Important
Google has recently upgraded to Google Analytics 4(GA4). We will be sunsetting our Universal Analytics integration in July 2023. This feature will not work in GA4, so we encourage you to switch to the direct Google Ads integration before July 2023.
CallRail makes it possible to track calls as conversions in Google Ads using your Google Analytics Goals. If you're using visitor-level call tracking, and you've set up Goals in Google Analytics, you can import your goals to Google Ads and track conversions being received by your Analytics goals.
With visitor tracking, we'll capture the Google click ID (gclid) for each of your visitors. When a call is received, we'll send an event to Google Analytics along with the original Google click ID. Google Ads will recognize the Google click ID we send to Google Analytics, and pull that call in as a conversion automatically.
If you prefer to integrate directly with Google Ads without importing your goals, use this help article instead. Please note that simultaneously using our Google Ads integration and a conversion import from Google Analytics will result in duplicate conversions.
Getting started
Using CallRail's automatic conversion import requires the following:
- Visitor-level call tracking.
- Auto-tagging enabled within your Google Ads account.
- Google Ads linking enabled within Google Analytics.
Conversions will only be imported if they are attributed to Google Ads using the last click model within Google Analytics, and since Google does not count direct visits as a click, this generally means the last non-direct click instead.
For instance, if your user goes to a different channel (i.e. Facebook) after their Google Ads click, the conversion won't be imported. Google Ads must be the last non-direct click.
For more information on this, see Google's overview of attribution modeling and their comparison between conversion metrics in Google Ads and Google Analytics.
Integrate with Google Analytics
You can configure your call conversions to report automatically in Google Ads by using our Google Analytics integration. If you haven't set up the Analytics portion of your integration yet, do that first, then return to this article to complete the Google Ads integration.
Integrate CallRail with Google Analytics.
Then, set up a Goal for that call event. This allows you to import the goal as a conversion in Google Ads.
Create a Call Goal in Google Analytics.
Once you've integrated with Google Analytics and created your goal, calls will be reported to Google Ads as conversions.
Set up call conversions in Google Ads
- Link your CallRail account with your Google Analytics account. You can use our Google Analytics integration article to do so.
- Log into Google Ads, select Tools at the top of the page.
- Choose Conversions from the "Measurement" section of the Tools drop-down.
- Click the + icon to create a new conversion.
- Choose Import.
- Select Google Analytics and click Continue.
- Select the Phone Call Goal(s) that has been created within your Google Analytics account, and then click Import and Continue.
- After you import the goal, incoming phone calls should begin appearing in Google Ads as conversions. It may take a couple of hours after your first call for it to appear as a conversion.
Tracking keywords in CallRail
Adding the ?keyword={keyword} parameter to your tracking template in Google Ads is the recommended last step in setting up your Google Ads integration. Using this parameter in your tracking templates allows your caller's keyword data to display on your call log and in caller’s timelines. If you choose to not add this parameter to your URLs, calls will still report as conversions in Google Ads once the integration is configured properly.
Instructions for adding this parameter are available in this help article:
Creating Tracking Templates to See Keyword Data in CallRail.
