Call Tracking Software: 6 Tools Priced for 61 Calls a Month

In the median Google Ads account I checked, phone calls were 44% of all conversions. Yet 34 of the 44 accounts had no conversion action in Google Ads for a call that started on their website.

Those 34 accounts only counted people who tapped the number in the ad. Some may track website calls in another tool, but if it doesn’t send them back, Google Ads can’t see them. Anyone who clicked through, read the page and then dialed the number on it was invisible to Google Ads, so Smart Bidding never learned from them.

Below you’ll find what Google tracks for free, 6 call tracking tools priced for the median account, and a script that checks your own calls.

What 12,333 calls from Google Ads showed

I pulled every call from call ads and call assets in the Google Ads accounts I can see, from 23 July to 20 October 2026. Google logs these in its call details report: when the call started, how long it lasted and whether it was missed. I kept the 44 accounts with 30 or more calls, 31 in the US and 13 in Canada. Between them they had 12,333 calls.

The median account got 61 calls a month from its ads. Calls were 44% of the conversions in the median account, counting the Google Ads “phone call lead” conversions against everything else the account counted.

The tracking behind that number has a hole. Every one of the 44 accounts counted calls from ads. Only 10 had a conversion action for website calls, going by its type or name. The other 34 counted the call if someone tapped the number in the ad, and nothing if they visited the page first. 97% of the calls were taps on a mobile ad, so the people who called from a laptop after reading the page are the ones missing.

Performance Max matters here too. In the 21 accounts where Performance Max got calls, it brought in a median 48.7% of them (more than I expected). If you judge Performance Max on form fills alone, you’re ignoring half its leads in those accounts. Check the calls before you cut it in a Performance Max audit.

How long calls from ads last

Google counts a call from an ad as a conversion when it lasts longer than a minimum you set. In 63 of the 83 call conversion actions with a minimum length set, that minimum was the default 60 seconds.

By that rule, 4 in 10 answered calls didn’t count: 39.1% of all answered calls, and 39.7% in the median account. Under 30 seconds was 24% of calls, which is mostly wrong numbers, hang-ups and people asking for opening times.

Jesse Heslinga, founder of the agency Groove Media, says calls under 30 to 60 seconds are usually not real enquiries. He adds that the right minimum depends on the business: a roofer giving 5-minute quotes needs a longer one than a dentist booking a 90-second appointment. This data shows why that matters. The 30 to 59 second group was 15% of answered calls, so moving the minimum from 30 to 60 seconds changes the count a lot.

The bigger problem is what the report can’t show. Google sees how long a call lasted. It can’t see what was said. A 4-minute call from a salesperson pitching you counts the same as a 4-minute call booking a $9,000 job. WhatConverts makes this point in its own blog, and it sells the fix, but it’s right. Recordings, or a call outcome sent back from your CRM, are the only way past it.

How many calls get missed

Most missed-call pages quote one figure: 62% of calls to small businesses go unanswered. OnCrew traced it back to a 411 Locals study of 85 small businesses over 30 days, published in January 2016.

In these 44 accounts, Google marked 5% of calls from ads as missed. The median account missed 6%, and half the accounts sat between 2% and 10.7%.

Google marks a call as received when it connects, and its report doesn’t say who answered. A call that goes to voicemail can show as received, so the real unanswered rate could be higher than 5%. A tool with call recording shows you which calls reached a person.

Even so, 5% is a long way from 62%. The quarter above 10.7% is where a missed call costs real money, and the worst account missed 27.8%. Those are the accounts where call routing, a second phone, or an answering service pays for itself before any tracking tool does.

About 1 in 5 calls came outside weekday 8am to 6pm (19.9% in the median account). Across all calls, 10.1% of calls after 6pm were missed, against 4.8% from 8am to 6pm. That gap comes from a few accounts.

In the median account, 3.8% of out-of-hours calls were missed and 4.6% of daytime calls.

What Google Ads tracks for free

Google Ads can track two kinds of call without any other tool.

