How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking for Calls and Enquiries
Track form submissions, tel: clicks and WhatsApp clicks, plus call reporting on ad extensions. What to count, what to ignore, and how to verify it monthly.
Setting up Google Ads conversion tracking so you can see which ads produce phone calls and enquiries.
TL;DR: Quick Answer
Track form submissions, tel: clicks and WhatsApp clicks, plus call reporting on ad extensions. What to count, what to ignore, and how to verify it monthly.
Key takeaways
- Very cheap quotes (under R5,000) almost always exclude copywriting, SEO, custom design and post-launch support
- Professional copywriting can represent 20-35% of a total website project cost, and is worth it for search visibility
- On-page SEO built into the website at launch costs a fraction of what it costs to retrofit after the site is live
- Hosting, SSL, domain and maintenance add R3,000-R10,000 per year on top of build cost
- E-commerce adds significant cost due to payment gateway integrations, product data, security requirements and checkout UX
- Timeline and client responsiveness directly affect cost: slow feedback rounds extend agency hours
Without conversion tracking, Google Ads reports clicks and you guess about the rest. With it, you can see which keywords produce enquiries and stop paying for the ones that do not. It is the highest-value hour you will spend on the account.
What to track
Every way a customer actually contacts you. For a South African service business that is four things, and most accounts track one.
Form submissions. Usually the thank-you page after a form is sent.
Clicks on your phone number. The tel: link in your header. For trades this is often the largest source of enquiries and the one most commonly missed.
Clicks on your WhatsApp link. Very large in South Africa, and invisible unless you set it up.
Calls from the ad itself, through call extensions with call reporting.
Miss the phone and WhatsApp ones and your cost per lead can read as double what it really is, which leads to switching off campaigns that were working.
Setting it up
In Google Ads, go to Goals, then Conversions, then New conversion action.
For website actions, choose Website, enter your domain, and Google will suggest actions it can detect. You can also define them manually. You then install the Google tag on your site, either directly, through Google Tag Manager, or via your CMS's integration.
For calls from ads, choose Phone calls, then Calls from ads. This uses a Google forwarding number so the call is attributed to the campaign automatically.
For calls from your website, choose Phone calls, then Clicks on your number on your website, and point it at your tel: link.
Set a conversion window that matches your sales cycle. Thirty days suits most service businesses; a same-day emergency trade can use shorter.
Google Ads tags or GA4?
| Native Google Ads tag | Imported from GA4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting speed | Faster | Slower, a few hours |
| Setup | Per action | Once, then import |
| Attribution detail | Ads-focused | Cross-channel |
| Risk | Straightforward | Double-counting if careless |
Either is fine. What causes trouble is running both for the same action without marking one as primary, which double-counts and makes cost per lead look better than it is.
Pick one source per action, and use the "primary" and "secondary" conversion settings so only the ones you want are used for bidding.
Primary versus secondary
Only primary conversions feed smart bidding. Set the actions you genuinely want more of as primary: form submissions, calls, WhatsApp enquiries.
Set softer signals as secondary so they are visible in reporting but do not steer the bidding. If you make "viewed the contact page" a primary conversion, the automation will happily buy you people who look at your contact page and never phone.
Verify it, then keep verifying
Submit a test enquiry from your own phone and confirm it appears in Google Ads within about 30 minutes. Tap the phone link and the WhatsApp link and check those register too.
Then repeat monthly. Plugin updates, theme changes, consent banner changes and site migrations all break tracking, and the failure is always silent. A month of untracked conversions is a month of decisions made on wrong data.
What not to count
Pageviews, time on site, scroll depth, and clicks through to your contact page. These inflate the conversion count and disguise whether enquiries are actually happening.
The test for any conversion action: would you be happy to pay for one? If not, it should not be primary.
Juicy Designs sets tracking up before touching bids, because everything else depends on it. See Google Ads management or a free account audit. Related: call tracking and DNI and tracking lead sources.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set up conversion tracking in Google Ads?
Create a conversion action in Google Ads for each way people contact you, then install the tag on your site or connect it through GA4. At minimum track form submissions, clicks on your phone number and clicks on your WhatsApp link.
How do I track phone calls from ads?
Two ways. Call extensions with call reporting record calls placed directly from the ad. Clicks on your website's tel: link record calls from people who visited the site first. Trades need both, because most enquiries arrive by phone.
Should conversions come from Google Ads or GA4?
Either works, but pick one primary source. Importing GA4 conversions into Google Ads is convenient; native Google Ads tags report faster. Running both without care double-counts and makes cost per lead look better than it is.
How do I know if tracking is working?
Submit a test enquiry yourself and check it appears within about 30 minutes. Repeat monthly, because plugin updates and site changes break tracking silently.
What should I not count as a conversion?
Pageviews, time on site, scroll depth and clicks to your contact page. Counting those inflates the numbers and hides whether you are actually getting enquiries.