How to Track Roofing Leads from Google Ads: Call Tracking Setup

Here is a question that reveals more about a roofing company's Google Ads setup than almost anything else: which keywords are generating your phone calls?

Most roofers running Google Ads cannot answer it. They know they are spending money. They get calls. They assume the ads are working because they get calls when the ads are running. But they cannot tell you whether "emergency roofer Leeds" generates three times as many calls as "roofing contractor Leeds," or whether one campaign is delivering £40 leads while another is producing nothing at £8 per click.

Without call tracking, you are running Google Ads on guesswork. You cannot optimise what you cannot measure. You cannot identify which keywords to spend more on or which to pause. You cannot use Smart Bidding effectively because Google's algorithm has no conversion signal to learn from — it is optimising for clicks, which is not the same thing as leads.

Call tracking solves this. It connects the phone call you received at 4pm on Wednesday to the specific keyword, ad, and campaign that generated it. This guide covers every layer of call tracking available to a UK roofer — from the free built-in options within Google Ads to third-party call recording platforms — with step-by-step setup instructions for each.

Why call tracking changes everything about how you run Google Ads

The roofing business is telephone-led. When a homeowner needs a roofer, they call. They do not submit a form and wait 24 hours for a response — especially not for an emergency or urgent repair. Industry data consistently shows that 75–85% of roofing enquiries arrive by phone, not by contact form. This creates a fundamental measurement problem for any roofer running Google Ads.

Google Ads natively tracks what happens on your website — page views, time on site, and form submissions. But when a homeowner clicks your ad, lands on your site, sees your phone number, and calls you directly without filling in any form, Google Ads has no visibility of that conversion. From the platform's perspective, that click looks like a bounce — someone who visited and left without doing anything. Your campaign data shows costs and clicks but no conversions, making every decision about budget, bidding, and keyword management a guess.

The three layers of call tracking available to a UK roofer

There is not one type of call tracking — there are three distinct layers, each with different capabilities and costs. Understanding what each layer does tells you which ones you need for your setup right now.

For most roofing contractors, the right approach is Layers 1 and 2 (both free) as the foundation, with Layer 3 added when you want call recording, multi-channel attribution, or more detailed analytics than Google Ads provides natively.

Layer 1 setup: Google Ads call assets

Call assets (previously call extensions) add a phone number directly to your search ad. On mobile, this creates a clickable phone icon that lets users call you without visiting your website. Calls made through this feature are tracked automatically as call conversions in your Google Ads account.

• 1
  Access your Google Ads account and navigate to Assets

  In Google Ads, click "Campaigns" in the left navigation, then select "Assets" from the left menu. Click the blue "+" button and select "Call" from the asset types listed.

• 2
  Enter your phone number

  Select your country (United Kingdom) and enter your business phone number. Use your primary mobile number — this is what homeowners will call. Make sure it is the same number displayed on your website for consistency.

  ✅ Call reporting setting

  Enable "Call reporting" when prompted. This is what allows Google to track whether the call was made from the ad and for how long. Without call reporting enabled, the call asset will display your number but not count calls as conversions.

• 3
  Set conversion counting and minimum duration

  In the call reporting settings, set "Count" to "One per click" (not "Every") and set the minimum call duration to 60 seconds. This ensures only genuine enquiry calls (not wrong numbers or 10-second hang-ups) are counted as conversions. For roofing, 60–90 seconds is a reasonable minimum — a genuine lead conversation will typically last at least that long.

• 4
  Apply the asset to the correct campaigns

  Apply the call asset at the account level (so it appears on all campaigns) or at the campaign level if you want it on specific campaigns only. For most roofing accounts with one or two campaigns, account-level is fine. Save and allow up to 24 hours for the asset to begin appearing in your ads.

Layer 2 setup: website call conversions (the most important one)

Website call conversions use Google's dynamic number insertion (DNI) technology to swap the phone number on your website with a Google tracking number for visitors who arrived via a Google Ad. When that visitor calls the tracking number, the call — and its duration — is recorded and attributed back to the exact keyword, ad, and campaign that brought them to your site.

This is the most valuable tracking mechanism for roofing because it captures the majority scenario: homeowner clicks your ad, visits your site, decides you look credible, and calls the number they see on the page.

• 1
  Create the conversion action in Google Ads

  In Google Ads, go to Tools & Settings (the spanner icon) → Measurement → Conversions. Click the blue "+" button. Select "Phone call" as the conversion source, then select "Calls to a phone number on your website." Name it clearly: "Website Phone Call — Roofing." Set the value to either a fixed amount (your estimated average lead value, e.g. £150) or "Don't assign a value" — the value setting helps with ROAS bidding but is optional to start.

• 2
  Set the minimum call duration

  Set the minimum call duration to 60 seconds (or 90 seconds if you prefer a stricter filter). Calls shorter than this threshold will not be counted as conversions. This filters out wrong numbers, automated calls, and very brief interactions that are not genuine enquiries.

• 3
  Get the Google Ads tag and phone snippet code

  Google will provide you with two pieces of code: the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) if not already installed, and a Phone Snippet specific to this conversion action. You need both on every page of your website. The Global Site Tag fires on every page load; the Phone Snippet detects when a visitor came from a Google Ad and swaps the phone number.

  ✅ If you already have Google Analytics 4 or the Google Ads tag installed

  If Google Analytics 4 is connected to Google Ads, or if you already have the Google Ads Global Site Tag on your website (check using Google Tag Assistant in Chrome), you may only need to add the Phone Snippet — not the full Global Site Tag again. Adding the Global Site Tag twice can cause double-counting issues. Check before adding any code.

