Call length is a proxy, and it is the weakest one available if you can get booking data instead. Use it as a starting bridge, not as the destination.

On this page

• What does a 60-second call threshold actually measure?
• When is a call-duration threshold the right choice?
• Why is call length only a temporary conversion signal?
• What measurement trap sits under call conversions?
• What did I get wrong the first time?

What does a 60-second call threshold actually measure?

That a person stayed on the phone for a minute. It correlates with intent. It does not correlate with a booked job as tightly as people assume — a long call is just as likely to be a price negotiation that went nowhere, or someone talking their way through a problem they then fixed themselves.

When is a call-duration threshold the right choice?

• You have no booking system that can export data.
• You are below the volume where Smart Bidding can work on booked jobs alone.
• You are standing up tracking and need something today.

In those cases, pick the threshold from your own data rather than the default. Pull your booked jobs, match them to call durations, and find the length above which a meaningful share book. It is rarely exactly 60 seconds.

Why is call length only a temporary conversion signal?

Every proxy shares the same failure: the bidder optimises the proxy, not the outcome. Optimise 90-second calls and you will get more 90-second calls, including from people who were never going to buy.

The durable version is uploading the booked job. Everything else is a bridge.

What measurement trap sits under call conversions?

Before claiming any call action is "the biggest" thing in the account, check what is actually being counted and by which campaign type. On an electrical contractor's account, August 2026, all 235 "Local actions — Directions" conversions came from two Smart Campaigns, and those campaigns bid on TARGET_SPEND — they do not optimise toward conversions at all.

What did I get wrong the first time?

The line "37% of the bidding signal is directions taps" was written into an audit and a client deck. It was wrong. The campaigns producing those taps were not bidding on conversions, and the campaigns that were carried no local actions in their goal configuration.

The accurate phrasing is "37% of what the account counts" — never "of the bidding signal." Those are different claims and only one of them was true.

Before any statement about what a bidder is chasing, run two queries: conversions by campaign and action name, and the campaign conversion goals filtered to biddable.

Related questions

How do I dispute a bad lead in Google Local Services Ads now that there's no dispute button?

Google removed the per-lead dispute button and moved to automatic crediting, which means your job shifted from arguing individual leads to shaping what the system sends you in the first place. Read the full answer.

My Conversions and All Conversions columns don't match — which one should I actually judge on?

Neither, until you have segmented it. `All conversions` is a sum over every conversion action attached to the account, not a count of people or events. Read the full answer.

Should I have more than one primary conversion action, or does that double-count my conversions?

Yes it double-counts, and sometimes that is fine. The real question is not how many primaries you have — it is what your bidding is actually optimising toward, and the primary flag is not a reliable answer to that. Read the full answer.

Written by Usama Khan, who runs Google Ads for e-commerce brands and home-services companies at AdventurAds. Figures are from accounts under active management and are anonymised. Last reviewed 2026-08-26.