What the forwarding number does
Google’s help pages, read on 15 November 2026, describe four steps.
- Display. The ad, the call asset or the location asset shows a Google forwarding number instead of the number on your van.
- Tracking. Google records the time, the duration, the campaign and the ad group. For calls over 15 seconds it can report the caller’s number, except in India.
- Routing. The caller is put through to the business number you gave Google. Your team answers the phone they already use.
- Reporting. The calls appear in the Google Ads reports. You decide the duration that counts as a conversion, and automated bidding can use that conversion.
Turn call reporting on under Account settings, in the Call reporting section. It applies to call assets, location assets and call ads. Google’s manage-call-reporting page says the forwarding number can also appear with Performance Max and location-based ads. Turning the feature off puts your own number back and stops Google counting calls from ads as conversions. Budget a day. The page says the change can take up to 24 hours.
Google is explicit that forwarding numbers should not be copied onto a website, a vehicle or another advert. They can be reassigned. A number that worked in March can be someone else’s in June. Your printed number stays the one you own.
A tracked call is not a booked job
The report can tell you the call lasted two minutes and came from the emergency-plumber campaign. It cannot tell you the pipe was in a town you cover, or that a time was agreed. Those columns are the lead sheet.
| Tool | It can tell you | It cannot tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Google call reporting | That the ad produced a call, how long it lasted, which campaign. | Whether you wanted the job or booked it. |
| A third-party number or our call-recording extra | A recording you can replay. Ours is £45 a month plus VAT, on the pricing page. | The gross profit. Someone still types the outcome. |
| The lead sheet | In area, right job, booked, won, or lost. | Nothing, if the person on the phone does not fill it in the same day. |
Display campaigns are the gap in the product. Google says call assets aimed at the Display Network do not support forwarding numbers or call conversions. If a report mixes Search and Display, do not assume every call is in the call column.
Set it up without losing a week
- Write down the number that should ring. One number. If two mobiles share the work, decide which one Google routes to, or you will not know who missed it.
- Turn on call reporting. Leave it a day.
- Call the number that appears on the ad, from a personal mobile, during the hours someone will answer. Say “test” and hang up after the duration you set as a conversion.
- Find that call in Google Ads the same day. If it is missing, you have a tracking fault. Do not raise bids while it is missing.
- Add a row on the lead sheet for the test, marked as a test, so it never becomes a fake lead.
- From the next real call, the person who answers adds the outcome before the end of the day. A Friday pile of “I’ll remember” is how Monday’s report invents a conversion rate.
If you would rather show your own number, turn call reporting off and use another tracker, as Google’s note describes. Do not run both in a way that replaces the number twice. Callers who see a strange number and then a second strange number on the website stop trusting either.
Set the conversion duration at 60 seconds to begin with. That is a starting choice, not a rule on Google’s page. After two weeks, compare it with the lead sheet. If booked jobs are often under a minute, 60 seconds is hiding them. If the calls over 60 seconds are mostly the wrong trade or the wrong town, lowering the threshold will count more of the wrong calls. Fix the searches and the area first.
Write the campaign on the call’s row. The duration will not tell you the words they typed. Those are in the search terms report, for the queries Google includes. A two-minute call on the emergency campaign can still be someone pricing a job, a course, or a town you do not cover. Count the call. Then exclude the query. One without the other leaves the same wrong number able to ring next week.
Hours, nations, and missed calls
The forwarding number is only as good as the person at the end of it. Schedule call assets for the hours the phone is answered. A campaign running at 9pm in a one-van firm, whether that van is in Belfast, Swansea or Aberdeen, produces missed calls that bidding will treat as demand.
Count missed calls on the sheet as their own outcome. They are not qualified and they are not a reason to widen the area. They are a reason to shorten the schedule or to add a second person on the phone. The sample report is where those counts should show up beside the spend, with booked jobs kept separate.
Three questions while they are still on the line
The forwarding number has done its job when the phone rings. The booking is decided in the next minute, and the sheet is useless if those answers are remembered later.
- What has happened, in their words. Enough to mark the job type: a leak, a certificate, an MOT, a one-off clean. If it is work you do not do, end the call and mark “wrong job”. Do not book it to be polite.
- The town or postcode. Check it against the list by the phone, from the service-area guide. Out of area is an outcome, not a favour.
- When they need someone. If the diary cannot do that, say so and mark “not booked”. A promise you will not keep becomes a complaint, and it still counts as a conversion in Google if the call was long enough.
Write the three answers before the next call. A Friday pile of “I’ll remember who that was” is how Monday’s report invents a booking rate. The test call in the setup list above should go through the same three questions, then be marked as a test so it never becomes a fake lead.
Questions from owners
How do I track calls from Google Ads?
In Google Ads, open Account settings and turn on call reporting. Google then shows a forwarding number instead of your business number on call assets, location assets and call ads, and sends the caller through to the number you actually answer. The call is reported with its time, duration and campaign.
Will customers see a different phone number?
Yes, on the ad. It can look unfamiliar. Google routes it to your real number. Do not print that forwarding number on the van, the website footer or a directory listing. Google says the numbers are Google’s, they can change, and they are not for use outside the ads.
Can I keep my own number on the ad?
Yes. Turn call reporting off and the ad shows your business number. Google will then stop counting “Calls from ads” as conversions, which also affects automated bidding that depended on those conversions. If you use another call-tracking company, this is the setting Google tells you to use so their number is not replaced.
How long does a call need to last?
You choose the duration that counts as a conversion. Google can report the caller’s number for calls over 15 seconds, with an exception for India that does not change the UK setup. Start at 60 seconds so a wrong number is less likely to count, then change it when the lead sheet disagrees: if real bookings are shorter than 60 seconds, lower it; if long calls are mostly the wrong job, the duration is not the problem and the search terms are. Duration is not the same test as qualified.
Do forwarding numbers work on every campaign?
Google says call assets on the Display Network do not get forwarding numbers or call conversions. They do describe forwarding numbers on Performance Max and on location-based ads when call reporting is on. Check the campaign type before you assume every call is in the column.
How long after I switch it on will calls be tracked?
Google says it can take up to 24 hours for the change to show. Make a test call the next day, from a mobile that is not the business number, and see whether the call appears. A test call that never shows up is a tracking fault, not a quiet day.
Is call recording included?
Google’s call reporting records that a call happened and how long it lasted. It is not a full recording of the conversation for you to play back to the office. On our pricing page, call recording is a separate extra at £45 a month plus VAT. You do not need that extra to count calls. You need it if you want to hear them.
What about missed calls in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK?
The forwarding number still has to reach a person. If the office phone rings out to a mobile that is in a van with no signal in rural Wales or the Highlands, the call can be “connected” in a technical sense and still be lost as a job. Write missed and unanswered on the sheet. The UK setting in Google Ads does not fix the handset.
What should the person answering the phone write down?
Three things before the next call: what the customer says has happened, so you can mark the job type; the town or postcode, checked against the places you actually cover; and when they need someone, matched to a diary you can keep. Write the outcome the same day. A long call that you cannot place on Monday was still long enough for Google to count it as a conversion.
Where the figures come from
Checked on 15 November 2026 unless a source prints its own date.
- About call reporting. Google Ads Help. Forwarding numbers on call assets, location assets and call ads. Caller number for calls over 15 seconds, except in India. You choose which duration counts as a conversion.
- Google forwarding number. How the number is shown, how the call is routed, and where it must not be copied.
- Manage call reporting. Account settings. Turning it off stops “Calls from ads” conversions. Changes can take up to 24 hours. The number can also show on Performance Max and location-based ads.