• 4
  Install the code on your website

  The Global Site Tag goes in the <head> section of every page (or as high in <head> as possible). The Phone Snippet goes after the Global Site Tag, also in <head>. Your phone number in the HTML should be wrapped in a tel: link so the DNI script can find and replace it.

<!-- Your main phone number — DNI will swap this for tracked visitors -->
<a href="tel:+447700000000" class="phone-number">07700 000000</a>

<!-- The Phone Snippet detects this link and replaces the number
     for visitors who arrived via a Google Ad -->

<script>
  gtag('config', 'AW-CONVERSION_ID/PHONE_CONVERSION_LABEL', {
    'phone_conversion_number': '07700 000000'
  });
</script>

<!-- Replace CONVERSION_ID and PHONE_CONVERSION_LABEL with 
     the values from your Google Ads conversion action -->

• 5
  WordPress installation (no code editing required)

  If your website runs WordPress, install the free "Site Kit by Google" plugin and connect your Google Ads account. Site Kit installs the Global Site Tag automatically. For the Phone Snippet, use the "Header Footer Code Manager" plugin (free) to add it to your site header without editing theme files. This approach requires no PHP or HTML knowledge.

• 6
  Verify the setup with Google Tag Assistant

  Install the Chrome extension "Google Tag Assistant" and visit your website as a normal user. The extension will show which tags are firing and whether the conversion tracking tag is detected. For the DNI to work, simulate a visit from a Google Ad by appending ?gclid=test to your URL and checking whether the phone number changes — this mimics the presence of a Google Click ID that DNI uses to identify ad visitors.

  ✅ Testing in Google Ads

  In Google Ads, go to Tools → Conversions and find your "Website Phone Call" conversion action. The status column will show "Unverified" until a real conversion fires. After one real call of the minimum duration via your site, the status changes to "Verified" and data begins to appear in your campaign reports. This can take a few days after launch if your traffic is modest.

Layer 3: third-party call tracking platforms

Google's built-in call tracking tells you how many calls each campaign generated and their duration. What it does not tell you is: what the caller said, what job type they needed, whether you actually booked the job, which channel (Google Ads, organic search, GBP, direct) generated each call, or whether you missed any calls and when.

Third-party call tracking platforms fill these gaps. They are genuinely worth the cost once your Google Ads account is mature and you want richer attribution data or call recording capability.

Don't forget form submissions: tracking the other 15–25%

Call tracking covers the majority of roofing enquiries, but a meaningful minority — typically 15–25% — come through contact form submissions on your website. These are easier to track natively and should be set up alongside call tracking for a complete conversion picture.

• 1
  Create a thank-you page for form submissions

  After a contact form is submitted, redirect the visitor to a dedicated thank-you page (e.g. yoursite.com/thank-you.html) that is not linked from anywhere else on the site. This page should confirm that the form was received and set expectations for response time. Having a distinct thank-you URL makes conversion tracking straightforward.

• 2
  Create a Google Ads conversion for the thank-you page visit

  In Google Ads, go to Conversions → + → Website. Select "Page view" as the conversion type. Enter the URL of your thank-you page. Name it "Contact Form Submission." This conversion fires every time someone reaches the thank-you page — which only happens after a genuine form submission.

  ✅ Alternative: Google Analytics 4 goal import

  If you have Google Analytics 4 connected to Google Ads, you can create a conversion event in GA4 for thank-you page visits and import it into Google Ads as a conversion action. This approach means your form conversion data flows through GA4, giving you one place to see all website conversions alongside your traffic data.

Reading your conversion data: what to look at and how to act on it

Once call tracking is set up and running, the data in your Google Ads account becomes far more actionable. Here is how to read the reports that matter most and what decisions they should drive.

Using call conversion data to improve your bidding strategy

The primary commercial value of call tracking is what it enables you to do with bidding. Once Google Ads has enough call conversion data — typically 30+ conversions per month — Smart Bidding strategies can genuinely outperform manual CPC bidding because they have a complete conversion signal to optimise toward.

The complete conversion measurement checklist

• ☎️Call asset with call reporting enabled — set up on all campaigns with minimum call duration of 60 seconds. This tracks calls made directly from your ads on mobile without requiring a website visit.
• 💻Website call conversion (DNI) installed and verified — the phone snippet code is on every page of your website, your phone number is in a tel: link format, and the conversion action shows "Verified" status in Google Ads after at least one qualifying call has been received.
• 📋Form submission thank-you page conversion tracking — a dedicated thank-you URL that fires a conversion every time a contact form is submitted and the visitor is redirected to the confirmation page.
• 🔗Google Ads linked to Google Analytics 4 — linking the two accounts means your call and form conversion data is visible in GA4 alongside your traffic data, giving you a single dashboard for website performance. Set up in Google Ads via Tools → Linked accounts → Google Analytics.
• 📊Conversion columns added to all campaign views — in your Google Ads campaigns, ad groups, and keywords reports, add the "Conversions" and "Cost / conv." columns to every view. Make these your primary metrics, not clicks or CTR.
• 🔔Missed call alert system (optional, recommended) — either through a third-party platform or by checking your Google Ads call history report weekly for missed calls (duration 0). Missed calls from paid clicks are paid opportunities you did not convert. Address them: either improve your availability or add a callback form to capture callers who reach voicemail.
• 📅Monthly conversion audit — once per month, review: total conversions by campaign, cost per conversion by campaign and keyword, conversion rate by device and time of day, and any keywords with high spend and zero conversions. This monthly review is when most optimisation decisions are made.

Common call tracking mistakes roofing contractors make

Frequently Asked Questions