Call-only ads stop showing in February 2027. The ad that replaces them counts calls differently.
The replacement also shows on desktops and sends some callers to your website before they dial.
TL;DR
- Call-only ads are being deprecated. You can no longer create new ones, and in February 2027 "all existing call-only ads will stop receiving impressions", in the words of Google's announcement. The replacement is a responsive search ad with a call asset, which you can build in the same ad group.
- The replacement is not a call-only ad under a new name. It can show on desktop computers, a tap on the headline goes to your website, and the call button appears on only some of the impressions.
- Google may show the call asset as a call-ad-style button only when the campaign uses Smart Bidding and bids toward a call conversion. Call bid adjustments are ignored under Target CPA and Maximize conversions.
- Calls from the button still count in "Calls from ads". A customer who taps through to your site and dials the number there counts only if the website has call tracking. Without it, the Conversions column can drop even while the office phone rings as often as before.
- Get the new ads approved first, then pause the call-only ads. Removed ads keep their history.
Call-only ads are being deprecated: what ends, and when?
A call-only ad is the search ad built around a phone number and a Call button. A link to your website is optional in it. Google's help pages now call it a "call ad", and Google announced its deprecation on October 3, 2025.
| When | What happens | Where Google says it |
|---|---|---|
| October 3, 2025 | Deprecation announced | Google Ads Help announcement |
| January 2026 | Creating new call-only ads, including duplicating existing ones, blocked in the Google Ads interface, Google Ads Editor, Search Ads 360 and the API | Google Ads Developer Blog, October 9, 2025 |
| February 2026 | "All options to create a new call-only ad will be removed" | Google Ads Help announcement and transition guide |
| February 2027 | "All existing call-only ads will stop receiving impressions" | Google Ads Help announcement and transition guide |
Three details in that table matter for an owner:
- Google's two sources give different months for the creation cutoff. The Help Center says February 2026; the Developer Blog, written for software that manages ads, says January 2026. Both are behind us.
- Copying doesn't work either. The Developer Blog lists duplication among the blocked actions, so a service line or town added since early 2026 launched without a call-only ad even if every other ad group has one.
- No day is given for February 2027. Our reading is to treat February 1 as the deadline and have the replacements running well before it, because the old ad should come down only after the new one is running (step 7).
How is the replacement different from a call-only ad?
Google's pages describe two different ads:
| Call-only ad | Responsive search ad with a call asset | |
|---|---|---|
| Devices | Only "devices that make phone calls" | Phones and computers. On desktop the call asset is a "Call us" button that shows the number and a QR code |
| What a tap does | Places a call. Without a Final URL there is no link to your site | The headline opens your website; on phones the call button places a call, on desktop it shows the number and a QR code |
| How often the number shows | It is the ad: the Call button is what people tap | On "only a subset of total ad impressions", decided in each auction |
| Text | Two optional headlines, business name, two description lines | 3 to 15 headlines and 2 to 4 descriptions. The Call button "may take the place of portions of your ad text" |
| Landing page | Optional | Part of the ad: you enter a Final URL when you create it |
| Cost of a tap | Standard cost per click | The same: a call-button tap costs what a headline click costs |
The "Clicks" column changes meaning too. For call ads with no Final URL, Google says calls "will appear under the 'Clicks' column", so clicks were call attempts. When a call ad has a Final URL, Google says calls and website clicks appear together there and can be split with the "Click type" segment. The new ads always have that link.
When does the call asset look like a call ad?
Google's call asset page says a call asset "may serve in a button format, similar to a call ad" when all four of these hold:
- The campaign uses responsive search ads.
- It has a call asset eligible to serve.
- It optimizes bids toward a call conversion.
- It uses a Smart Bidding strategy such as Target CPA or Maximize conversions.
Google adds that changing any of the four turns the button format off. A campaign that bids only for form fills, or runs on Maximize clicks, gets the regular layout instead: a text ad with a call button under it, when the call asset shows at all.
Google's call asset checklist adds: if the campaign has several goals, bid with Maximize conversion value and set values that reflect a good lead.
Call bid adjustments. Google's bid adjustment page says interaction adjustments "influence how often you show call assets and call-only ads". Its table marks them as used under Maximize clicks, the default Google gives call campaigns, and not under Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions or Maximize conversion value. So a call-only campaign on Maximize clicks keeps a working call adjustment after the switch. Move it to Target CPA and the adjustment "won't be supported", in Google's words.
