The problem with call duration conversions
Google's built-in call tracking, and some call tracking systems, have a setting to only count calls as conversions if they're long enough. For example, you might choose to count only calls longer than 30 seconds, or 60 seconds, as conversions.
On the surface using call duration as a proxy for call quality is a reasonable idea.
(A proxy is a stand-in measure for when we can’t measure the real thing. In this case the real thing is a good lead, a booking or a sale. But, a lot of businesss don't tell Google this so call length is a convenient substitute.)
The thinking is that poor-fit leads or spam callers often hang up quickly. Good quality leads usually talk for longer. Put another way, a long call equals a good lead.
But this isn't always true.
I was working with an auto-shop growth specialist. His client's Google Ads account showed plenty of call conversions, but few of them turned into bookings. The account was using a 60-second minimum call length.
He listened to a month's worth of call recordings to get to the bottom of the problem. He found that a significant share of the calls counted as conversions weren't new leads. They came from:
- Wrong-number calls from people asking about the status of their car repair at some other auto shop.
- Existing customers calling to confirm a booking, authorise work, or change an appointment.
- Vendors trawling the internet looking to sell to auto-shop owners.
By the time you add a little hold music and some polite greetings it's easy to get to 60 seconds so Google thought every call was a win.
I've seen the opposite problem too. A genuine prospect calls. The office is busy and nobody answers. The call is 0 seconds long so Google counts it as a loss.
Minutes later the team calls back. A job gets booked. The customer pays. Because the conversation happened on an outgoing call it was never recorded as a conversion.
So you end up with dodgy data:
- Bad calls counted as leads.
- Good calls not counted at all.
This matters because Google's bidding algorithms repeat what they are rewarded for:
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If Google sees that your ads are generating “conversions,” it will try to find more people like those callers, even if many of them were the wrong people: existing customers, wrong numbers, or salespeople.
-
If Google sees that certain searches don’t produce conversions, it will reduce your visibility on those searches, even if they actually brought in real customers who called back later.
The best scenario is where you signal Google using actual business outcomes instead of a proxy like call length. You let Google know which leads were a good fit, who booked and who paid. Google then uses that information to find more people who are likely to book and pay.
I've built systems that do this for several clients. The concept works: tell Google which leads you want and Google gives you more of them. When Google is optimising for real business value instead of for long phone calls, the quality of enquiries tends to improve noticeably.
Until now, building a system like this has been expensive and slow. It usually required custom integrations between call tracking, a CRM, and Google Ads, so it only made sense for bigger businesses.
That's changing.
Over the last month or so I've made real progress in extracting the tech I developed for my larger clients into a much more accessible system.
Among other things, it fixes the two problems with call tracking I've written about today:
- False positives from long but useless calls.
- False negatives from missed calls that turn into sales.
I’ll take on the first beta users in a week or two. If you use Google Ads to generate between 30 and 300 leads a month, and you'd like Google to optimise for real business value instead of proxy metrics we should talk.
In the meantime, if you track calls as conversions in Google Ads, listen to some of the recordings. Ask three questions:
- How many “conversions” are not new leads at all?
- How many real customers called back later and never got counted?
- Is Google learning from revenue, or just from call length?
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