What is Click-to-Call?

What is Click-to-Call?

Click-to-call refers to a type of Google Ads’ ( formerly AdWords) ad that, when clicked, directly calls the business as opposed to linking to their website. These ads can only show on mobile devices; therefore, they are vital to mobile marketing campaigns. There are both click-to-call ad extensions and click-to-call, call-only ads.

How does Click-to-Call work?

There are two instances in which an ad can become a “Click-to-Call” ad. The first is when running a call-only ad. These are ads that only call businesses when clicked, they never direct to the website. These ads are by default – click-to-call only because they only show up on mobile devices.

The second instance is when running a call extension on any normal ad. These will appear with a “click-to-call” button when showing on mobile devices. When these ads show on desktop or tablets however, the phone number will just be next to the ad.

Who Uses Click-to-Call?

Similar to the use of call extensions and google forwarding numbers, any advertiser looking to encourage calls to their business should be using click-to-call ads as part of their overall advertising strategy.

How to Set Up Click-to-Call:

There are two ways to set-up click-to-call ads. First would be adding a call extension to a normal ad. This is done under the “ad extensions” tab, under the “call extensions” menu.

Here you’ll set up a call extension like normal and then anytime your text ads appear on a mobile device, they’ll have a “click-to-call” button alongside them.

In the above example, if you clicked the box in red – it would call the business.

The second setup is running a call-only ad. This post goes into more depth, but it’s another ad type you can run from a normal campaign or a call-only campaign. The benefit to running a call-only ad in a call-only campaign is that you can bid specifically for click-to-calls, as opposed to bidding for both calls and website clicks.

Keep in mind that when running call-only ads you are not giving the prospect a way to go to your business’s website. If you’re offering a product with a longer sales cycle, or if it’s likely some customer education needs to be done prior to a phone call, saving these kinds of ads for brand searches or other applicable searches can often be the right move. That said – it’s always worth testing/experimenting with different ad types to improve your results.

When implementing these kinds of ads it’s always important to gain as much insight as possible into the calls generated. Using a Google forwarding number can get you part of the way, but working with a call tracking provider can gain you a host of other insights; whether it’s utilizing a click-to-call integration to learn what keywords are generating calls or automated lead scoring to instantly identify which calls are good leads.