1. Calls from ads. Turn on call reporting and Google gives the call asset a forwarding number. Every call through it is logged with its length and status, and counts as a conversion above your minimum length. Every account in this test had this on.
2. Calls from your website. Google’s website call tracking swaps the number on your site for a Google forwarding number, “without any cost to you”. It needs the Google tag and a phone snippet on your pages, and Google forwarding numbers only work in certain countries.

If Google Ads is your only paid channel, turn on the second one before you pay for anything. My conversion tracking guide covers the Google tag it needs. It closes the gap that 34 of the 44 accounts had.

Google’s version stops at Google Ads. It only swaps the number for people who came from an ad, so calls from organic search, Facebook ads, Microsoft Ads (Bing) or a flyer aren’t counted. There are no recordings, no transcripts, and nothing about what happened on the call. That’s what you pay a call tracking tool for.

6 call tracking tools, priced for a real account

Entry prices on pricing pages don’t tell you what you’ll pay, because every tool charges for numbers and minutes on top. So I priced each one for the median account in this data. That’s 61 calls a month from ads, 154 billed minutes, and 5 local numbers, on monthly billing and on the cheapest plan that connects to Google Ads. Prices were checked on 21 October 2026.

A tool also tracks the calls Google can’t see, so real usage will be higher than the 154 minutes from ads alone.

1. CallRail

The Lead Tracking plan is $55 a month, or $50 on yearly billing, with 5 numbers and 250 minutes included. That covers the median account with room to spare. Extra local numbers are $3 and extra minutes $0.06. Form tracking needs Lead Tracking Complete at $105.

This is the one I’d start with for a single business. The included minutes mean the bill doesn’t move from month to month at this volume.

2. WhatConverts

The $30 Call Tracking plan has numbers, dynamic number insertion and recording, but the Google Ads integration and keyword reporting start on Plus at $60. Every plan includes a $30 usage credit. Extra local numbers are $2.50 and minutes 4.5 cents, so the median account’s usage stays inside the credit.

Plus also tracks forms and chat. Form tracking on CallRail needs the $105 plan, so if you want calls and forms in one report, WhatConverts is the cheaper way to get it.

3. Nimbata

Nimbata charges per answered call instead of per minute. Pro is $39 a month, or $35 on yearly billing, plus $4.20 a local number and $0.09 an answered call. There’s a $0 Entry plan, but it has 1 call flow and no Google Ads integration.

Per-call pricing helps when calls are long. In this data, 26.3% of answered calls ran over 3 minutes. If your sales calls are mostly long quotes, Nimbata’s bill stays flat while a per-minute tool’s goes up.

4. CallTrackingMetrics

Marketing Lite is $79 a month, or $65 billed yearly. No numbers or minutes are included, so local numbers are $2 a month and minutes $0.04 on top. Marketing Pro at $179 adds 25 sub-accounts and white label options for agencies.

With nothing included, it costs more than CallRail for a single business at this volume. For an agency running call tracking across clients, Marketing Pro is the plan to compare.

5. CallScaler

CallScaler’s plan is $95 a month, or $65 billed yearly, which is the biggest yearly discount here. Local numbers are $0.50 a month, the cheapest of the six, and minutes $0.045.

Cheap numbers matter when you need lots of them. If you give every campaign or keyword its own number, 50 numbers cost $25 a month here. On CallRail, the 45 numbers beyond the 5 included cost $135.

6. Invoca

Invoca doesn’t list prices, so you ask for a quote. Pro includes 6,000 local or toll-free numbers a year. It’s built for large brands and contact centers. An account with 61 calls a month doesn’t need it.

Which one I’d pick

For an account that only runs Google Ads, I’d turn on Google’s website call tracking first. It’s free and fixes the biggest gap in this data.

When you need recordings or other channels, I’d pick CallRail for one business, because 250 included minutes cover a typical account at a flat $55. If you want forms and chat tracked too, WhatConverts Plus at $60 is the better deal. For an agency with many clients, compare CallTrackingMetrics Marketing Pro with CallScaler on yearly billing, and work out how many numbers you’ll need first.