What happens to your call tracking and conversion count?
Calls from the call button keep their conversion action. Google's "Calls from ads" action tracks "calls made directly from call-only ads, or call and location assets used in your ads". With call reporting on, the call asset shows a Google forwarding number and the call lands in the same action the call-only ads fed. Google now records these calls by default where both phones are in the US or Canada, unless recording was switched off before, and counts only the calls it judges qualified. The Google Ads audit checklist covers where that setting lives and what it replaces.
Calls after a website visit are the new path. A customer can now tap the headline, look at your reviews and service area page, and dial the number on the page. Google Ads learns about that call through one of these:
- Google's website call conversion, which swaps a Google forwarding number into your site for visitors who came from an ad. It needs the Google tag and a call event snippet on the site.
- Google's call conversion import, for calls you track in another system such as your CRM.
- A CRM that sends sold jobs back by Google click ID. ServiceTitan stores the click ID when someone who clicked an ad calls its tracking number on your website, then sends the revenue once the job is marked Complete, so Google Ads sees the completed job rather than the call. Sending sold jobs back to Google Ads covers the setup, and HVAC Google Ads management describes matching each call to a booked and sold job in the CRM.
Another conversion type, "Clicks on a number on your mobile website", counts the tap rather than the call. Google says of it: "we can only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves".
What a missing website call conversion does to the report. Here is an illustration with made-up numbers, not figures from an account. A call-only campaign logs 120 counted calls a month. After the switch the office gets exactly as many: 75 through the call button and 45 from people who read the website first and dialed from there. With no website call tracking, Google Ads sees 75. Spend is the same and the phones rang the same, yet "Cost / conv." goes up 60% (120 ÷ 75 = 1.6). Our reading is that a Target CPA campaign treats those 45 calls as if they never happened and bids on that basis, because the conversions it is told about are the only ones it has.
One more thing shifts the numbers around the switch date. Google reports phone calls on the day they happen but "phone call conversions are reported on the date of the ad click", so a week you compare can still gain conversions after it ends.
If you show your own tracking numbers. If your ads carry a number from a call tracking service instead of Google's forwarding number, two rules from Google apply:
- Google has to verify the number. One way is to show it as text, not in an image, on the website in your ad. If your site swaps numbers with a dynamic number insertion script, prove you own the domain instead: link Google Search Console to Google Ads, or add your Google Ads conversion tracking or remarketing tag to the site.
- Showing your own number means turning call reporting off, which Google says "prevents Google Ads from tracking calls". For taps on the call button, what remains is the "Clicks on call ads and assets" conversion type: a tap counts as a conversion based on Google's estimate of whether a meaningful phone call followed. Google's page on call conversion types says website call conversions and imported call conversions both "require Google forwarding numbers", so with reporting off neither works. ServiceTitan's click-ID route also takes calls to its own call extension number on the ad; check how your tool sends results back before you switch reporting off.
Location assets. Google says that when an ad shows both a location asset and a call asset, the call may go to the number tied to the location instead of the call asset's number. If your call tracking sorts calls by the number dialed, some paid calls can be filed under your Business Profile. That last point is our reading, not Google's.
Two settings the call-only ad carried that now live elsewhere
Business name. The call-only ad had its own business name field, up to 25 characters. Google's transition guide starts by asking you to add your business name in the account or campaign settings, as a business name asset. Google approves that asset only if it exactly matches your domain name or the legal name verified through Advertiser verification. A different name may need Brand verification, which is open to owners of an active trademark registration. If the name on your trucks matches neither your domain nor the legal name on file, this is where approval stalls. When a business name asset doesn't serve, Google says the ad will "default to serving the placeholder globe icon along with the display URL", so the ad keeps running without your name on it.
Hours. In a call-only ad the number is the ad, so hiding the number meant not showing the ad at all. A call asset has its own schedule, and Google suggests using it to show the number "only when your business is answering phone calls". The ad itself can keep running outside those hours. Our reading: for a shop with nobody booking jobs at night, this beats anything a call-only ad allowed, because after hours the ad still sends people to a website form that holds the request until morning.
