Paid-search call tracking
Call Tracking Software for Google Ads
You cannot read call conversions out of a static phone number alone — but you can put a distinct tracking number on each campaign's landing pages and read exactly which campaigns make the phone ring. Here is the honest setup.
- One number per campaign
- Calls logged and compared
- From $2 a month per number
The four-step setup
Tracking calls from Google Ads campaigns
List the campaigns you want to separate
Start with the spend that matters — brand search, generic search, your top performance campaign. Three to five campaigns is enough for the first comparison; thirty numbers helps nobody.
Allocate a tracking number to each
Each campaign gets its own number from the pool. Numbers are virtual, so nothing about your phone system changes — each one simply routes to the same place you answer calls today.
Place each number only on its campaign's pages
The brand campaign's number goes on the brand landing page, and so on. Consistency is what makes the attribution honest: a number that appears on two campaigns reports for neither.
Read the reports after a full period
Calls per number is calls per campaign. Compare against spend to see which campaigns earn their budget, and reallocate on evidence rather than last-click guesswork.
Google Ads call tracking questions
Does this show which keyword generated the call?
No. A static number on a page cannot see the search that brought the visitor — it sees only the call. Keyword-level attribution needs dynamic number insertion plus session tracking, which is a different product category.
Does it push call conversions into my Google Ads account?
Number-based tracking reports calls per campaign in its own console. It does not write conversions back to Google Ads — you can enter call totals as offline conversions yourself if your Ads setup supports it.
What does it cost per tracking number?
Call tracking plans start at $2 a month per number (with per-second call charges against per-minute rates), so a five-campaign setup costs a few dollars a month plus call time.
Will it work if every campaign lands on the same page?
Not honestly. If two campaigns share a page, they share a number, and the report shows their calls combined. Give each campaign you want to judge its own landing page and its own number.
Ask for "call tracking for Google Ads" and you will be shown two very different products: session-level platforms that swap numbers per visitor and claim keyword-level attribution, and number-based tracking that assigns one number per campaign and reports calls per number. The first is expensive and technically demanding; the second is the setup most small and mid-sized Australian advertisers actually need, and the model our call tracking platform runs. This page is about the second — including what it genuinely cannot see.
What number-based tracking adds to Google Ads
Google Ads reports clicks and, with call extensions, calls that start from an ad. What it cannot see on its own is the phone traffic that arrives after the click — the visitor who lands on your page, reads, and dials the number displayed there. A tracking number per campaign captures exactly that:
- Calls per campaign, counted on each campaign's own number.
- Calls over time, so you can see whether a campaign's phone traffic moved when the budget did.
- Call recordings, where enabled, to judge whether the traffic a campaign delivers is the traffic you wanted.
Because the numbers are virtual, the exercise costs a few dollars a month per campaign and changes nothing on your phone system. The mechanics of the number pool are covered in how call tracking software works.
What it cannot do — stated plainly
A static number on a landing page sees the call, not the journey. It cannot tell you the keyword the visitor searched, the exact ad variant they clicked, or what the caller was worth after hanging up. It also does not integrate into your Google Ads account by itself — there is no automatic conversion import in number-based tracking; if you want call totals in Ads, you enter them through your own offline-conversion process.
If keyword-level attribution is genuinely the requirement — for an account large enough that keyword bids swing on call evidence — evaluate dynamic number insertion platforms deliberately. The difference between the two models is explained in what a call tracking system is, and what number-based tracking can write back to a CRM is covered in call tracking and CRM.
The workflow at a glance
The four steps above are the whole implementation. Two details decide whether the data is trustworthy at the end of it. First, placement discipline: a number belongs to exactly one campaign's pages, for the whole comparison period — moving numbers around mid-flight corrupts the comparison. Second, patience: read the report only after a complete period, because a four-day sample of phone traffic tells you about noise, not campaigns.
VoIP-based setups work identically — the tracking numbers route to the same destinations, including VoIP handsets — as covered in VoIP call tracking software. Pricing for tracking plans, from $2 a month per number with call data charged per second, is tabled on the pricing page.
From $2/month per number
Give every campaign its own number
Tracking numbers from 40+ regions, call reports that compare campaigns, and nothing to install on your phone system.