Click to call links update

By Helen Brown

Anyone working with AdWords will be no stranger to Google reviewing and rolling out changes/improvements to various aspects of AdWords features, and recently they have addressed the issue of usability with mobile ads in mind.

Whether you have a phone number in your ad text or not, this is worth knowing about!
Previous to this update from Google, any advertisers who had a click to call extension set up on their ads would have the ability to present ads to their users with the option of either choosing to click through to their site from the ad or using the click to call link in the ad for directly phoning the advertisers business. Unless this function was set up in an advertisers account as a click to call function, a click to call link would not be featured in the ad. Google have addressed this with the concern that it was not a good experience for mobile users as it could be considered confusing. Think about it……………..a mobile user may see a business telephone number displayed in an ad, but not be able to click it in some circumstances if the advertiser does not have click to call set up, and they may see another ad and be able to click through. Why not have all telephone numbers that appear in ads set up as click to call, it would certainly be less confusing for users, and it would require less work in the AdWords interface for advertisers.
So, this is what has happened.
From now on, anyone who features a telephone number in their ad text will have the feature of click to call automatically active for the ad. BUT! something to consider here………………..if you already use the click to call extension and display a telephone number in your ad, the new feature will only show the telephone number in your ad and not show the click to call extension to prevent confusion over more than one telephone number displaying should the numbers be different. Google advise that if you want your click to call extension to take precedence you will need to delete the telephone number from your ad text to allow the click to call extension to work again.
As for pricing, the advertiser is charged when the user clicks the headline to go through to the site, or when they click the call link. The same rules also apply with regard to AdWords policies, and you are not allowed to feature a telephone number in your ad headline.
You will also be able to view the campaigns tab in your account to see information about how many calls you received per campaign, ad group, keyword and ad by selecting the ‘click type’ option under the ‘segment’ drop down on your reports. If you want to review reporting metrics for the ‘traditional’ click to call extension feature, you can still view these reports via the extensions tab.

Although Google have introduced this new feature, they do still advise that the click to call extension is the best way to feature a telephone number because when you use a click to call extension the number will display as an additional line, this gives more space in your ad text to write additional wording to mention more about a particular promotion etc you may be offering, or give more detail about your products or services. Also,  when you use click to call extensions you can use other features such as vanity numbers, the call only feature and reporting metrics are more detailed.

With more people than ever using mobile Internet, this has to be a good move forward for gaining attention.  This will no doubt make it easier than ever for Internet users to connect with businesses and for advertisers to get more conversions. Good luck!

Article source: http://www.ipassexam.com/blog/index.php/click-to-call-links-update/

Tags:  google-analytics-help, www-google-co-i