If you run a plumbing, HVAC, roofing, or other home-service company, this pattern is common. Google Ads shows clicks. The call log and the form inbox do not. The account is not telling you the job is won. It is telling you someone clicked.

Search ads are pay-per-click. You pay when someone clicks the ad or the call button on the ad. A click is a visit, or a tap toward a call, and the conversation still has to happen. Local Services Ads are a different product: those charge per lead. This checklist is for Search ads, where clicks with no calls means the leak is somewhere between the auction and a real conversation.

Walk it in order. Each step below is something you can see in the account or on the page. Where a sentence describes how Google Ads works, it links to the Google Ads Help page it came from. Pages were checked on October 26, 2026.

The short answer

Find the leak

Step 1: Confirm call and form conversion tracking

If conversions are not measured, a quiet conversions column does not mean the phone is quiet. Google says you choose what counts, such as a purchase, a sign-up, or a phone call, and that a form and a call need their own conversion actions (Google: About conversion measurement, Google: Different ways to track conversions).

For calls, Google lists separate setups (Google: About phone call conversion tracking):

Google also says an Unverified or Inactive status is normal until the first conversion or a successful test. If the campaign has been spending and the action is still inactive, start there (Google: About conversion measurement).

Call reporting is the switch a lot of owners miss. Turned on, Google assigns a forwarding number and can record duration and whether the call connected. Turned off, the ad can show your own number, and Google Ads will not track those calls (Google: About call reporting). A shop that turned reporting off to "show the real number" can have a full call log and an empty conversions column.

Check the form the same way. A website action, including a form submit, is its own conversion action (Google: Different ways to track conversions). If you track calls and skip forms, or the reverse, the leads on the path you skipped never show up in the account.

Step 2: Read the search terms report and add negatives

A keyword is what you added. A search term is what the person typed. They are not the same thing. The search terms report lists searches that a significant number of people used and that triggered your ad (Google: About the search terms report).

Google's path: in the account, select Campaigns, then Search terms under Insights and reports. Turn on the Keyword column if you want to see which keyword matched. Some low-volume queries are omitted for privacy, so the report is a strong sample, not a complete diary of every search.

For a home-service account, look for queries you cannot do: another trade, parts and wholesale, hiring ("jobs," "salary"), and how-to searches from someone who wants to do the work themselves. Those clicks are real spend. Negative keywords tell Google not to enter those auctions (Google: About negative keywords).

Two limits from Google, so you do not "fix" the account into silence. Negative keywords do not match close variants. Excluding one form of a word does not exclude the plural or a synonym, so add the versions you actually see in the report. And too many negatives can mean your ads reach fewer customers. Add the queries in the report. Skip a guessed list of hundreds of terms.

Step 3: Check location, radius, and ad schedule

You can target a country, an area inside a country, or a radius around a location. Radius targeting, also called proximity targeting, shows ads within a distance of a point you choose. Google says the radius has to be at least 1 km, and a very small target may show only sometimes, or not at all (Google: Target ads to geographic locations).

A local shop is the case Google describes for a radius or for specific cities (Google: Target ads to geographic locations). A whole country is the wrong target when you cannot serve those cities. Google also says that when you target an area, ads may show in nearby related areas that you did not pick by name (Google: About targeting geographic locations).

The default location option is Presence or Interest. That includes people likely to be in the area, or regularly in it, and people who have shown interest in it. Interest can come from the words in the search, a recent visit, or content about the place. Presence limits delivery to people likely to be there or regularly there. Google says to consider Presence when you only want people in those locations, and not people elsewhere who are interested in them (Google: About advanced location options). A click from someone who cannot hire you is a paid click that will not become a local call. Location targeting is Google's best effort from device and behavior signals, and Google says 100% accuracy is not guaranteed in every situation.

Then check the clock. Campaigns default to showing all day. Ad scheduling lets you pick days and hours, and you can raise or lower bids for those windows (Google: About ad scheduling). If the phones are covered on weekdays and the schedule is all day, you are buying clicks at night and on weekends from people who then reach nobody. You can also limit the call asset itself to hours you can answer. That setting is on the asset, separate from the campaign schedule (Google: About call assets).

Step 4: Check keyword match types

Match type is how close a search has to be before your keyword can enter the auction (Google: About keyword matching options):

Broader match types include the searches of the narrower ones, plus more. That is why step 2 matters: a broad keyword can be eligible for queries you would never type into the keyword list. If the search terms report is full of work you do not do, tighten that keyword or add those queries as negative keywords. Negative match types do not behave like positive ones, so do not assume a negative "covers" the same variations.

Step 5: Use call assets for the number on the ad

A call asset puts your number on the ad. On a phone, people who can call may see a call button under the ad. On a computer, a "Call us" button can show the number, or a Google forwarding number if call reporting is on, plus a QR code (Google: About call assets).

Put the number in the asset, not in the headline or description. Google says a phone number placed in the ad text may lead to disapproval.

The asset is not on every impression. When the auction runs, Google decides whether to show it. A campaign can collect headline clicks with no call button in sight. Clicks on the call asset are charged the same as a click on the headline. Google also says it charges when the forwarding number in the ad is clicked, and it does not charge when someone dials that forwarding number by hand (Google: About call reporting).

Under the asset's advanced options, schedule it for the hours you can take the call. An account-level asset, a campaign asset, and an ad group asset do not stack: the most specific one is the one that serves.

Step 6: Match the landing page, and show a tappable number

The person who clicked expects the page to be about the same job as the ad. Google's landing-page guidance says to match the page to the ad and the keywords, keep the site usable on a phone, and make it straightforward to call or to send an inquiry. It also says to put important information towards the top of the page so people do not have to scroll to see it (Google: Optimize your ads and landing pages).

Landing page experience is one of the three parts of Quality Score, along with expected clickthrough rate and ad relevance. Google describes it as how relevant and useful the page is to the person who clicked (Google: About Quality Score). Quality Score is a diagnostic, not the auction itself. Use it to see whether the page is the weak piece, then fix the page.

On a phone, check four things yourself:

Step 7: See what happens when the call comes in

Tracking, terms, location, and the page can all be in order, and the spend still goes nowhere if the call rings out. A missed call is a click you already paid for. A slow reply is the same leak on a delay. The ad cannot pick up the phone.

Listen to the last week of calls from the ads. Note which ones went unanswered, which ones hit voicemail, and which form leads waited. The true cost of missed calls is this gap. A missed-call text-back is one way to reach a person who hung up. Speed to lead is the same problem on web leads: the form arrived, and the follow-up did not. If you are comparing who should cover the phone, read answering service cost beside the hours in your ad schedule. The schedule and the coverage have to be the same hours.

This is the work after the click, and it is the part Stakd Systems handles for you. We run Google and Meta ads for home-service businesses. Running HVAC? See AI for HVAC. Our AI agents answer your calls and texts 24/7, ask your customers the right questions, and help get them on your calendar.

The bottom line

Clicks mean the ad was eligible and someone tapped it. Calls and form leads mean the next step worked. Confirm both conversion actions, clean the search terms, match location and hours to the jobs you can take, use call assets, put a tappable number at the top of the mobile page, and answer when it rings. Change the budget after those are true, so you are buying more of a path that already reaches a person.

Sources

Pages checked October 26, 2026. Google changes these screens often, so confirm the current labels in your own account.