Ad Group.

4. Click on “Create New” to make a new extension and enter your phone number. If you wish to choose an existing extension, click on “Use extension” and select the number from the list.

To enable call reporting and location targeting, turn on account-level reporting. In your Ads account, click “All campaigns” and from the “Settings” menu, choose “Account Settings” and turn “Call Reporting” on. This will give you call reporting for call-only ads, call extensions, and location extensions within your account. When location and call extensions are used, ads featuring specific business locations will direct calls to numbers associated with those locations. This way, you can track where calls are coming from and which ads or extensions are performing better.

Streamline Marketing Efforts and Save on Time and Money

The budgets set for call-only ads and call tracking strategies are much fewer than the amount spent on marketing tactics that land no leads. With any business effort, it is important to track and analyze metrics, reports, and results to ensure you make decisions that benefit the company. Try call tracking with Google Ads and see how your brand’s visibility and awareness improve.