Call-Only Ads for Painters: They Are Going Away, Here Is What to Run Instead
Call-only ads for painters stop showing in February 2027. What replaces them, how to keep the phone ringing with call assets, and how to count only real calls.
Published September 14, 2026 · PaintingPPC
Call-only ads for painters are being retired by Google. New call-only ads could not be created after February 2026, and every existing one stops showing in February 2027. A painting contractor who still leans on a call-only campaign needs to move that budget into responsive search ads with call assets, turn on call reporting, and set a call conversion rule that only counts calls long enough to be a real estimate request. Done right, the phone rings as much as before. Done lazily, the account starts counting 12-second wrong numbers as leads.
I run PaintingPPC, a Google Ads agency that works only with painting contractors, and I have been moving painter accounts off call-only for the better part of a year. This is what I tell every one of them.
What were call-only ads and why did painters like them?
A call-only ad was a mobile search ad with no website link. The whole ad was a phone button. A homeowner searched “painters near me” on their phone, tapped the ad, and the phone dialed you. No landing page, no form, no waiting.
Painters liked them for two reasons. First, calls close better than forms. PCN Answers’ 2026 calls versus forms study puts phone leads converting at around 46 percent against 8 to 12 percent for web forms, with 37 percent of phone leads closing on the first call. Those are cross-industry figures, not painting-specific, but they match what I see: a homeowner who dials would rather book than browse. Second, the ad skipped the weakest link in most painter accounts, which is a slow, generic website.
Google announced the shutdown in October 2025. Creation ended February 2026. Impressions end February 2027. If you are reading this in fall 2026 and your account still has a call-only campaign, you have about five months.
What replaces call-only ads for painters?
Responsive search ads with a call asset attached. Google’s own transition guide lays out three steps: add your business name and phone numbers as call assets at the account or campaign level, create or edit a responsive search ad in the ad group and attach the call asset, then remove the old call ad once the new one is approved and running.
The practical difference for a painter is that the ad now has two doors instead of one. The headline goes to your landing page. The call button, which Google shows on mobile next to the ad, dials your number. You lose the ability to force a call. You gain a page that can carry reviews, photos, and a form for the homeowner who is on a lunch break and cannot talk.
Here is how the two formats compare for a painting company:
| Call-only ad (ending Feb 2027) | Responsive search ad + call asset | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the tap goes | Phone dials, nothing else | Headline to landing page, call button dials |
| Devices | Mobile only | Mobile, tablet, desktop |
| Landing page needed | No | Yes, and it has to convert |
| Ad copy | Fixed headlines, short | Up to 15 headlines, 4 descriptions, Google mixes them |
| Form leads | None | Yes |
| After-hours behavior | Rings to voicemail | Page still captures the form |
| Call tracking | Google forwarding number | Google forwarding number or your own tracking numbers |
The third row is the one that bites. A call-only campaign hid a bad website. A responsive search ad exposes it. If your landing page is the home page with a hero photo and a “Contact Us” link, fix that before you migrate, or your cost per lead will jump and you will blame the format. I covered what the page needs in Google Ads landing pages for painters.
How do I keep the phone ringing after the switch?
Four settings do most of the work.
Make the call asset show as often as possible. Attach it at the campaign level, not just one ad group, and set its schedule to the hours someone actually answers. Google will not show a call button outside the schedule you set, which is exactly what you want. I laid out the asset order in Google Ads extensions for painters.
Turn on call reporting. In account settings, enable call reporting so Google swaps in a forwarding number on the ad. Google’s call reporting documentation confirms it records call duration, start time, whether the call connected, and the caller’s number for calls over 15 seconds. Without it, the click on the call button is just a click and you cannot tell it from a website visit.
Set a real call conversion threshold. The default counts any call over 60 seconds as a conversion. WhatConverts’ breakdown of how Google counts calls makes the point bluntly: hit 61 seconds and Google records a conversion no matter what happened on the call. A supplier rep asking if you need a quote on rollers takes 61 seconds. So does a job applicant. I set painter accounts to 90 seconds as a floor, because a homeowner who wants an estimate almost always talks longer than that, and I still hand-review the call log weekly.
