Phone taps are not enquiries: how Google Ads overcounts trade leads

Key facts

• 32% of trade businesses in SoudCoh's research sample counted taps on a phone number, email or WhatsApp link as Google Ads conversions.
• Where taps were counted, they made up 45% of all reported conversions at the median.
• In those businesses, the Conversions column overstated real enquiries by 92% at the median: close to double.
• Only 32% of the sample recorded both the calls that come straight from an ad and the calls made after reading the website.
• About 19% of calls to a tracked number came from someone who had already called.

Definitions. An enquiry is a phone call that connected or a form that was submitted. A tap is a click on a phone, email or messaging link, whether or not anything followed.

A tap on a phone number opens the dialler. What happens next is invisible to Google Ads. Several things commonly follow a tap, and only one of them is a new enquiry:

• The call is never placed. The visitor sees the number, changes their mind, or decides to fill in the form instead.
• The call does not connect. The line is busy, the call rings out, or it lands after hours with no one to answer.
• It is an existing customer. Someone confirming a booking or chasing an invoice taps the same number as a new customer.
• The same person taps more than once. A visitor who taps, hangs up and tries again can be counted two or three times, depending on the counting setting.
• It is a real, new enquiry. This is the only one you want to pay for.

Email and WhatsApp links work the same way: the tap opens another app, and nothing in the ad account knows whether a message was sent. Taps are worth keeping as a secondary signal, because they show which pages and ads move people towards contact. They are not a count of enquiries.

The same caution applies to calls themselves. In SoudCoh's research sample, about 19% of calls to a tracked number came from someone who had already called: chasing a quote, confirming a time or returning a missed call. Those calls matter to the business, but they are not new enquiries, so a clean set-up counts unique callers, not rings.

It makes cost per enquiry look better than the business feels. Where taps were counted, they were 45% of reported conversions at the median. When close to half of what the report calls a conversion is a tap, the true cost per enquiry is close to double the reported figure, and any budget decision made on the reported figure is made on the wrong number.

Three things go wrong at once:

1. Bidding chases the wrong people. Automated bidding optimises to whatever sits in the Conversions column. If taps are there, it learns to find the people most likely to tap, who are not necessarily the people most likely to book a job.
2. The report and the phone disagree. The dashboard shows a healthy cost per enquiry while the diary stays quiet, and owners start to distrust the whole account, including the parts that work.
3. Comparisons break. Two campaigns, two agencies or two channels cannot be compared if one counts taps and the other counts connected calls. A change in counting can move the reported cost per enquiry overnight with no change in real demand. Our guide to why cost per lead goes up covers the same trap from the other direction.

None of this means the account is performing badly. It means the report is measuring something other than enquiries, and the fix is to measure enquiries.

Set aside half an hour and work through these steps in your own account. Nothing here costs money.

1. List every conversion action. In Google Ads, open Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Write down each action, its source (website, phone calls, Google Analytics, Google Business Profile or an import) and whether it is marked primary or secondary.
2. Sort them into three piles. Completed enquiries: connected calls, submitted forms, bookings. Signals: taps on a number, email or WhatsApp link, directions, profile clicks, page views. Revenue: won jobs uploaded after the fact.
3. Make only completed enquiries primary. Primary actions feed the Conversions column that bidding optimises to. Signals stay visible as secondary actions in the All conversions column. Revenue joins later, secondary at first.
4. Check campaign-level goals. A campaign can be set to use its own goals rather than the account defaults, so open each campaign's settings and confirm which goals it bids on.
5. Check the counting setting. For enquiries, count one conversion per click, so a person who submits the same form twice after one ad click is counted once.
6. Look for duplicates. The same form is sometimes counted by the Google tag and again by an imported Google Analytics event. Keep one.
7. Note the date. Add a note in the account on the day you change anything, so the drop in reported conversions is not later mistaken for a drop in performance.

Re-do the audit whenever the website, the tag manager container or the call-tracking provider changes. Those are the moments a tap action quietly becomes primary again. Our tracking work starts with exactly this audit.

Calls arrive by two routes, and each is measured by different machinery. A caller who taps the number in the ad is recorded by Google's call reporting. A caller who reads three pages first and then rings is recorded only if the website shows a tracked number to paid visitors. Both are enquiries, yet only 32% of the sample captured both.

A business that captures only one route undercounts what its best pages produce and steers budget away from them. The rules we apply are simple to copy:

• Record both routes, and attach the click and landing page to each website call so it is credited to the campaign that produced it.
• Count each caller once, not every ring. Repeat calls are follow-ups.
• Set a minimum call length after listening to a sample, not by accepting the default. Our article on short ad calls and the 60-second rule explains how.
• Report missed and after-hours calls separately. They are an operations problem that no bid change can fix.
• Treat forms as enquiries too, and reply to them as fast as you answer the phone.

Start with the change that costs nothing and fixes the most: move taps to secondary. Then work down the list.

If you are comparing agencies or deciding whether to keep advertising, make this audit the first step. A campaign judged on taps can look close to twice as efficient as it is, and a report that counts only connected calls can look worse than a rival's report that still counts taps.

Our white paper From keyword to revenue sets out the full measurement method we use, from the click to the won job. For trade-specific set-ups, see our marketing for plumbing businesses, electricians, HVAC businesses and pest control, or talk to us about your own account.

Should phone number clicks count as a conversion in Google Ads?

Keep them, but as a secondary action. A tap on a phone number shows intent, not a connected call. In SoudCoh's research sample, 32% of trade businesses counted taps as conversions, and where they did, the Conversions column overstated real enquiries by 92% at the median. Count connected calls and submitted forms as primary.

What is the difference between calls from ads and clicks on a phone number?

Calls from ads are calls placed through the call button in your ad and recorded by Google's call reporting, with a minimum call length that decides which calls count. Clicks on a phone number are taps on a phone link on your website, recorded whether or not a call is made or connects. The first is an enquiry; the second is a signal.

Will my cost per lead go up if I stop counting taps?

The reported figure will, because the number of conversions falls. Where taps were counted, they made up 45% of reported conversions at the median, and when close to half of conversions are taps, the true cost per enquiry is close to double the reported one. The ads did not get worse; the report started measuring enquiries.

How do I track calls from my website as well as from the ad?

Show a tracked number to visitors who arrive from an ad, either a Google forwarding number or a call-tracking provider that swaps the number on the page, and pass each call back to Google Ads with the click that produced it. Count each caller once, and set a minimum call length after listening to a sample of calls.

How often should I audit my Google Ads conversion actions?

Whenever the website, the tag manager container or the call-tracking provider changes, and at least once a quarter otherwise. Those changes are when a tap action or a duplicate most often slips back into the primary Conversions column.