Call Extensions and the Phone Nobody Answers

The call at a quarter past twelve

A search ad with a call button is one tap from a ringing phone. On a phone that is often the whole point: the searcher sees the ad, taps, and the business's line rings.

It rings at a quarter past twelve, while the office is at lunch. At seven in the morning, before anyone is in. At ten on a Tuesday, when both people who answer are already on calls.

Each of those calls cost the same as the ones that were answered, and a caller who reaches voicemail often goes back to the results, where the next ad is waiting.

Yesterday AdWords became Google Ads. The call button did not change, and neither did the problem.

How an ad becomes a call

There are two common routes. A call extension adds a phone number to an ordinary search ad, shown as a call button on phones and as the number itself on computers.

A call-only ad is built for phones and offers nothing but the call. Tapping it dials the business, with no website visit at all.

Either can show a Google forwarding number, where available, which passes the call to your line and records it for reporting. Your own number works the same for the caller but tells you much less.

When the calls go unanswered

• Lunch, when the office empties at the same time every day.
• Early mornings, before anyone is at a desk.
• Evenings and weekends, if the ads keep running.
• The busiest hour, when everyone who answers is already talking.
• Holidays, when nobody told the ads the office was closed.
• Job sites, where the person with the phone has both hands busy.

The fourth is the one a schedule cannot fix. Searches peak when demand does, which is also when the phones are busiest, so a busy morning needs a second person or an overflow route, not a timetable.

Schedule the number, not just the ad

Call extensions have their own schedule, separate from the campaign's. Set it to the hours someone answers.

Outside those hours the ad can still run without the number, sending people to the website, where a form or online booking can take the enquiry.

Call-only ads need the whole campaign scheduled, since they have nothing to offer but the call. A call-only ad running at night is paying to reach a voicemail box.

Check the time zone as well. Schedules follow the time zone set on the account, which may not be the office's if somebody elsewhere set it up.

Lunch and the busy morning

Some gaps are better closed than scheduled around.

A lunch rota that keeps the phone answered from twelve to one costs less than switching off the ads for an hour when plenty of people search. A smaller business can forward calls to a mobile instead.

For a busy morning, a second line that rings after a few seconds, or an answering service that takes details and promises a call back within the hour, stops the caller moving on.

Whatever the arrangement, test it by calling from an outside phone at the awkward hours.

A worked example

An auto glass company with two mobile technicians and one person in the office ran search ads with a call extension from seven in the morning until ten at night, every day of the week.

Calls from the ads came through a Google forwarding number, and the call details report showed when each call came, how long it lasted and whether it was answered.

The pattern was plain once someone looked. Calls before eight, at lunch, after five and on Sundays were mostly marked missed, and the voicemails were returned the next morning, often to people who had booked elsewhere.

The call extension was rescheduled to office hours on weekdays and Saturday mornings, when the owner answers from his own phone.

At other times the ads lead to a page for booking a chip repair or a windshield replacement online, with a promise of a call back by nine the next morning. A lunch rota now covers twelve to one.

Counting calls as conversions

A call is often the most valuable thing an ad produces, and many accounts never count it.

Where call reporting is available, calls from ads can count as conversions once they last longer than a length you choose, so wrong numbers and hang-ups do not count.

People who click through to the website and phone from there need tracking on the site itself: a forwarding number shown to visitors from ads, where available, or at least a record of taps on the number.

Without these, a campaign that produces mostly calls looks as if it produces almost nothing, and the budget gets cut from the ads that work.

Reading the missed calls

With call reporting on, the call details report lists every call from an ad: when it came, the caller's area code, how long it lasted, and whether it was answered.

Sorted by hour, it shows exactly when the phone goes unanswered. Sorted by length, it separates real enquiries from wrong numbers.

Area codes add something too. Calls from well outside the area served suggest the ads are reaching too far.

Voicemail that keeps the caller

Some calls will always reach voicemail. The greeting decides whether the caller waits for you or tries the next ad.

Say the business's name and exactly when the call will be returned: within the hour during business hours, by nine the next morning otherwise.

Then keep the promise. A voicemail returned within the hour is often still a customer; one returned the next afternoon is often too late.

The counter-case

Not every business should schedule calls tightly.

An emergency trade with somebody genuinely on call around the clock should take calls at any hour, and its ads should say so.

A business whose calls are rarely urgent, such as one booking consultations weeks ahead, loses less to a missed call returned promptly.

But for most small businesses, the call button should appear only when someone will answer it, and every call should be counted.

Before the next busy morning

1. Call your own number at lunch and after hours.
2. Check the time zone on the account.
3. Schedule call extensions to answered hours.
4. Schedule call-only campaigns the same way.
5. Arrange cover for lunch and busy mornings.
6. Count calls above a minimum length.
7. Read the call details every week.

Step five costs effort rather than settings. Scheduling stops you paying for calls nobody can take; cover makes sure the calls you do pay for reach a person.

How much of this a simpler campaign type leaves in your hands is covered in Smart campaigns and the small advertiser.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.