How-to · Updated October 11, 2026
Track clicks on your phone number as a Google Ads conversion
Updated October 11, 2026
30 minutes
Create a Google Ads conversion action for phone number clicks and fire it from Tag Manager on links whose Click URL contains tel:. Set Count to One, since Google counts every tap by default. A tap is not a call: where real calls are tracked, make the tap action Secondary, or one caller counts twice.
Before you start
- Edit access to Google Ads and to the site's Tag Manager container, with the Google tag and a Conversion Linker tag already in the container.
- A phone number that is a tel: link. A number typed as plain text, or shown inside an image, has no link to click, so there is nothing for the trigger to catch.
- A list of how calls are counted today: Google's forwarding number on the site, a call tracking tool, or nothing. It decides the last part.
Create the conversion action
This part creates a click-on-number conversion action in Google Ads, sets it to count once per ad click, and copies the two codes Tag Manager needs.
- In Google Ads, open the Goals menu, go to Summary and select + Create conversion action.
- Select Conversions from phone calls, then Save and continue, and choose the category closest to a call lead.
- Select + Create conversion, then Calls from website, then Someone makes a call by clicking a number on my website, and Save and continue.
- Open the new action, go to its Tag setup section and click Use Google Tag Manager. Copy the Conversion ID and the Conversion label.
- On the same action, click Edit settings, click Count, select One, then click Save and Done. Google's default for clicks on a number on your mobile website is Every, so one visitor who taps three times counts as three.
Fire it from Tag Manager on taps of the tel: link
Google's own instructions have a developer add an onclick handler to every phone link. Tag Manager does the same job without editing the site, as long as the number is a tel: link.
- In Tag Manager, click Triggers, then New, open Trigger Configuration and choose Just Links.
- Under This trigger fires on, select the Some option for link clicks (Google's help page calls it Some Clicks) and add the condition Click URL contains tel:. If Click URL is not in the list, choose it from the built-in variables option in that same menu.
- Click Tags, add a new tag, open Tag Configuration and choose Google Ads, then Google Ads Conversion Tracking.
- Paste the Conversion ID and Conversion label. Type the value you give a call lead in Conversion Value: Google's Tag Manager page says an empty field is sent as 0.
- Under Triggering, choose the tel: trigger and click Save.
- Click Preview, connect your site, click the phone link and check that the conversion tag shows as fired for that click.
- Publish the container. A tag saved in a workspace does not run on the live site until a version is published.
Decide whether taps steer bidding
Google says this action tracks the clicks, not the phone calls themselves. A tap counts whether or not anyone got through, and a call that connects can be counted again by whatever tracks real calls.
- If nothing else counts calls from your website, leave the tap action Primary. It is the closest signal you have to those calls. That is a judgment, not Google's rule.
- If Google's forwarding number on your site or a call tracking tool already counts those calls, open Goals, then Summary, click Edit goal on the goal that holds the tap action, and under Conversion action optimization select Secondary (observe only).
- Click Save. A Secondary action still reports under All conversions, so the tap count stays visible.
- If a campaign bids on a custom goal that includes the tap action, it still bids on taps even when Secondary, so take the action out of that custom goal too.
Check it worked
In Tag Manager's preview, a click on the phone link should show the Google Ads conversion tag as fired, and a click on any other link should not.
In Google Ads, a new phone call action may read Unverified or Inactive at first. Google says this is normal and it turns Active after the first actual conversion or a successful test event. Usually that takes a few days of ad traffic, a rough expectation rather than a Google figure.
Then compare a week of taps with the calls your call tracking credits to ad visitors on the website. Against those, taps can run somewhat higher, since some taps never connect. Against the whole call log they will usually run lower, because the action counts only people who clicked an ad first.
Why taps and calls do not match
A tap fires the tag the moment the link is clicked. A visitor who taps and hangs up before it rings, or taps on a computer with no phone app set up, still counts. In the other direction, Google counts only taps by people who clicked an ad first, so calls from other visitors, from people who dial by hand or from the Business Profile never show up as taps. That is why a tap action belongs beside real call tracking as an observation, not as a second count of the same lead.
Without Tag Manager: the onclick method
Google's instructions add an event snippet to the page after the Google tag, then an onclick attribute on the phone link, button or button image that calls gtag_report_conversion with the tel: link. Both pieces have to be on every page with the number.