AdWords update to phone numbers in ads that show a business location

The full version of this article was first published at: AdWords update to phone numbers in ads that show a business location


Thursday afternoon we began receiving word of an email announcement from AdWords indicating that the phone numbers for location based ads on Google could be overridden by the phone number in the business’s Google My Business (GMB) listing. After looking into this more and confirming with a contact at Google, it looks to be a legitimate change.I’d like to dive into what this change is, what it means for marketers who like clean call attribution data, and one possible way to still get call data from calls coming in via a Google My Business number. (Here’s the ‘too long; didn’t read’ version: this change doesn’t seem to make much sense, is a step backwards for data-driven marketers, and there’s likely more to it that we will find out soon.) Here’s a scrubbed copy of the actual email from Google: Since this particular announcement has no corresponding statement or post officially from Google, we have to rely on the email being sent to advertisers. Who does this change affect? The change affects any advertiser using AdWords call extensions and location extensions, where the call extension phone number is different from the business location’s phone number in Google My Business. The main group of marketers affected by this change are likely to be those using third party call tracking software who use AdWords to drive phone calls to specific business locations. For example, franchise marketers using multi-location call tracking for business locations could see their paid call conversion data mix with their call volume…
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