A call-only ad, now labelled a call ad in Google Ads, is a search ad shown only on devices that can make phone calls, where tapping the ad dials your business rather than opening your website. It is built for businesses that want the phone to ring, not a page visit.
How a call-only ad works
A call ad has the same building blocks as a text ad, cut down: your business name, your phone number, up to two headlines, two description lines and a URL used to check the number belongs to you. When someone searching on a phone taps it, their dialler opens with your number ready. Desktop users never see the ad.
Enter the number in UK format, for example 0113 496 0123 or +44 113 496 0123, and make sure the same number appears on the verification page of your site. With call reporting on, Google shows a forwarding number, so each call is linked to the keyword and ad that produced it and can be counted as a call conversion.
Because every interaction is a call, you pay per tap, which is effectively a cost per call attempt. Bid strategies built on conversions can then aim at calls that last long enough to count.
Google has been steering advertisers away from this format. It has announced that call ads are being retired in favour of responsive search ads paired with a call asset, with new call ads stopping before existing ones are switched off. At the time of writing (October 2026), check the notice in your Google Ads account for the dates that apply to you before building new campaigns around call ads.
Why it matters
For urgent, local, phone-first services, a call ad strips out every step between the search and the conversation. A locksmith in Leeds or an emergency plumber in Croydon gains little from sending a stressed person to a website first. Call ads also stop paying for visits that bounce, because every tap is a call attempt.
Understanding the format matters even as it is phased out, because the same goals now need to be met with responsive search ads and call assets, which behave differently. A responsive search ad tap can lead to the website rather than a call, so you need call tracking on the site as well.
Common mistakes
- Running call ads outside staffed hours, so you pay for calls that go to voicemail. An ad schedule fixes this.
- Using call ads for products people research first, such as kitchens or holidays, where a call is too big a step.
- Writing headlines that do not say a tap will start a call, so people ring by accident and hang up.
- Judging call ads on clicks instead of calls long enough to be enquiries.
- Leaving the move to responsive search ads until call ads stop serving.
How to act on it
If you already run call ads, review which ad groups produce calls of a useful length and at what cost. Then build responsive search ads with call assets in those ad groups now, run them alongside the call ads, and compare cost per qualified call. That gives you a tested replacement before the old format goes.
Make sure call tracking covers both calls from ads and calls from your website, because responsive search ads send some people there first. Planning that transition without losing phone leads is part of my Google search ads management.