Google Ads for tradesmen: calls, lead forms or WhatsApp

The first decision in Google Ads for tradesmen is not the keyword list or the budget, it is what you ask the customer to do when the ad shows.

A burst pipe at 11pm wants a phone number. A kitchen extension wants a form the customer can fill in on the sofa. A fencing quote often wants a photo sent over WhatsApp. Pick the wrong one and the campaign reports clicks while the diary stays empty.

This is a decision guide for UK trades: call assets (and what replaced call-only ads in 2026), Google's lead form assets, WhatsApp click-to-chat, tracking each as its own conversion, and the ad schedule.

Why the conversion action decides the whole campaign

The conversion action you choose tells Google's bidding what to chase, so it shapes who sees the ad and what they are asked to do. Smart Bidding optimises towards the primary conversion you set. If that is a form, the system learns to find people who fill in forms, even if your best jobs come from people who ring.

Trade2Base, a UK trades CRM, puts it plainly in its 2026 guide to Google Ads for tradespeople: "Most trade businesses get the majority of their leads as phone calls, not form fills." That is a vendor's observation, not a study, but it matches what we see in trade accounts. Set the wrong primary conversion and you are training the account on the minority of your enquiries. No single action fits every trade, so the rest of this piece splits trades by urgency.

Emergency trades want the call

A customer with water through the ceiling wants the phone to ring, so emergency plumbers, locksmiths, drainage firms and out-of-hours boiler repair should make the call the primary conversion. On mobile, a call asset puts a tap-to-call button under the responsive search ad. On desktop it shows a "Call us" button with the number or a QR code, per Google's call assets page.

The 2026 change matters here. Google announced on 3 October 2025 that "call ads are being replaced by responsive search ads with call assets". The option to create a new call-only ad was removed in February 2026, and all existing call-only ads stop receiving impressions in February 2027. An old call-only campaign on emergency keywords has a shelf life.

Google's transition guide walks through it in three steps: add every phone number as a call asset, then create or edit a responsive search ad in the target ad group and "add call assets to the responsive search ads by selecting the 'More Asset Types' option", then remove the old call ad once the new one is approved and performing. The number is now attached while you build the ad.

One caveat: the help pages still say call assets live at account, campaign and ad group level, with the most specific level winning, and the Ads developer blog describes them as linked "at the customer, campaign, or ad group level". The ad-level step in the transition guide is a workflow change, not a new asset type. Check your own account, because the interface has moved more than once this year.

"The Call Asset will not appear every time the ad is shown." Jeff Kramer, Account Director, JumpFly

That line from JumpFly's August 2026 write-up is the practical difference. A call-only ad was a phone number and nothing else. A responsive search ad shows the call button when Google's auction decides it should, so the ad has to make sense without it and the landing page needs a visible number at the top.

Call reporting and Google forwarding numbers

Call reporting is how Google counts the calls, and it runs on forwarding numbers. When it is on, Google swaps your number in the ad for a Google forwarding number and records, per the call reporting page, "call duration, call start time, caller phone number for calls over 15 seconds, except in India, and whether the call was connected". The United Kingdom is on the supported list.

Two settings to get right. The "Calls from ads" conversion action has to be active and set as a primary goal, otherwise Smart Bidding ignores calls. And set a minimum call length: Google counts calls of a specified duration as conversions, and a 60-second floor stops wrong numbers and "do you do Northampton?" enquiries from counting as jobs.

Verification trips up more trade accounts than anything else. Google requires the number in E.164 format (no spaces) to be visible in your site's source code, or your domain verified through Search Console. Number-swapping scripts from a third-party call tracker can cause "unverified phone number" disapprovals, and tags deployed through Tag Manager cannot verify the domain. Link Search Console to Google Ads before launch.

Planned work suits a lead form

For work the customer is planning, a form beats a call because it lets them enquire at 9pm without talking to anyone. Kitchen and bathroom fitting, extensions, loft conversions, full rewires, boiler replacement, solar and heat pump installs, landscaping and driveways all fall here.

There are two options: a short form on your own landing page, tracked as a website conversion, or Google's lead form asset, which opens a form inside the ad so the customer never visits your site. Google's lead form page says you can add them to Search and Performance Max campaigns, and it claims higher lead volume than standalone website forms.

The catches are in the small print. Google stores leads for 60 days, the CSV export only reaches back 30 days, and unless you set up the email notification, a webhook, Zapier or the API, nobody is told a lead exists. Facebook lead ads have the same trap, and the same fix: a webhook that fires the moment a lead lands. For the form to run as a lead form ad, the campaign needs a conversion-focused bidding strategy, a Google lead form conversion goal and responsive search ads. A privacy policy link is mandatory.

