This is great news for all AdWords customers, Marek at Google Agency Support told me that the plan is for Google AdWords to roll out call metrics to all US clients by the end of June 2011.
I have been testing call metrics and I think that it is a must have for anyone using Google AdWords. Once you turn it on in your account, expect about 30 days of service free (you will only pay a cost per click charge) and then expect to pay $1 per call on top of your cost per click charge.
For advertisers who have expected that AdWords has been driving phone traffic and not website form conversions you’ll now have the proof to evaluate further your success with AdWords. We have several clients who will really benefit from the new call tracking features.
This is how it works. Your ad will now have a click to call icon. The user can either click into your ad or click to phone you. If they phone you, they will be calling a phone number generated by Google that will then forward the call to your regular phone. Google will track the length of the call and time. They will then record the call as a conversion in your AdWords account in the call metrics section. We’ve long known that Google AdWords can drive off Web traffic and now we will have the proof.
We are excited about this new feature and plan on implementing it for nearly all our our clients. Watch for it to arrive in your AdWords account interface this month or early next month.