Question

Hi All, I have just had the strangest call with Google Ads, I've ever heard in my life. My Search Campaign, Text Only, with Call Extension is averaging 20-30 clicks per day, which shows on my Report, and even highlights the Ad that the phone number has been Clicked from. My Call Details report shows no calls and my office has not received any calls in 2 days. When I phoned Google and they told me that each Click in my Report is when a user has found my Ad, Clicked on the phone number, which as we know goes to your mobile. After that, Google claim the user has not followed through with the call. Are you for real? Who in their sanity would spend 10-15 minutes of their life looking for a service online, scroll down and find an Ad that answers the questions they are looking for, Clicks the number to their mobile, THEN DOES NOT FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE CALL?? I have never heard so much rubbish in my entire life  My keywords and Ads structure have all been checked by Google and complimented numerous times. Please can someone tell me this is not true. If so, the world really has gone mad, or does these bots that I have spoken to other digital marketers refer to that Click Ads been Clicking my Ads. Many thanks in advance for some enlightenment.  

Answer 1

Phone clicks are to be taken with a grain of salt, as just because someone clicked your number doesn't mean they called. It's difficult to attribute calls and conversions to PPC unfortunately. Check your geo targeting. I had a ton of garbage/fake phone conversions from India/Pakistan/Bangladesh for a new client recently

Comments

Well to me it sounds like a con  

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@olla9 yep, just like display often is. Unless you're meticulous and vigilant, you'll get burned

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@like1844 Thank you Michael. Your the first person on 2 forums that isn't trying to defend Google like they are a spirit-like entity  

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@olla9 nobody defends them. it is just usually users don't know their own settings

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@bulrush41 Are you talking about the way I set up my campaigns over the years?  

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@bulrush41 Are you referring to me as the user?  

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@olla9 I am saying that is why google is defended because most of the times the users set something wrong, didn't say you did

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@bulrush41 I have not set my campaign up wrong though

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@like1844 As costly as it is, I’m thinking to go back to Smart Campaigns if I only want calls to go direct to the office. What do you think?  

Answer 2

Clicks to call extensions or call only ads dont translate to actual calls. Rep is right as to how clicks are being counted - once they clicked on a phone extension (or call only ad), they'll be directed to their phone's dialer - as to if the person will actually call the number, it's a different story.  

Comments

@buchenwald I know this and my point is that it needs to be changed. Fact. Who in their right mind goes through this process to then NOT make the call. Come on now. As a digital marketer, are you happy with these answers from Google?  

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@olla9 I don't use call only ads for this exact reason, but if you think about it that would be the only real way for google to tell if they clicked to call or not, unless there is a tracking number in place that feeds info.  

Answer 3

I do that sometime, I want to go to the website and might click "Call", so I just hit back and keep looking. And if it takes 15 minutes for you to go to Google and find a result, you're not googling correctly

Comments

@olla9 not disputing that, just saying sometimes people push the wrong button due to Google putting them directly next to each other

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@salomon6853 And I’m saying that is cool. Accidents happen. I refuse to think it has happened 58 times in 3 days between 10am-6pm though

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@olla9 yeah thats oddly specific

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@salomon6853 Thank you

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@olla9 yeah that's weird. 58 times during the same time frame. Maybe your competition?  

Answer 4

When setting up call conversions how many seconds are you setting it to count as a conversion? Maybe try raising that to 10-15 seconds if you haven’t already

Comments

@daft450 I have had it on 20 seconds. I generally use this timescale as a rule of thumb to allow accidental calling

Answer 5

Also to touch on this some more you can use something like callrail that creates a number for you and can give you data on how many people actually called using that number it also records the conversation and how long the call lasted.  

Comments

@daft450 Does this not defeat the point of Google Ads? My account is water tight and the traffic I’m receiving is perfect for my business. On average, 20-30 calls per day is great, but to be told by a Google rep that once the click is made on Call Extension, the user does not follow up with calling the number on their device. I have 58 calls in 3 days between my set hours if 10am-6pm that have not be completed. That is ludicrous to believe this

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@olla9 Well that’s just dumb on the reps part because that does not make sense they’re not very helpful in most cases. Even more so why you should go with something like callrail to track the calls properly if you don’t feel that google ads isn’t showing proper data. From my experience there’s always a drastic difference between the clicks to call and the amount of conversions.  

Answer 6

You can create a custom calls report to check all your calls details, date/time, duration, area code, keyword that triggered it, etc. Very useful when clients say they've had no calls