How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Stop a Google Ads lead form opening instead of your website
Updated October 11, 2026
10 minutes, then 1 to 2 weeks to settle
If clicking your ad's headline opens a Google Ads lead form instead of your website, Submit lead form (Google hosted) is likely the campaign's only conversion goal. Add a goal that counts your website's leads or calls, or remove the lead form goal. With another goal present, Google says the headline opens your website.
Before you start
- Standard or Admin access to the Google Ads account. Read-only access cannot edit campaigns.
- A conversion action that records website leads or calls and is set to Primary, if the form should stay beside your ad. A goal with nothing recording in it gives bidding nothing to aim at.
Confirm the campaign's only goal is the lead form
Open the campaign's conversion goals: a campaign whose only goal is Submit lead form (Google hosted) is the setup in which Google's headline opens the form.
- In Google Ads, open the Campaigns menu and click Campaigns. Select the Settings tab, then the campaign whose ads open the form.
- Expand Conversion goals. Note whether the campaign uses account-default goals or campaign-specific goals, and which goals are listed.
- Hover over each goal to see which conversion actions in it are Primary. If Submit lead form (Google hosted) is the only goal, that explains the form.
Google adds conditions: the campaign uses conversion-focused bidding and responsive search ads, and the headline-opens-form format needs an eligible account: Google's lead form rules ask for more than $50,000 USD total spend in Google Ads, or more than $1,000 on the account (or $15,000 across accounts) with advertiser verification completed. If the goals list holds more than the lead form, look elsewhere for the cause.
Add a website goal, or remove the lead form goal
Add a goal that holds your website's leads or calls to keep the form as an extra beside the ad, or remove the lead form goal to stop lead form formats on that campaign.
- To change only this campaign, choose campaign-specific goals. Changing the account-default goals changes every campaign that uses them.
- To keep the form: keep Submit lead form (Google hosted) and add the goal that holds your website's form submissions or calls. Google says that with other goals present, the headline opens your website and the lead form shows as an asset that can appear with other assets.
- To drop the form from this campaign: remove Submit lead form (Google hosted). Google says this opts the campaign out of serving lead form ad formats. Make sure another goal remains for bidding to aim at.
- Click Save.
Google says Smart Bidding needs a 7 to 14 day learning phase, and that changing conversion goals during it resets the learning window. Make this one change, then leave the campaign alone while it settles.
Check it worked
Over the next week, open Campaigns, click Segment above the table, and under Conversions choose Conversion action. If you kept the form, lead form submissions and your website's leads or calls should both appear.
Compare the campaign's clicks with visits from Google Ads in your website analytics for the same days. While the headline opened the form, clicks could far outnumber visits; after the change, the two should move closer together.
When a form-only ad is the right choice
A judgment, not Google's advice. A form-only ad can suit a business with no strong landing page, or one that only needs a name and a number to follow up, such as a tutoring center booking a first call. A business that wins work on the phone, or that needs people to see its prices, photos or reviews first, is usually better served by a headline that opens the website, with the form as an extra.
Why the setting can arrive by accident
Google's own steps for a new Leads campaign start by adding the Submit lead form (Google hosted) goal. If no other goal is added during setup, or the account-default goals hold only that goal, the campaign meets Google's condition for the form-only format without anyone choosing that format.