Phone number click as a Google Ads conversion
A tap on a tel: link tells you a phone opened a dial screen. It does not tell you a call happened. Use it as a secondary action, or as the main one only if every call is worth the same to you. For a count of real calls, use Google's website call conversion, which counts a call only when it lasts longer than a minimum length you set. On 9 Nov 2026 we read the public GTM containers of 857 study sites with Google Ads conversions: 45 (5.3%) fire one on a tel: click and 29 (3.4%) on a mailto: click.
Check this on your own site
Free. Public tags only. Your result opens on the scan page.
How many sites count a phone or email click?
On 9 Nov 2026 we rescanned the public Google tag and GTM containers of the 886 sites with a readable Google Ads conversion in the 1,727-site study. 29 of them share a container with another site in the list, so the base is 857. We counted a site when a Google Ads conversion tag has a click trigger whose link URL condition contains tel: or mailto:.
| Link in the click trigger | Sites of 857 |
|---|---|
tel: (phone number) | 45 of 857 (5.3%) |
mailto: (email address) | 29 of 857 (3.4%) |
| Both | 23 |
| Either | 51 (6.0%) |
The button click guide leaves these out on purpose. Google names a tap on a phone number as an example of a click worth counting. The question is what the tap tells you.
What is the difference between a tel: click and a call conversion?
tel: link click | Website call conversion | |
|---|---|---|
| What fires | The tag, when someone clicks the link | A call to a Google forwarding number, after a phone snippet swaps the number on your page |
| What it counts | A tap, even if the caller hangs up before the first ring | A call longer than the minimum length you set (Google Ads Help) |
| Short calls | Counted | Filtered out by the minimum length |
| Setup | A GTM click trigger or gtag snippet (Google Ads Help) | A conversion action, the Google tag and the phone snippet |
| Calls from a printed number or a saved contact | Not seen | Not seen, unless the caller saw the forwarding number on your page |
Google's own help page for the click version talks about phone number clicks on a mobile website. On a desktop browser a tel: link may open nothing, or an app the visitor never set up. If the trigger has no device condition, desktop clicks count too.
What about a mailto: click?
A mailto: click opens a mail app with a blank message. Nobody has sent anything yet. It is the same problem as a form: a click that comes before the lead. 29 sites count it, 23 of them next to a tel: click. If an email request is worth money to you, count the one you can see: a contact form success, with a transaction ID if you can (Google Ads Help). See transaction IDs on lead forms.
Which one should I use?
- You get a few calls a week and every one counts: the
tel:click is fine as a secondary action. It shows whether the phone link gets used. - Calls are a main lead source: set up the website call conversion with a minimum call length that fits your sales calls. Then make that the primary action, not the click.
- You already use a call tracking tool: import its calls (Google Ads Help names the import option) and keep the click as secondary.
- Both in Google Ads as primary: one call can count twice, once as the tap and once as the call. See duplicate conversions in GTM.
How do I check my own site?
DevTools, Network, Preserve log, filter conversion. Click your phone number and your email address. A request with label= means that click is a conversion. Open the page on a laptop as well as a phone: if it still fires, the trigger has no device condition. In GTM, open each trigger on a Google Ads tag and look for Click URL contains tel: or mailto:. In Google Ads (Goals, Conversions), see whether the action is Primary.
How do I fix it?
- Make the click action secondary, don't delete it. Note 30 days of Conversions first: the count drops by the taps that never became a call.
- Add the call conversion and set the minimum call length. Check a test call shows up before you make it primary.
- Count the form, not the mailto: put the success event on the Ads action. Click conversions covers the other buttons.
What can't we see from outside?
- Primary or secondary. The 5.3% and 3.4% are sites where a phone or email click is set up as a conversion, not where it is bid on.
- Website call conversions. They run through a phone snippet and Google's forwarding numbers. We can't tell from a container whether a site uses one, or what minimum length it set.
- How good the calls are. We see the tag, not the call.
- Device conditions and call tracking tools that fire on the server or in a script outside GTM, and GA4 events imported into Ads.
Click on a different button? Should a button click be a Google Ads conversion? Check every conversion at once with the free scan.
FAQ
Is a tap on a phone number a valid Google Ads conversion?
Yes, Google lists it as an example of a click conversion. It counts the tap, not a call, so many teams keep it as a secondary action.
What is a website call conversion?
Google swaps your number on the page for a forwarding number and counts a call when it lasts longer than a minimum length you set.
Should a mailto: click be a Google Ads conversion?
Not as a primary one. It opens a blank message and nobody has sent anything yet. Count the form success instead.
Run the free scan on your site.
Fireshift reads what your site tells Google Ads, GA4 and Meta from the outside. No install, takes seconds.