Missed calls and slow replies: the cheapest way to waste ad spend

What a missed enquiry really costs

With Google Ads, the cost is already spent by the time the phone rings: you paid for the click that led to the call. With Local Services Ads, Google’s help pages say a missed call during your operating hours can still be charged if the caller stays on the line for more than 20 seconds, and the same applies to calls that reach voicemail.

Then there is the job itself. Someone with a leaking roof or no hot water rarely waits. If nobody answers, they ring the next business on the page, and the money you spent has bought your competitor an enquiry.

Run the ads when you can answer

The simplest fix is to stop paying for calls you cannot take:

• Ad schedules. Google Ads lets you choose the days and hours your ads can show, and raise or lower bids at particular times. Match the schedule to the hours someone is actually free to pick up.
• Call assets. The phone number on your ads can be scheduled to appear only when your business can take calls. Outside those hours, the ad can still run and send people to a page with a form.
• Local Services Ads hours. Set your operating hours to when calls will be answered, because missed calls inside those hours can be charged.

Make the phone easy to answer

• Forward calls to a mobile that someone carries, rather than an office line that rings out while everyone is on site.
• Keep any phone menu short, or remove it. Each extra step loses callers, and on Local Services Ads it affects when a call is counted.
• If calls go to voicemail, make the greeting short and say when you will call back, then do it.
• After changing numbers or call tracking, make a test call from a phone you do not normally use and check it reaches the right person.

Reply to forms in minutes, not days

Form enquiries feel less urgent than calls, so they wait. But the person who filled in the form may well have filled in others, and the first business to reply properly is often the one they speak to.

• Send an automatic reply straight away, by text, email or WhatsApp, so the customer knows their enquiry has arrived and when to expect a call.
• Decide who follows up and by when, so enquiries do not fall between two people.
• Call first where you can. A short conversation usually qualifies an enquiry faster than an email exchange.

Follow up the ones that do not answer

Not every customer picks up first time. A second call later in the day, followed by a text or an email, catches many of the ones who were simply busy. Record each attempt, so you know which enquiries are still live.

Measure it

Call tracking should show missed calls as well as answered ones, and your enquiry log should show how quickly each form was answered. If missed calls cluster at certain times, change the ad schedule. If forms wait hours for a reply, change who handles them. Either change usually costs nothing and brings in more work from the same budget.

How LeadCentre helps

Every iLeads client gets LeadCentre, our app for iPhone and Android. It notifies you the moment a new enquiry arrives, sends the customer an instant automatic reply by SMS text, WhatsApp and/or email, and lets you follow up and mark each lead from your phone. The ads bring in the enquiries; LeadCentre makes sure they are answered while the customer is still deciding.