Short calls and the 60-second rule: which Google Ads calls should count?

Key facts

• 49% of answered calls from ads lasted less than a minute, below Google's 60-second default.
• About 26% of calls from ads arrived before 7am, after 6pm or on a weekend.
• About 19% of calls to a tracked number came from someone who had already called.
• Calls made up 58% of mobile enquiries and 41% of desktop enquiries at the median, but the trade mattered more than the device.
• Only 32% of the sample recorded both calls from ads and calls made after reading the website.

How to read it: each figure is the share of enquiries that were phone calls rather than forms, split by the device the click came from. Plumbers and electricians get mostly calls on both devices; cleaners get mostly forms on both.

When you set up a call conversion in Google Ads, you choose a minimum call length. A shorter call is still reported as a call, but it is not counted as a conversion, so it stays out of the Conversions column and automated bidding does not learn from it. The default is 60 seconds, and the same kind of setting applies to calls to a Google forwarding number shown on your website.

With 49% of answered ad calls under a minute, that one setting decides the fate of about half your answered calls. Short calls are a mix:

• Calls you would not want to count: wrong numbers, hang-ups, sales calls, and people who find out you do not work in their area.
• Calls you would: a new customer who knows exactly what they need and books in a sentence or two, such as a blocked drain today or a tap replaced on Thursday.

A fixed 60-second rule hides the second group from bidding and keeps the first out of reports. Neither is ideal, and the right threshold differs by business and by service. A blocked-drain call is often short and decisive; a renovation enquiry rarely is.

Base it on your own calls. The steps below take a couple of weeks of light effort, and anyone who answers the phone can help.

1. Pull a sample of recent answered calls with their durations, from your call-tracking provider or Google's call details report.
2. Find out what the short calls were. Listen to recordings if you have them, making sure callers are told calls may be recorded, or ask whoever answers the phone to note the outcome of each call for a fortnight.
3. Label each call: new job enquiry, existing customer, supplier or sales call, wrong number or spam.
4. Find the duration below which most calls are not new enquiries. That is your threshold. For some businesses it sits well under a minute; for others it is longer.
5. Set it on each call conversion action: calls from ads and calls to your website number.
6. Revisit it whenever you add a service, change who answers the phone, or see the Conversions column drift away from your call log.

This is the rule we apply for clients: a call counts once per caller, and only above a duration we set for that business after listening to a sample, not the default.

No. About 19% of calls to a tracked number came from someone who had already called. Repeat calls are people chasing a quote, confirming a time or calling back after a missed call. They matter to the business, but they are not new enquiries, and counting every call makes cost per enquiry look better than it is.

For calls from ads, Google's counting option of one conversion per click stops a single ad interaction being counted twice, but a caller who rings back later can still be counted again. For third-party call tracking, apply the same rule yourself: count unique callers as enquiries, and keep repeat calls visible as a separate measure of follow-up workload. If the repeat-call share rises, check how quickly quotes are going out.

About 26% of calls from ads arrived before 7am, after 6pm or on a weekend. Ad schedules and phone rosters are often set to office hours, but homeowners search when they are home. There are two good answers, and one that wastes money:

• Answer them. A call-answering service costs less than the ads that produced the call. A diverted mobile works too, if someone picks up.
• Schedule the ads to match the hours you can pick up. The ad schedule stops calls from ads arriving when no one will answer.
• What wastes money is running ads around the clock and letting after-hours calls ring out.

Before you switch off weekends, look at what they cost. For businesses in SoudCoh's research sample that advertise all week, a weekend enquiry cost about 4% more than a weekday one. Weekend clicks are not waste by default; unanswered calls are.

Report missed and after-hours calls separately from enquiries. They are an operations problem, and no bid change can fix them. Our guide to running ads in the hours you answer calls covers the schedule settings.

The trade matters more than the device. At the median, calls made up 58% of mobile enquiries and 41% of desktop enquiries. But plumbers and electricians got mostly calls on both devices, and cleaners mostly forms on both.

Urgent, hard-to-describe jobs such as a leak or a fault arrive by phone whatever the device. Planned, easy-to-describe jobs such as a bond clean or a carpet clean arrive as forms, even from phones. Design the contact route around the job, not the screen:

• Trades that live on calls need the number prominent on every page, call tracking on both routes, and someone answering.
• Trades that live on forms need a short form, an instant acknowledgement and a fast reply.
• Every site still needs both doors.

Judge each channel by the jobs it wins, not by how urgent it sounds. Our guide to a trade website that converts calls and forms covers the page side, as does our website design for plumbers, electricians and cleaning businesses.

Calls arrive by two routes, and only 32% of SoudCoh's research sample captured both. This is the set-up we use, and any business can copy it:

Then check it: make a test call to the tracked number your website shows paid visitors, confirm it appears once in the call-tracking log, and compare the Conversions column with the call log each month. Our article on why phone taps inflate trade leads explains why taps belong in the secondary pile, and our white paper From keyword to revenue sets out the full method. For trade-specific set-ups, see our marketing for plumbing businesses, electricians, HVAC businesses and cleaning businesses, or talk to us about your own call set-up.

What is the default call length for Google Ads call conversions?

60 seconds. A call shorter than the minimum length you set is still reported as a call, but it is not counted as a conversion. In SoudCoh's research sample, 49% of answered calls from ads lasted less than a minute, so the setting decides the fate of about half of all answered calls.

Should I lower the call conversion length below 60 seconds?

Only after listening to a sample of your short calls. If many are new customers booking quickly, a lower threshold lets bidding learn from them. If most are wrong numbers and hang-ups, keep it higher. Set it for your business, and revisit it by service.

Do calls from my website count in Google Ads?

Only if you set them up. Calls from the call button in an ad are recorded by Google's call reporting. Calls made after reading your website need a tracked number, either a Google forwarding number or a call-tracking provider that passes each call back with its click. Only 32% of trade businesses in SoudCoh's research sample captured both routes.

How should repeat callers be counted?

As one enquiry. About 19% of calls to a tracked number came from someone who had already called. Count unique callers as enquiries, and keep repeat calls visible separately as a measure of follow-up workload.

Should my Google Ads run after hours?

Only if someone answers. About 26% of calls from ads arrived before 7am, after 6pm or on a weekend. Either answer those calls, with a call-answering service or a diverted phone, or set the ad schedule to the hours you can pick up.