Use your own tracking numbers on the landing page. Google’s forwarding number covers the call button on the ad. It does not cover the number on your page, which is where the desktop and tablet clicks land. Put a call tracking number there, swap it dynamically for paid traffic, and pipe those calls back into Google Ads as conversions too. Now both doors are counted.
Should a painter bid for calls or for form leads?
Bid for both, then let your booked-job data decide the weighting. Do not assume calls win by default.
Calls win when someone is there to answer. A painting company with an office manager or an answering service that books estimates on the first call should treat call conversions as the primary goal and forms as secondary. A one-truck operator who is on a ladder from 8 to 4 is a different case. Half of that painter’s paid calls hit voicemail, and a voicemail-to-callback lead is not a call lead, it is a slow form lead that cost more. For that painter, a form with a fast text-back beats a missed call. The mechanics of that follow-up are in speed to lead for painters.
The thing that used to make call-only tempting, skipping the page, was never the reason those campaigns booked jobs. The reason was that the caller was a high-intent homeowner and someone picked up. Keep those two things and the ad format does not matter.
What should the migration look like month by month?
If you still have a call-only campaign running today, here is the order I use. It is a working sequence, not a rule from Google.
- This week: build a responsive search ad in every ad group of the call-only campaign, attach the call asset, and point the headline at a landing page with the same phone number in the header. Do not pause the call-only ads yet.
- Weeks 2 to 4: run both. Compare cost per call, and more important, cost per booked job, in your CRM. Expect the new ads to show more often because they run on desktop and outside the call-only slot.
- Weeks 5 to 8: pause the call-only ads once the responsive search ads have at least 30 conversions to learn from. Watch call volume for two weeks. If calls fall, the usual cause is the call asset schedule, not the ad.
- Before February 2027: delete the old ads so a paused campaign is not quietly restarted by a bulk edit.
One seasonal note. September and October are when northern painters shift from exterior to interior, and the call mix shifts with it. Interior callers are more willing to fill a form and book a later walkthrough than a homeowner trying to beat the first frost. It is a reasonable time to run the two formats side by side without a busy-season spike confusing the read.
What does this cost a painting company?
The format change does not change the auction. You are bidding on the same “house painters [city]” and “cabinet painting near me” keywords against the same competitors. 99 Calls’ 2026 painting lead cost data puts the median Google Ads painting lead at $174, with the top 10 percent of advertisers under $130. A migrated account should land in the same range. What changes is the mix: fewer accidental short calls counted as leads, more form leads that need follow-up, and a real landing page conversion rate you can improve. The number to judge it by is the one we use on every account, cost per booked job, not calls per day.
FAQ
Are Google call-only ads discontinued? Yes. Google stopped allowing new call-only ads in February 2026, and all existing call-only ads stop receiving impressions in February 2027. The replacement is a responsive search ad with a call asset attached, which shows a call button on mobile alongside the headline.
Can a painter still get phone calls from Google Ads without call-only ads? Yes. Call assets on responsive search ads show a tappable call button on mobile devices, and call reporting tracks those calls with a Google forwarding number. Adding a tracked phone number to the landing page catches the callers who arrive from desktop or tablet.
What counts as a phone call conversion in Google Ads? By default, any call from an ad or a tracked landing page number that lasts more than 60 seconds. You can raise that threshold in the conversion action settings. Most painting companies should set it higher and review the call log so vendor and job-seeker calls are not counted as leads.
Should I set call conversions as my primary goal? Only if someone reliably answers during the hours your ads run. If most calls go to voicemail, treat form submissions and calls as equal primary conversions and let the booked-job data over 60 to 90 days tell you which to favor.
The blunt version
Call-only ads for painters are gone by February 2027. Rebuild each one as a responsive search ad with a call asset, turn on call reporting, raise the call conversion threshold past 60 seconds, put a tracked number on the landing page, and judge the result in cost per booked job. Painters who make the switch now get a full season of data before the format disappears.
If you want a second set of eyes on your migration, or you have no idea whether your account is still running call-only ads, book a call. We will pull the campaign list and tell you in ten minutes.