Introducing bid-per-call in AdWords

Over the next few weeks in the US and UK, we'll be rolling out the ability for advertisers to bid for phone calls -- in addition to bidding for clicks -- when they show Google search ads on computers and tablets.

Potential for more calls

Let's say your business sees phone calls as a valuable lead source. You're willing to pay up to $5 for a phone call and up to $1 for a click from a prospective customer who searched for "caribbean cruise" on Google search.

Today, a combination of your ad's Quality Score and max cost-per-click (CPC) bid determine your Ad Rank, which influences your ad's position. But with bid-per-call, your bid for phone calls and phone call Quality Score can directly factor into your Ad Rank, too. Higher ranked ads are more likely to be seen and can therefore generate more phone calls (and clicks, too).

Setup and reporting 

To take advantage of bid-per-call, select the option to use a Google forwarding number when you set up Call Extensions so that our systems can measure when a call to your business occurs. With bid-per-call, you'll also get the benefit of detailed call reporting right in AdWords, which includes:

• Summaries of completed calls, phone-through rate (PTR), and phone call cost on the Ad Group and Campaign tabs. 
• Details for each call, including call time, duration, caller area code, and the ad group that drove the call on the Dimensions tab. 

Eligibility requirements 

At this time, bid-per-call is available only in the US and UK. Max CPP bids are set at the ad group level. And each ad group must meet certain minimum click and call thresholds. If you're already using Call Metrics, you must enter a Max CPP bid in order to activate bid-per-call.

More details 

In the AdWords Help Center, you can find details on how bid-per-call works with Ad Rank and the AdWords auction, and general FAQs about call extensions. For the latest updates on bid-per-call and other useful features, please visit Google Ad Innovations.

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Product Manager