Troubleshoot reported calls

Have a question about reported calls in Smart campaigns that isn’t covered elsewhere? Here are a few common questions about reported calls. Click any of the headings below to learn more information.

I receive calls while my business is closed

Many businesses use a voice mail system, answering machine, or answering service to handle potentially valuable calls that come in after normal business hours.

If you don't use a voicemail or answering service, and calls to your business after regular hours aren’t answered, then these calls won't show up in your reported calls and you won't be charged.

To prevent your ads from showing when your business is closed, schedule your ads to only show when your business is open by setting up Ad Scheduling. Learn more about ad scheduling

There’s a different or incorrect phone number in my ad

If you turn on reported calls, a Google forwarding number (GFN) will be assigned to your ad. The GFN appears in your Smart campaign on either the desktop or mobile versions of Google search. This phone number will forward calls to your actual business phone number, and allows us to measure the number of calls that you receive.

I can't find the Google forwarding number (GFN) in my ad

Reported calls are activated once your ad has received a certain number of clicks. Once reported calls are activated, a Google forwarding number is assigned to your ad, and you’ll find the “Calls to your number” data in your Smart campaigns dashboard.

If reported calls have already been activated for your ad, here are some common reasons why you may not find a Google forwarding number in your ad:

• Google search vs. Google Maps: GFNs only appear on ads that appeared on the mobile or desktop versions of Google search. Currently, calls from Google Maps are not included.
• Low search volume: A GFN might not be assigned to search terms with very low search volume.
• Ads without reported calls: The reported calls feature is enabled at the ad level, rather than at the business level. This means that if you have multiple ads, but you haven’t enabled reported calls for all of them, the forwarding number only appears in the ads with reported calls enabled.

I didn't receive as many calls as I expected

Here are some possible reasons why your reported call volume may be affected:

• Google search vs. Google Maps: Reported calls track only calls that originated from Smart campaigns that ran on Google search. Currently, calls from Google Maps are not included.
• Low search volume: A GFN might not be assigned to search terms with very low search volume.
• Ads without reported calls: If you have multiple ads for your business, but you haven’t enabled reported calls for all of them, you’ll find calls only for the ads enabled with reported calls.

Note: Google forwarding numbers (GFN) are mandatory for new Smart campaigns with a linked phone number in all countries where GFN is available. Review the list of countries where GFN is available.

Related links

• Understanding reported calls
• Understanding call clicks