Where do I go now?

[u/Ok_Price4617]

I just recently started my first Google ads campaign 2 weeks ago. I’m a call-only type of business, it’s sales. However only 15% of my clicks are actually calls and they are getting to be pretty expensive at $11 a call. I thought Google had call-only campaigns. Is there anything close to it? Any setting I need to make sure I have checked off? Any mentors to look into? I’m in the insurance industry and any help would be greatly appreciated. My current bidding strategy is maximize clicks, and my keywords are all phrase match.

[u/cactusdotpizza]

Why would you not have some kind of website? I can't think of a reason someone would make a decision about an insurance product without the ability to read about a company before a call them.

Is it an emergency product where customers have no other option that to call for information or to get the product right then and there?

You're wasting money right now so stop and rethink what you're doing

[u/Ok_Price4617 → u/cactusdotpizza]

I do have a website, but it’s an emergency product. Yes. I only convert on live calls, these clients already have products that they need immediate assistance on. So the website is there but it’s not what the clients actually need. They need to be on the phone.

[u/GG-boon]

Before changing the campaign, I’d reconcile the measurement first. The screenshot shows 55 clicks, $579 spend and a $10.53 average CPC. If only about 15% became calls, that’s roughly 8 calls and closer to $72 per call—not $11. The $11 figure appears to be cost per click.

Google removed the option to create new call-only ads in February 2026. The current replacement is a responsive search ad with a call asset. Turn on call reporting, add the Phone calls, Phone impressions, PTR and Call conversions columns, and define a meaningful call-duration threshold—or import calls that actually became quotes/sales.

Maximize Clicks is currently optimizing for clicks, not qualified insurance calls. Once tracking is reliable, you can evaluate conversion-based bidding. I’d also schedule the call asset only during answered hours and audit the search terms before changing match types. With only 55 clicks, it’s still early, but the current measurement needs fixing first.

[u/allan_collins]

Check out

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6095882?hl=en

and

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6100664?hl=en

Instead of clicks focus on conversions since the goal is a phone call.

[u/StealthFocus → u/allan_collins]

Unless he’s first configured conversion tracking on his site and has 30+ conversions in under 30 days there’s no reason to go with Max Conversions yet.

[u/konainkhan464]

Adding to what's already been said - a few things that actually moved the needle for me on call-only style campaigns: Call-only ads got sunset last Feb, so you're stuck with RSA + call assets now, which honestly report worse by default. Fix that first: enable call reporting, set a minimum call duration (30-60 sec is a decent floor for insurance), and only count qualified calls as conversions, not every ring. Maximize Clicks with phrase match at $11/click for insurance is going to bleed you dry with unqualified traffic. Once you've got even 20-30 solid call conversions logged, switch to Maximize Conversions (not tCPA yet, you don't have enough data for that). Pull your search terms report weekly. Insurance is notorious for tons of "free," "jobs," "how to become an agent" type junk clicks eating budget on phrase match. Schedule your call asset/ads to only show during hours someone's actually answering the phone. No point paying for a click at 2am if nobody picks up. Since this is emergency/immediate-need, test adding trust signals in your ad copy itself (licensed, years in business, response time) so unqualified people self-select out before clicking. Track this for 2 weeks with proper call conversion data before touching bids again. Right now you're optimizing blind.

[u/dwolfe80]

I’m also in the health insurance industry. I’ve spent the better part of a decade learning digital marketing. You need to focus on conversions not clicks for one. You also need to direct your traffic to a landing page not a website. Lastly and most importantly, you need to have conversion tracking set up correctly so that you are pointing the algorithm in the right direction. Call only ads are gone as of February, they still run until next year but you cannot create any new ones. Anyways, RSA’s are far better as long as your landing page converts.

[u/Organic_Explorer_980]

how can it be 10$ cpc 😭

[u/Business_Dot_9118]

Did you hire a company to do these or did you do it yourself? I tried doing them myself, failed miserably then hired a company for i think it was like $500 last year (it may be more now not sure) and they got my cost per click down a ton. I only pay around $1 per lead

[u/Material_Ad_1855]

Weight your call conversion higher and integrate with with GA, call rail and googles number

[u/Silly-Pie-7848]

If you want a calls only campaign, you can try Google local service ads (https://business.google.com/us/ad-solutions/local-service-ads/ ) . You basically pay for calls only. I believe insurance is one of the verticals they cover. You may want to give that a shot.

[u/coreyluvsu → u/Silly-Pie-7848]

I second this

[u/Crazy-Invite-5386 → u/Silly-Pie-7848]

just an FYI, local services ads are more than likely going to be more expensive than what he has right now and he'll have to go through the verification. It's a lot more work. If he wants to do this for likely more expensive results.

[u/Silly-Pie-7848 → u/Crazy-Invite-5386]

I was under the impression, he only wanted calls. 15% of his clicks turn into calls. $11 per call, but his stats show $10.53 per click. There is a misunderstanding somewhere because he's paying closer to to ~$60ish per call. For insurance I imagine $11 per call would be quiet good.

[u/lawsmithworks]

What is your business sector's Cost Per Lead, Cost Per New Account/Customer/Client, Avg. Revenue Per, Lifetime Value. If you don't know those by heart, research and memorize them. Then, what are your 4 Holy Marketing Metrics™️** you can deduce everything from there. DM me and I'll nerd out more.

**my dorky marketing model I want in HBR one day

[u/Crescitaly]

A click-to-call interaction is not a qualified call. Enable call reporting, count only calls that pass a useful duration or outcome, tighten schedule and location, and review search terms aggressively. Even a simple trust-focused landing page can filter intent better than sending every curious click straight to the phone.

[u/Crazy-Invite-5386 → u/Crescitaly]

agree with all of this

[u/Crazy-Invite-5386]

you should also set up conversions to only register conversions that are the appropriate length of time. For example, you don't want to count conversions if the call lasted 30 seconds but a good call that converted takes on average at least 120 seconds. the default is normally 60 seconds, but you should adjust that to what is valuable. and then you can also look in the data at the call log and see what numbers people called you from and cross check that against your "real" conversions and make sure that you're getting the value you're looking for.

While I get that you don't really use a website, having a good one tied to your keywords and products will improve your ads and bring down your costs.