Setting up a custom conversion event in Google Ads for a local bakery took me three days

The bakery in Springfield wanted to track phone calls from their ad, not just website clicks. I thought it would be a quick job, but the Google Tag Manager setup and linking to their call tracking service got really messy. It took me three full days to get the data flowing correctly into the dashboard. Has anyone else had a tough time with custom phone call conversions?

3 comments

3 Comments

schmidt.grant3mo ago

Check if your call tracking service has a direct Google Tag Manager template. I wasted a day trying to build a custom HTML tag before I found the official one from my provider. Then, make sure your Google Ads conversion link is set to count every conversion, not just one per click, or your call numbers will look way off.

-1

sagey693mo ago

Oh man, @schmidt.grant you are so right about that conversion link setting. I did the exact same thing last month. My call volume seemed crazy low and I couldn't figure out why. I was checking the tag setup for like two hours before I saw that "count every conversion" option. Flipped it on and suddenly my numbers made sense. Such a simple fix for a huge headache.

susan_wells1mo ago

My third campaign launch I messed up the same setting and had 47 calls show up as 3 in my reporting. Took me a solid afternoon of blaming my call tracking provider before I realized I was the problem. Isn't it funny how we always assume the tool is broken before we check our own setup? That single setting change turned my campaign from looking like a total failure into something that actually made sense. I still double check it every single time I build a new conversion goal now.