There is also a spend gate. For a Search ad whose headline opens straight into the form, Google says reputable advertisers spending more than $1,000 per account may be eligible, subject to advertiser verification. A sole trader on £15 a day will not clear that, which is one reason we usually start planned-work campaigns with a form on the landing page and add the in-ad form later.

A landing page form for a trade should ask for name, phone, postcode and a free-text box for the job. Anything more and completion drops. The ad is only as good as the page behind it, and for most trades that means a tight set of service pages before a blog. If the site needs rebuilding to carry that page, our website design team builds landing pages with the conversion tag already in place.

Quote-heavy work suits WhatsApp or a short form

Jobs that need a photo before anyone can price them (fencing, roofing repairs, tree work, guttering, plastering) are where WhatsApp earns its place. The customer sends two photos and a postcode, you reply with a rough price, and the first phone call happens once both sides know it is worth having.

Google has a native version. Business message assets put a click-to-message button in the search ad, and Google added a "conversation started" conversion action for WhatsApp in November 2024. Search Engine Land reported the beta was limited to Argentina, India, Brazil and Singapore, and Google's API documentation still says access "is restricted by an allowlist and requires contacting your Account Manager".

So for a UK trade in 2026 the native asset is not something to plan around. The workable version is a wa.me link on the landing page with a pre-filled message ("Hi, I'd like a quote for"), fired as a click conversion in Google Ads. It is a click, not a conversation, so it shows direction, not proof of a lead. Run it beside a short form, because some customers will not use WhatsApp for a stranger, and keep the click secondary unless you have checked that most clicks turn into chats.

Which action for which trade

The table below is our working rule for UK trade accounts, and the right answer in any given account is the one the search terms report backs up after a month.

A trade that does both emergency and planned work (most plumbers and electricians) should run two campaigns with different primary conversions. "Secondary" means tracked and reported, not optimised for.

Track each action as its own conversion

Each action needs its own conversion so you can see which one actually produces jobs, and Google's phone call conversion tracking page lists the methods you will use.

1. Calls from ads. Counts calls made from call assets using the forwarding number. Needs call reporting on and the action set as primary.
2. Calls to a number on your website. A snippet swaps the number on your site for a forwarding number after an ad click, so calls from the landing page are counted too. Google's setup page warns against deploying it through Tag Manager if you use third-party call tracking.
3. Clicks on a number on your mobile site. Google is direct about the limit: "we can only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves."
4. Lead form submissions. Either the Google lead form conversion goal, or a thank-you page or form-submit event for your own form.
5. WhatsApp clicks. A click conversion on the wa.me link.
6. Imported conversions. Jobs booked, uploaded from your CRM or a spreadsheet, with the job value attached, which is the conversion signal that teaches the account what a real job looks like.

The sixth is the one most trade accounts skip, and it is the only one that tells you whether the call turned into a bathroom. Forwarding-number data shows duration and whether the call connected. It cannot tell you the caller wanted a job you do not do.

Ad schedule by trade

Set the campaign schedule to match when you can answer, because a call button shown to someone you cannot speak to is money spent on a voicemail. Google's ad scheduling page says campaigns show "All day" by default, and that a scheduled campaign still paces to 30.4 times the daily budget each month regardless of how many hours it runs.

Call assets have their own schedule, separate from the campaign's, under the asset's advanced options. An emergency plumber who takes calls around the clock leaves both open. A kitchen fitter on site with a drill until 5pm should let the campaign run all day for form fills but restrict the call asset to the hours someone picks up.

Bid adjustments by hour only apply to campaigns on Maximise clicks, per Google's bid adjustment page. On a Smart Bidding strategy chasing calls, the schedule's job is simply to close the hours you cannot serve.

A short checklist before launch

• Decide the primary conversion per campaign from the table, and split emergency from planned work.
• Add every phone number as a call asset and attach it while editing the responsive search ad.
• Turn on call reporting, set the "Calls from ads" action to primary, and set a minimum call length.
• Verify the number: E.164 format in the page source, or Search Console linked to Google Ads.
• Install the website call snippet so calls from the landing page are counted, not just the ad button.
• For forms, set up the email notification or webhook before the first lead lands, and diarise a 30-day export.
• For WhatsApp, use a wa.me link with a pre-filled message and track the click as a secondary conversion.
• Set the call asset schedule to the hours someone will answer.
• Import booked jobs with values monthly so the account learns what a good call looks like.

The decision rule we use: match the conversion action to how fast the customer needs an answer, then track the booked job so the account is judged on work, not on buttons pressed. It is the same standard you should hold a UK Google Ads agency to. If you would like us to set this up for a trade account, our paid media team runs Google Ads for UK trades, or you can get in touch with the campaign you have now.