If phone calls are the primary method by which your customers contact you, there are several ways you can use AdWords to increase those calls.
1. Put the number in the ad text.
This is the easiest way to ensure that whenever your ad is shown, the user will see your phone number. Yes, you lose some characters which could be used to convey your message to customers, but at least you know the number will be in the ad.
2. Standard call extensions.
Standard call extensions allow you show your phone number in addition to all 70 characters of ad text, on devices capable of making a phone call. There is no guarantee that your ad will rank high enough to show the call extension, or that even with a high adrank a call extension will be the extension served (if you are using multiple ad extensions). You do get click-to-call click data within the interface, which can be very helpful. However, standard call extensions do not report any call data, such as duration, missed or received, area code of the caller, etc.
3. Google voice call extensions.
Google voice enabled call extensions offer by far the most data, control, and opportunity to show a call extension. The problem: Google voice numbers are not your phone number, they are randomly generated numbers owned by Google. If you have made a large investment in your number, perhaps a Google voice extension is not for you. You do get the most call data available, including missed/received, duration, and caller area code.
There are pro’s and con’s of each option, but nothing’s perfect. An imperfect increase in phone calls to your business is still an increase in phone calls to your business! 🙂
If you want to make absolutely certain the number, and quality of phone calls coming from AdWords, there’s one crucial step that must be taken: Use a (at least one) unique phone number for AdWords advertising ONLY. If branding your business number (ex. 1-866-JUNKWAY) is the goal, then having an adwords only number is not going to happen. You will never be certain how many calls are coming from AdWords, even if the customer tells you “I got your number from Google”. Google what? Places account listing, organic or paid results, a third party site they found through a Google search?
Maybe you don’t know exactly which campaigns, adgroups, keywords, and ads generate the most phone calls, but if the more you spend, the more you make – Keep it up!
