New AdWords Call-Only Campaigns

Updated January 13, 2023

70% Mobile Searches Call Directly

According to a research study of 3,000 mobile searchers who recently made purchases across seven different categories (e.g. travel, restaurant, retail, etc), 70% used click to call. In response, Google announced an addition to its online advertising platform: Call-Only Campaigns. In this post I’ll explain what it is and how to capitalize on the power of AdWords to the small screen.

What are Call-Only Campaigns?

Within AdWords, you can now create campaigns specifically to increase phone calls into your business. Rather than bidding for a click to a landing page on your website, you bid on the value of getting a prospect to immediately call you. Your ad would have a call extension and would display only on mobile devices.

Note: call-only campaigns are available in the search network. They aren’t available in remarketing or display advertising.

Requires Active Account Management

As you can imagine, bidding for guaranteed phone calls can be competitive. Here are few tips to consider before implementing:

1. You’ll want to create call-only campaigns based upon a strategy designed to work for your business services and geographic areas. All too often I see clients bidding on high-level keywords, ones that may be far from a buying decision. For example, a search term “VOIP” may be informational; someone asking about this term is probably doing general research to better understand what it is. However, “VOIP business services Santa Clara” is another matter. Bidding on the wrong keywords can waste big money, advertising dollars that can be better utilized in other ad groups.

2. These click-to-call ads need to be specially designed for the small screen.

3. I also recommend A/B testing of call-to-action language (Call vs. Book Now) and button colors; that way you can find the winning combination where you maximize results.

4. Call-only campaigns may not be right for every business. Again, this is where testing is needed. I suggest allocating a percentage of your AdWords budget on this new feature. Make small changes and then hold steady to measure performance. Too many changes within a campaign at one time makes it difficult (or nearly impossible) to discern which change had the greatest impact. Then, measure and compare performance against other ad groups.  An optimized AdWords account requires active and diligent account management.

5. My last piece of advice is good for all AdWords accounts, not just those who are trying out the new call-only campaign feature. Call tracking is a must, especially if you’re trying to calculate an accurate ROI. It’s relatively easy to implement and it offers powerful data to effectively manage where you online advertising dollars should be allocated. If you can download that information into a CRM or sales tracking software, even better. For example, you may find that calls at a certain time of day tend to close more frequently.

What do you think about this new call-only campaign feature? It’s been out for less than three weeks… have you used it yet?

photo credit – top: Matt Reinbold
photo credit – body: Roberto Nieves