Google Ads New Call Ads and Call Recording

Call recording is new for Google Ads. Rolled out this past week in many of our client accounts is a feature to record and hold for 30 days calls from call extensions and the use of Call Ads in your account.

To enable these new call recording options, click into your campaign tab and then select settings > account. Then open the Call section and select to allow call recording. You will need to accept Google’s EULA.

To listen to call recordings, you will go to the Reports tab at the top and then create a report of the date range of your choosing for calls and call extensions. Google will auto populate a report with links to listen to actual calls.

What we have found is that for some clients based on the recordings, we are moving them to a call schedule for their business open times and not showing click to call and call extensions when the business is not open.

For others, we are finding that the call recordings validate the usefulness of using Google Ads and a budget increase may be warranted to get more activity.

Please note that calls from your website if you are using this conversion type will not be recorded only those associated with Call Extensions.

For us, we find that this extra option allows us as account managers to do a reality check on the phone call traffic we are driving with click activity. For clients. the call recordings will allow validation of responses taken by staff to fine tune a message or increase training to better serve customers and potential prospects from their first phone contact after a click.

We invite you to find out more about our Google Ads services and our Google Partner status on our website.

Just Started Advertising on Google Ads? Tips on Determining Your Ad Budget

Just Started Advertising on Google Ads? Tips on Determining Your Ad Budget

When you start advertising on Google Ads, how do you determine your starting budget?

There is no mystery to deciding your budget for Google Ads. I use the Keyword Planner to determine the best budget for starting out. Here are my tips.

  1. Create a list of 10 two to three word phrases that you feel will help drive qualified traffic.
  2. Go to your Google Ads account or ask your Google Ads consultant to run the numbers for you, but putting each keyword in the Google Keyword Planner to check for traffic, competition, and typical bids.
  3. Plan on these potential bids being about 20% lower than the real auction for clicks when your account is set up.
  4. Take the average of these ten keyword’s click costs and then decide how many clicks you would like to have a day before your ads stop showing.
  5. Look at the number generated in step 4 and determine if you can realistically live with this number. Never get over your head in regards to a budget that is way beyond your means. It is not typical to get leads in Google Ads the day ads serve. For some account it can take as long as three weeks for optimization to start to see the first lead conversion.
  6. Remember a lead conversion or beneficial action you are recording as a conversion is not always a sale. Sometimes it is just the first step in the sales process.
  7. Understand that it takes time for a Google Ads account to become profitable. Google Ads is a dynamic auction with bids changing for each query and many factors determining if your ads show or not.
  8. Work with a professional Google Ads account manager or consultant like McCord Web Services to get the most out of Google Ads.

I invite you to visit our website to learn more about Google Ads and our Google Ads consulting and account management services.