Soon, import call conversion data into AdWords for better attribution & optimization
Tracking call conversions will no longer be limited to measuring call length.
To help businesses track calls generated from AdWords ads for better attribution and campaign optimization, advertisers will soon be able to import call conversion data into Google AdWords.
Currently, advertisers measure the success of click-to-call ads and website phone clicks by call length — advertisers set the call length minimum before a conversion is counted based on the time a typical successful inbound call lasts. With imported call conversions, advertisers will be able to attribute actual closed deals, sales or other conversion actions generated by ads down to the keyword level.
Update: Initially I wrote that the limitation with imported call conversions is that advertisers can’t import the actual value of a deal generated by each call. In fact, advertisers can import actual revenue data along with other call data from a CRM — that’s big. Advertisers can also assign values to different conversion types, like a request for a quote, a new booking or other action in the customer journey. Being able to attribute actual conversion data to calls and then optimize accordingly is a big step forward from using an educated guess based on call length.
Advertisers can use imported call conversion data for manual optimizations or by using Target ROAS automated bidding.
“Even though it’s still early since including imported call conversions into campaign optimization, we’ve been able to increase spend on top-performing, call-driving terms by nearly 3X. This has even helped us identify new keyword expansion opportunities from search queries we wouldn’t have otherwise found without increasing our investment backed by imported calls data,” Jordan Jones, Associate Director of Performance Digital at UM, an agency partner managing campaigns for Nationwide, told Google.
To be able to import call conversion data into AdWords, advertisers will need to be using Google forwarding numbers and capture the caller’s phone number, call start time and call length. The data remains private and is matched back to the AdWords calls and attributed down to the keyword.
Google says imported call conversions are rolling out globally over the next few weeks. For more information, see the Google help page.
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