Whichever you pick, send the call outcome back to Google Ads. Google lets you import call conversions tracked in your CRM, as long as the calls came through a Google forwarding number. Anna Sonnenberg’s guide for the agency HawkSEM makes the same case for tracking by source. A call that became a $9,000 job should count for more than a 61-second call about opening hours.

How to check your own calls

This Google Ads script reads your call details report for the last 30 days. It prints how many calls you got, the share missed, the share under 60 seconds, and the share outside weekday 8am to 6pm. Paste it into Google Ads (Tools, then Bulk actions, then Scripts) and click Preview. It changes nothing in the account. There are more like it in my list of Google Ads scripts.

function main() {
  var start = new Date(Date.now() - 30 * 24 * 3600 * 1000);
  var tz = AdsApp.currentAccount().getTimeZone();
  var from = Utilities.formatDate(start, tz, 'yyyy-MM-dd') + ' 00:00:00';
  var query = 'SELECT call_view.call_status, call_view.call_duration_seconds, ' +
    'call_view.start_call_date_time FROM call_view ' +
    "WHERE call_view.start_call_date_time >= '" + from + "'";
  var rows = AdsApp.search(query);
  var calls = 0, missed = 0, answered = 0, short = 0, outOfHours = 0;
  while (rows.hasNext()) {
    var v = rows.next().callView;
    calls++;
    if (v.callStatus === 'MISSED') { missed++; } else {
      answered++;
      if (Number(v.callDurationSeconds) < 60) short++;
    }
    var t = new Date(v.startCallDateTime.replace(' ', 'T'));
    var day = t.getDay(), hour = t.getHours();
    if (day === 0 || day === 6 || hour < 8 || hour >= 18) outOfHours++;
  }
  var pct = function (a, b) { return b ? (100 * a / b).toFixed(1) + '%' : 'n/a'; };
  Logger.log('Calls from ads: ' + calls);
  Logger.log('Missed: ' + pct(missed, calls));
  Logger.log('Answered calls under 60 seconds: ' + pct(short, answered));
  Logger.log('Outside weekday 8am-6pm: ' + pct(outOfHours, calls));
}

Compare your numbers with the medians above: 6% missed, 39.7% of answered calls under 60 seconds, and 19.9% outside office hours. If you get no rows, call reporting is off for your call assets. If more than 10.7% of calls are missed, you’re in the worst quarter of these accounts, and that’s worth fixing before you buy a tracking tool.

What is the best call tracking software for Google Ads?

For one business, I'd start with CallRail's Lead Tracking plan at $55 a month, which includes 5 numbers and 250 minutes. That covers the median account I checked, which got 61 calls a month from ads. WhatConverts Plus at $60 adds form and chat tracking. Google's own website call tracking is free if Google Ads is your only paid channel.

Does Google Ads track phone calls for free?

Yes. Call reporting logs every call from your call assets through a Google forwarding number, and website call tracking swaps the number on your site for one, at no cost. It only covers people who came from a Google ad, and it has no recordings or transcripts.

How much does call tracking cost?

For the median account I checked (61 calls and 154 billed minutes a month from ads, 5 local numbers), the monthly cost on 21 October 2026 was $55 on CallRail, $60 on WhatConverts, $65 on Nimbata, $95 on CallTrackingMetrics and $104 on CallScaler, on monthly billing. Google's own call tracking is free.

What call length should count as a conversion in Google Ads?

Google's default is 60 seconds, and 63 of the 83 call conversion actions with a minimum length used it. By that rule, 39.1% of answered calls from ads didn't count. Look at your own call lengths and ask whoever answers the phone how long a real enquiry takes. Then send the outcome of each call back from your CRM if you can.

What percentage of calls do businesses miss?

In 44 Google Ads accounts I checked, Google marked 5% of calls from ads as missed, and 6% in the median account. Voicemails can count as received, so the real rate could be higher. The 62% figure many pages quote comes from a 411 Locals study of 85 small businesses published in 2016.