Manage your call recording settings and eligibility

Google Ads has updated its call recording infrastructure to better support lead quality analysis through AI. Understanding how to manage these settings is essential for accurately measuring conversion success and optimizing campaign performance. Learn more about AI-qualified call leads.

This article explains how to manage your call recording settings.

On this page

• Key changes to call recording settings
• Call recording feature availability
• Steps to manage your settings in Google Ads
• Privacy and legal compliance

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Key changes to call recording settings and its application

To give you more immediate insights into lead quality, Google has adjusted the following default behaviors:

• The call recording setting is now enabled by default to allow for AI-powered lead qualification.
  • Exceptions: Call recording will remain turned off if you previously turned it off, or if your business was identified as operating in healthcare or financial services. If you fall into these categories, you can manually enable call recording at any time to benefit from AI-qualified call leads.
• Call recordings now serve 2 primary functions:
  • Playback: Enables you to play call recordings and review conversations directly within your reports.
  • AI Classification: Automatically identifies quality leads to improve Smart Bidding.

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Call recording feature availability

Not all calls or advertisers are eligible for recording and AI-qualified conversions. The following criteria must be met:

• Geographic Restriction: Currently, call recording and AI-qualified conversions are only available for calls involving phone numbers in the United States and Canada.
• Google Forwarding Numbers (GFNs): Calls must flow through a Google Forwarding Number. This requires call reporting to be turned on in your account settings.
• Sensitive Verticals: To protect user privacy, call recording is automatically skipped for advertisers in sensitive industries, like specific healthcare or financial services unless explicitly enabled by the advertiser by accepting Call Ads Supplemental Terms.
• Call Source: Only calls made directly to call ads, call assets or calls from website visits are eligible; calls from your location assets are not supported for recording at this time.

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Steps to manage your settings in Google Ads

You have full control over call reporting and recording through your Google Ads account settings. Follow the steps below to turn recording on or off.

1. Go to Account settings within the Admin menu .
2. Open the “Call ads” drop-down.
3. Under “Call recording”, select On or Off.
4. Select Save.

Note: Disabling call recording will prevent the AI from analyzing conversations for lead quality. In this case, the system will fall back to using call duration to measure conversions.

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Privacy and legal compliance

By using call recording features, you agree to the Call Ads Supplemental Terms and you acknowledge that you have provided notice to your agents, employees, and any other party that may participate in the Communications. Callers will hear a short automated message at the beginning of the call notifying them that the conversation will be recorded for quality purposes.

Recordings are used to evaluate lead quality, monitor spam and fraud, and improve the accuracy of your conversion reporting.

Related links

• About AI-Qualified Call Conversions
• About call assets
• About phone call conversion tracking
• About call reporting
• Measure calls from ads