If your business books most of its work over the phone, Smart Bidding optimising for form fills will quietly underperform. If most of your enquiries come in by form, optimising for calls misses the bulk of your pipeline. The fix is to count both, weight them by closed-business value, and tell Smart Bidding which one to chase.
Why this decision matters more than people think
Google's Smart Bidding (Maximise Conversions, Target CPA, Target ROAS) only optimises for what you tell it counts as a conversion. If you set "form submission" as your only conversion action and 70% of your jobs come from phone calls, the algorithm is bidding on the wrong audience signals.
We see this constantly in trade and service accounts. The owner says "the leads are rubbish lately". The leads aren't rubbish - the algorithm is optimising for a signal that doesn't match how the business actually closes work.
How phone-led vs form-led businesses actually differ
Phone-led businesses typically have:
- •Urgent or after-hours queries (plumbers, locksmiths, emergency electricians)
- •High average job value where the customer wants to talk before committing
- •Older customer demographics who default to calling
- •Booking workflows that need a real person (scheduling, eligibility check, scope)
Form-led businesses typically have:
- •Considered purchases where the customer wants to research first
- •B2B sales cycles requiring qualification before a call
- •A clear scope where the form gathers enough to quote
- •Younger or tech-comfortable customer bases
Most service businesses are actually mixed - 60/40 in one direction. The job is to count what actually happens, not what you think happens.
How to find out which one you really are
Pull a 90-day list of every paid lead and how it closed. Tag each one as form-originated or call-originated. Tally by closed revenue, not lead count.
A lot of business owners are surprised by the answer. The forms feel busier because they hit your inbox; the calls go straight to the office line and rarely get logged anywhere central.
The number that decides it
If closed revenue from one channel is more than 1.5x the other, optimise primarily for that channel. If they're within 1.5x, count both and weight by value.
How to track phone calls properly
Native Google Ads call tracking is fine for basic visibility but limited. The serious options for Australian service businesses:
- •Google Ads call extensions with forwarding number - free, counts calls of a minimum duration
- •Website call tracking via dynamic number insertion - swaps the number on your site so Google attributes calls to ad clicks
- •CallRail, WhatConverts, CallTrackingMetrics - dedicated platforms with AI transcription and call scoring
For most $2,000-$5,000/month Australian accounts, native call tracking plus dynamic number insertion is enough. The dedicated platforms become worth it above $5,000/month or when call quality grading matters for sales coaching.
How to tell Smart Bidding what counts
In Google Ads, every conversion action has a "Primary" or "Secondary" toggle. Smart Bidding only optimises for Primary conversions. Set the channel that drives most closed revenue as Primary. Set the other as Secondary so it's still tracked but doesn't skew the algorithm.
If you're running on closed-revenue weighting, use conversion values rather than counts - assign a dollar value to each conversion type that reflects average closed revenue from that source. Then run Target ROAS instead of Target CPA.
When call-only campaigns make sense
Call-only campaigns show ads only on mobile and only let people tap to call - no website visit. They make sense when:
- •Your service is urgent and the only sensible next step is a call
- •Your website doesn't convert mobile traffic well
- •You operate after-hours and want to capture immediate intent
- •Cost per call is genuinely lower than cost per acquisition through the site
They don't make sense for considered purchases, B2B sales, or anything where the customer wants to see proof on a website first.
Ready to put this into practice?
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