Call-Only Ads Are Ending: How to Get Phone Leads Now

1. What Is Changing With Google Ads Call Ads — And When

Quick Answer: Google Ads call ads (call-only ads) are being deprecated on two dates. From February 2026 you can no longer create a new one. From February 2027 every existing call-only ad stops receiving impressions. The replacement is a responsive search ad with a call asset attached.

Google announced the deprecation in October 2025. Its official transition notice gives two dates:

• February 2026: creation closes. The option to build a new call-only ad disappears from the interface, from Google Ads Editor, and from the API.
• February 2027: serving stops. Any call-only ad still in your account stops receiving impressions. It does not get paused. It just stops earning traffic.

The line most advertisers miss: Google is not migrating your ads for you. Its guidance is that you “must transition”: build the responsive search ad, attach the call asset, then remove the old call ad yourself. No switch gets flipped on your behalf. That matters most for accounts nobody watches closely: if a campaign built years ago has been running untouched, February 2027 arrives as a phone that stopped ringing, with no error message anywhere.

Nothing breaks loudly in February 2027. Your ads simply stop showing, and your call volume goes to zero.

2. Why Google Is Retiring Call-Only Ads

Quick Answer: Call-only ads are the last hand-built ad format in Search. They have fixed headlines, no landing page, no asset rotation, and nothing for Google’s AI to test. Folding calls into responsive search ads gives the machine learning system material to work with — which is the direction every Google Ads format has moved.

Google’s public reason is that responsive search ads test many headline and description combinations per auction, so the call gets a better ad around it. True, but not the whole story.

The commercial reason is simpler. A call-only ad is a fixed unit: two headlines, one description, one number, mobile only. There is nothing for Google’s bidding and creative systems to optimise. Every other format (responsive search, Performance Max, Demand Gen) hands more of the decision to the algorithm. Call ads were the last holdout, and Google’s developer-blog upgrade guidance pushed the API the same way.

This is the same consolidation that killed expanded text ads, and the response is the same: hand the algorithm clean signals rather than letting it guess. That means real conversion values on your call actions, not a blanket count of every tap.

3. Who Still Depends on Call-Only Ads in Malaysia?

Quick Answer: Emergency and same-day trades are the most exposed. Across ZenWeb’s Malaysian client base, aircon and plumbing accounts still route roughly 62% of their call-driven ad spend through call-only ads, while property and renovation accounts sit under 20%. The table below shows the exposure by industry.

The pattern is urgency. The more a customer wants the problem solved today, the more likely that account leaned on Google Ads call ads and never bothered building a landing page.

If you sit in the top three rows, this is not housekeeping. It is most of your lead flow. Those campaigns were also built mobile-first, so they carry aggressive device and time-of-day bid adjustments that need rechecking once the ad format changes.

4. What You Gain — and What You Genuinely Lose

Quick Answer: You gain desktop reach, more headline combinations, and a landing page that can qualify the enquiry. You lose the one thing call-only ads did best: guaranteeing that a tap means a call, not a click. That trade-off is the whole migration, and most guides pretend the losses do not exist.

• You gain desktop and tablet auctions. Call-only ads were mobile-only. A responsive search ad with a call asset serves everywhere, with a “Call us” button on desktop.
• You gain creative testing. Fifteen rotating headlines beat two fixed ones, especially on seasonal demand where a seasonality adjustment already shifts your bids.
• You lose the pure-call guarantee. A call-only ad had one outcome. An RSA has two, the headline click and the call button, and the click usually wins. Clicks rise; calls fall.
• You lose the “no website needed” shortcut. An RSA needs a final URL. A thin or slow landing page now sits between the searcher and your phone.

That last point catches out businesses that never had a real website. The lead form asset is one workaround, but it collects a form submission, not a live call: a different lead, with a different close rate.

5. What Actually Happens to Call Volume After You Migrate?

Quick Answer: It depends entirely on how you migrate. Across ZenWeb accounts moved between November 2025 and May 2026, a lazy copy-paste of the old headlines lost about a third of monthly calls. A full rebuild with call conversions tracked properly ended up 21% ahead of the call-only baseline.

The chart indexes monthly calls against each account’s pre-migration baseline, where 100 is what the old call-only ad produced.

The gap between the first row and the last is not luck. It is whether Google’s bidding system can see a call as a conversion. Without call tracking, Smart Bidding chases clicks and form fills because those are the only outcomes it can measure — which is exactly the trap in the manual CPC versus Smart Bidding decision.

6. How to Migrate Your Call Ads to RSAs With Call Assets

Quick Answer: Add your business name, load every phone number as a call asset, build the responsive search ad in the same ad group, attach the call asset under “More asset types”, then remove the old call ad only after the new one is approved and delivering. Never delete first.

How to move a call-only ad to a responsive search ad with a call asset

The steps below follow Google’s official transition guide, plus the account checks we add before sign-off.

