From Call-Only to Call Assets: Rebuilding Your Lead Strategy Before Google Pulls the Plug

If your Google Ads strategy depends on phone calls, this article is for you. Google has officially started phasing out call-only ads. New call-only ads have not been creatable since February 2026. Existing ones will stop receiving impressions in February 2027. After that, the ad format that many small service businesses rely on simply won’t work anymore.

This matters most for small business owners in service-based industries: tradies, lawyers, dentists, mechanics, locksmiths, cleaning services, mobile beauty therapists, and anyone else whose customers prefer to pick up the phone rather than fill out a form.

The good news is the replacement is in many ways better. Responsive search ads with call assets give you everything call-only ads did, plus more flexibility, more visibility, and better data. The bad news is you have to rebuild. Here’s how.

Why Google is making this change

Call-only ads were a single-purpose format. They could only drive phone calls, they only showed on mobile, and they couldn’t take advantage of newer ad features like image extensions or sitelinks. Google’s broader direction is toward unified ad formats where one campaign can serve different goals based on what the user wants. Call assets attached to responsive search ads fit that direction.

For your business, the upside is more flexibility. You can now run ads that drive both calls and website visits from the same creative, and you can still prioritise calls if that’s your main goal.

Read also:The AI Max Migration Playbook: What Small Business Owners Need to Do Before September 2026

What changes between call-only ads and call assets

Call-only ads were ads where the entire ad existed to trigger a phone call. The headline was your phone number. The click made the call. There was no website visit involved.

Responsive search ads with call assets work differently. The ad itself looks like a normal search ad with a headline, description, and a clickable link to your website. A call asset (formerly called a call extension) appears alongside the ad showing your phone number with a click-to-call button. Users can either click your ad to visit your website or tap the call button to ring you directly.

This means you’re showing two ways to engage. Some users will click through to your site. Others will just call. You capture both audiences from one campaign.

Step 1: Set up call tracking properly

Before you build a single new ad, fix your call tracking. The whole point of running call-driven ads is to know which clicks turn into actual calls and which calls turn into actual customers. Without proper tracking, you’re flying blind.

Inside Google Ads, set up a call conversion action. You can track calls of a minimum length (usually 60 seconds is the threshold for considering a call a real lead). Use Google forwarding numbers so the system can attribute calls back to the campaign and ad that drove them.

If you have a CRM or any way to track which calls become customers, connect that data back to Google Ads through offline conversion imports. This is what separates serious advertisers from the ones complaining that Google Ads doesn’t work.

Step 2: Build your responsive search ads from scratch

Don’t just copy your old call-only ad headlines into a responsive search ad. Call-only ads were written to convince someone to make a call right now. Responsive search ads need to do that and also work for users who want to research first.

Write fifteen headlines that cover three angles: your service, your differentiators, and your call to action. For example, an emergency plumber might write headlines like Emergency Plumber Perth, 24/7 No Callout Fee Fully Licensed, and Call Now For Same Day Service. Write at least four descriptions that cover similar ground in more detail.

The AI inside Google Ads will mix and match these to find the combinations that work best. Give it good raw material to work with.

Step 3: Add call assets correctly

Call assets are added at the campaign or ad group level, not on individual ads. Set them up at the campaign level if your phone number is the same across all your services, or at the ad group level if you have different numbers for different services.

Schedule your call assets to only show during your actual business hours. There is nothing worse than spending money on a click-to-call from someone at 11pm only to have them get voicemail. Set the schedule to match the hours you can actually answer.

If you’re a Perth business that doesn’t take calls on weekends, schedule out Saturday and Sunday. If you’re a 24-hour emergency service, leave the schedule open.

Step 4: Set up call conversions and bidding

Call conversions tell Google’s bidding algorithm to prioritise users who are likely to call you. Without setting these up, smart bidding has no idea which clicks lead to phone calls. With them, the algorithm starts learning which audiences and times generate the most valuable call conversions.

Set the conversion to count after a minimum call length that matches your business. For most service businesses, 60 seconds is enough to filter out wrong numbers and hangups. For appointment-based businesses, 90 seconds may be more appropriate.

Use a smart bidding strategy that targets conversions or conversion value rather than just clicks. Maximise Conversions or Target CPA work well for most service businesses moving from call-only ads.

Step 5: Track lead quality, not just call volume

Call volume is a vanity metric. A campaign that delivers 50 calls but only converts 2 into customers is worse than one that delivers 20 calls but converts 12. The shift from call-only to call assets is your opportunity to start measuring what actually matters.

Set up a simple tracking sheet for the first three months. Log every call your team takes from Google Ads. Note the call duration, whether it became a quote, and whether the quote converted into a customer. After 90 days, you’ll know your true cost per customer, not just your cost per call.

Read also: Google Ads in AI Overviews: How to Get Your Ads Appearing in AI Search Results

Common mistakes to avoid

The first mistake is sending click-through traffic to a homepage that doesn’t make calling obvious. If your responsive search ads send people to your website, that landing page needs a giant phone number, a click-to-call button on mobile, and a clear value proposition.

The second mistake is not testing different call asset phone numbers. If you have multiple lines, test which numbers convert callers into customers most reliably and route the higher-converting line to your best closer.

The third mistake is forgetting to update your tracking when you remove the old call-only ads. If your conversion actions were tied to the old ads, your data continuity will break the moment you migrate. Set up the new tracking first, then transition the budget.

Use the next few months wisely

You have until February 2027 before existing call-only ads stop showing entirely. That sounds like a long time. It isn’t. By the time you set up new tracking, build new ads, run them in parallel with your old ones to compare performance, and shift your budget gradually, you’ll want every week of that runway.

The Perth service businesses that come out of this transition strongest will be the ones that treated it as an opportunity to upgrade their entire lead generation system, not just swap one ad format for another. Better tracking, better landing pages, better measurement of lead quality. Those upgrades pay back long after the call-only ad deadline passes.

Already feeling overwhelmed? You don’t have to do this alone. Get in touch and let me help you with the migration.