Question from Reddit user:
I’ve got a new local business client now that has a couple of campaigns set up with their location extension enabled, and has their business profile showing up in maps as a sponsored listing.
They’re in the window tinting niche, and a good chunk of traffic in that niche comes from Google Maps.
Ultimately, what I’m trying to figure out is if it’s worth having the location extension set up and having their listing show up in maps, or if it’s just a waste of money on their campaigns.
In order to do that I would have to figure out setting up conversion tracking for a couple of things:
- Phone calls directly from the listing
- Phone calls/form fills from people who visit the main website from the listing and convert on their website
I figure tracking people who end up on the main website from the listing would be easy enough. Just set up some conversion actions on their website, and I’m assuming it would pull those through.
The thing I’m mainly trying to figure out is if I can pull through conversions from people who directly call on the business profile if they click on the sponsored maps listing.
There’s a handful of conversion actions on the account right now. Here’s a Google Drive link to a screenshot of those conversion actions:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HTR1caVlbu6hsPYCytytXbr_Mt3Ie_0N/view?usp=sharing
Their account is a bit of a mess, and there is no conversion tracking on their website, so the only conversion action really set up are the conversions coming from the call extension on the ads.
All of the conversions coming from the “Calls from ads” conversion action I’m assuming are just coming directly from the call extension.
But below that there’s “Clicks to call” as a Google Hosted conversion action, and then “Business Profile – Call” as another conversion action.
Outside of that, there’s the other normal conversion actions for other local actions showing up.
I’m seeing conversions showing up on the “Clicks to call” conversion action, but nothing on the “Business Profile – Call” conversion action. Just don’t know if those are people clicking to call on the Google Business Profile or not.
Also, the “Clicks to call” conversion actions are not currently showing up as conversions on the actual campaigns they’re running right now.
Sorry if that’s a bit of a ramble, but wanted to try to provide as much context as possible.
If anyone knows how to get conversion tracking set up for those things (if it’s even possible), I’d be really grateful.
Also, if you need any other info I can drop it below, thanks!
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
It is absolutely worth setting up the location extension, as Google Maps is a crucial conversion source for local businesses, but you’re right that accurately tracking its conversions is complex due to the different conversion types.
The existing “Clicks to call” and “Business Profile – Call” conversion actions are likely Google-hosted local actions that track clicks on the phone number within the sponsored Maps listing, but they may be improperly configured or not included in your campaign settings, which is why you aren’t seeing them in your campaign reports.
To get full, reliable tracking for both call types and website actions, your best solution is to move beyond the default Google-hosted actions by implementing website conversion tracking with Google Tag Manager and utilizing a server-side solution combining the Google Ads API for call data and optionally a third-party tool like the CallRail API for granular call tracking.
The long answer is:
Your client, being in the window tinting niche, receives high-intent local traffic, and sponsored Maps listings are incredibly valuable, so you are right to focus on measuring their worth.
You have correctly identified the two critical conversion paths: direct calls from the Maps listing and website conversions from people who click through.
The key to fixing your messy conversion data is to tackle each path systematically.
For the calls, the existing “Clicks to call” and “Business Profile – Call” conversion actions are indeed designed to track clicks on your phone number within the Google Business Profile from a paid ad context, but their default setup often results in data being siloed or not attributed to the campaign level.
You need to explicitly ensure these conversion actions are set to be included in the “Conversions” column within your Google Ads campaign settings, which is why you currently aren’t seeing them reported there.
However, even when properly configured, these are click-based conversions, meaning they track the click on the phone number, not the actual, completed phone call, which is less valuable for optimization.
To track completed, quality calls, you need to use a dedicated solution:
The most accurate method is to use the Google Ads API to upload offline conversions.
This involves retrieving the gclid from Google’s server for every initial click that leads to the Maps listing.
You then need an in-house or third-party call logging system to record every incoming call and match the phone number to the corresponding gclid.
If you use a third-party service like CallRail for dynamic number insertion on your website and call tracking, the CallRail API can be queried to provide the gclid and the quality call data, which is then sent via API to Google Ads.
For the website conversions (calls and form fills), you need to properly set up tracking using Google Tag Manager.
You must implement a unique tracking phone number that uses Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) to capture the gclid for those who click through to the site.
GTM would then fire a phone_call event or a form_submit event for your website conversions.
By combining the Google Ads API to inject server-side call data with the proper website tracking via GTM, and potentially centralizing this process in a server-side container like Stape or Google Cloud Platform, you gain a complete, reliable, and de-duplicated view of every conversion that starts from your location extension.
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