1. Add your business name. Set it in account or campaign settings first. The call asset will not serve cleanly without it.
2. Load every phone number as a call asset. One per location or service line if you run separate numbers, each checked against Google’s call ads policy before you save it.
3. Build the responsive search ad in the same ad group. Reuse the winning call-only headline as headline one, then add the rest. You have fifteen slots where you used to have two.
4. Attach the call asset to the RSA. In the ad group, open “More asset types” and select it. Most people skip this step, and it is the difference between the 66 and the 94 above.
5. Turn on call reporting and call conversions. Count a call as a conversion at a real duration threshold. Sixty seconds filters out the wrong numbers, so bidding learns what a good call looks like.
6. Set a call-hours schedule. If nobody answers after 7pm, the call asset should not show after 7pm. This one setting recovers more wasted spend than any bid tweak.
7. Remove the old call ad, last. Only once the RSA is approved and delivering. Deleting first hands the auction to whoever is still bidding.

Run it as a controlled test, not a hard switch. Google Ads experiments split traffic between the old and new ad while both still serve, giving you a real before-and-after. And if an agency is doing this for you, check the account is owned by you. Rebuilds are a common moment for ownership to quietly change hands.

7. How Much Runway Is Left Before February 2027?

Quick Answer: About seven months of comfortable runway as of mid-2026. Creation already closed in February 2026, so you cannot rebuild a call-only ad if the new one underperforms. The table tracks what is possible at each stage and how far through the migration ZenWeb’s own call-driven accounts are.

The dates are Google’s. The migration percentages are ours, a gauge of how a managed book of Malaysian accounts has moved.

Seven months sounds generous. It is not, once you count the learning period: a rebuilt campaign needs four to six weeks before Smart Bidding settles, and several campaigns need staggering. Start in your low season.

8. The Migration Mistakes We Already See

Quick Answer: The three that cost the most: deleting the call ad before the RSA is approved, forgetting to attach the call asset at all, and pointing the new RSA at a homepage that never had to convert anyone before. All three are avoidable in an afternoon.

• Deleting the old ad first. The ad group goes quiet while the RSA waits for approval, and a competitor takes your auctions. Overlap them.
• Building the RSA without the call asset. The ad serves, the clicks arrive, and nobody rings. This is the single most common failure we audit.
• Sending calls-first traffic to a homepage. A searcher with a burst pipe will not read your About page. Give them a page with the number at the top and nothing competing.
• Leaving Search Partners on by default. Call intent is weaker on partner sites, so ask whether Search Partners belongs in a call campaign at all.
• Ignoring your existing callers. Upload them and use Customer Match instead of paying full price to find them again.
• Migrating everywhere at once. Rebuild in one city first, verify the calls land, then roll out. Location targeting contains it.

9. Is a Phone Call Still Worth More Than a Form Lead?

Quick Answer: For urgent services, yes, decisively. Aircon and plumbing calls close at roughly 46% against 18% for a website form. For considered purchases like tuition or property, the gap narrows sharply, and a form lead is close to competitive.

This number should drive how hard you fight to keep the call. The table compares close rate by lead type across six verticals.

Read the top two rows against the bottom one. For emergency trades, every call lost in migration takes roughly three form leads to replace. For tuition, barely more than one. Your industry decides how hard you defend the phone, and what a call is worth once you price it.

10. Conclusion: Move Before Google Moves You

Quick Answer: Rebuild your call-only ads as responsive search ads with call assets now, while the old ads still serve and you can compare the two side by side. Waiting until early 2027 means rebuilding blind, with no baseline and no way back.

The end of Google Ads call ads is not really a format change. It is a test of whether your account measures a phone call properly. Advertisers who track calls as conversions come out ahead. Advertisers who copy two headlines into an RSA and hope lose a third of their leads, then blame the algorithm.

You still have the better half of a year. Use it while both formats are live: that overlap is the only safety net left. If you would rather not rebuild alone, that is what our Google Ads management team is for.

11. Frequently Asked Questions

1. When exactly do Google Ads call ads stop working?

Two dates. From February 2026, Google removed every option to create a new call-only ad. From February 2027, all existing call-only ads stop receiving impressions. Your old ads still serve between those dates, which is why now is the safest time to rebuild and compare the two side by side.

2. Will Google automatically convert my call-only ads to responsive search ads?

No. Google’s guidance is that advertisers must transition themselves: build the responsive search ad, attach the call asset, then remove the old call ad. Nothing is converted on your behalf. If you take no action, your call-only ads simply stop serving in February 2027 and your phone leads from Google Ads go to zero.

3. What is the difference between a call ad and a call asset?

A call ad was a standalone, mobile-only format where tapping the ad placed a call, with no website involved. A call asset is an add-on attached to a responsive search ad: the ad shows headlines and a landing page link, plus a call button. The searcher chooses between clicking and calling.

4. Can I still get phone leads from Google Ads without a website?

It is harder. A responsive search ad requires a final URL, so you need at least one landing page. A single fast page with your phone number and one clear offer is enough to start. A lead form asset can also collect enquiries, though it delivers a form submission rather than a live call.

5. Should I use Smart Bidding after migrating my call ads?

Only once call conversions are tracked properly. Smart Bidding optimises towards whatever it can measure, so without call tracking it will chase clicks and form fills and quietly starve your phone. Set up call reporting and a minimum call duration first, then move to a conversion-based bid strategy.