What this doesn't cover
- Whether the new ads bring more or cheaper calls. Google's Developer Blog says advertisers "generally see better results and lower costs per call lead" with them, without publishing figures. We haven't measured the switch across enough accounts to claim a result either way.
- Local Services Ads. Google's call ad pages don't mention them. They are a separate product with their own changes, covered in Local Services Ads moving to Google Ads.
- Call assets in Performance Max campaigns. The transition guide covers responsive search ads only.
Do this in your account
- List every call-only ad. Open Ads under the Campaigns menu and filter the table for call ads. Mark the ad groups where a call-only ad is the only ad.
- Write down the last 90 days for each campaign that runs them: Clicks, Phone calls, conversions from "Calls from ads", and "Cost / conv.".
- Check the call conversion. Call reporting on in Account settings under Admin, and the call conversion action set to Primary under Goals → Summary.
- Set up website call tracking before the switch. Either Google's website call conversion or its call conversion import from your CRM. Both of Google's options need call reporting on. A CRM that sends sold jobs back by Google click ID, as ServiceTitan does, runs on its own tracking numbers, and ServiceTitan's list of requirements doesn't include call reporting. If your ads show your own tracking numbers, see "If you show your own tracking numbers" above.
- Add the business name and call assets. Use the name that matches your verified legal name or domain, and a verified number. Google uses the most specific call asset (ad group over campaign over account), so attach it where you mean it. Schedule it to the hours someone can book a job.
- Build a responsive search ad in each ad group from step 1. If you want the call-button format, the campaign needs a Smart Bidding strategy, such as Target CPA or Maximize conversions, bidding toward a call conversion.
- Pause, then compare calls with calls. Google's guide says to remove the call ad once the new ad "is approved and begins performing". Pausing first, as Google's page on removing ads suggests, keeps a way back if the new ad stalls; that part is our reading. After a few weeks, put "Phone calls" plus website call conversions next to the step 2 call count, split clicks by "Click type", then remove the old ad. Removed ads stay visible with the "Ad status" filter set to "All".
FAQ
When do call-only ads stop working? In February 2027. Google says all existing call-only ads will stop receiving impressions that month and gives no exact day. Creating new ones was switched off in early 2026.
Do I have to rebuild my call-only campaign? No. Google's transition guide has you create or edit a responsive search ad "in the desired ad group", add a call asset, and remove the call ad once the new one is approved and running. The guide doesn't ask you to change keywords, locations, budget or bid strategy.
Do I pay per call or per click? Per click. Google charges a tap on the call button the same as a headline click, and doesn't charge when someone dials the forwarding number by hand.
Can I keep the new ads on phones only? Yes. Set a −100% device bid adjustment for computers (and tablets, if you want) at the campaign level. Google's bid adjustment page says this opts a device out, and its table lists device as the one adjustment usable with every Smart Bidding strategy. Check how many calls and form fills come from desktop before you cut it.
Sources
Each page below was read in full on September 24, 2026.
- Google Ads Help, "Action Required: Transition from call ads to call assets", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16598240.
- Google Ads Help, "How to transition from call ads to call assets", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16619010.
- Google Ads Developer Blog, "Upgrade your Call-Only Ads to Responsive Search Ads with Call Assets in the Google Ads API", October 9, 2025, https://ads-developers.googleblog.com/2025/10/upgrade-your-call-only-ads-to.html.
- Google Ads Help, "About call ads", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6341403.
- Google Ads Help, "About call campaigns", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7159344.
- Google Ads Help, "About call assets", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453991.
- Google Ads Help, "How to achieve optimal performance from call assets", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16619278.
- Google Ads Help, "About responsive search ads", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791.
- Google Ads Help, "About bid adjustments", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2732132.
- Google Ads Help, "About phone call conversion tracking", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6100664.
- Google Ads Help, "Measure calls from ads", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6095882.
- Google Ads Help, "About AI-qualified call leads", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/16913326.
- Google Ads Help, "About call reporting", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2454052.
- Google Ads Help, "Analyze call reporting data", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7180997.
- Google Advertising Policies Help, "Unverified phone number", https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/16428224.
- Google Ads Help, "About business information", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12497613.
- Google Ads Help, "Remove your ad", https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2375362.
- ServiceTitan Help Center, "How Revenue Import works in Ads Optimizer", https://help.servicetitan.com/docs/how-revenue-import-works-in-ads-optimizer.