Creative Formats & Assets

Call Assets vs Lead Form Assets: Get the Call or Get the Form

In short: Both let a search ad generate a conversion without the searcher touching your website, but they capture the lead through different channels. Call assets put a phone number or tap-to-call button in the ad so the conversion is a live phone call, tracked by duration if you use a Google forwarding number. Lead form assets put a submittable form in the ad so the conversion is written contact details, no voice interaction required. A call needs someone available to answer it; a form can be reviewed and followed up whenever. Chooser: use call assets when the phone genuinely closes the sale and you're staffed to answer, use lead form assets when you'd rather collect details and call back on your own schedule.

By the AdFlint research team · Fact-checked against current Google and Meta platform behavior · Last reviewed July 2026

Call Assets

Adds a phone number or tap-to-call button to a search ad, letting a searcher dial you without loading a landing page.

Formerly call extensions, these can use a Google forwarding number so calls report as conversions once they pass a duration threshold, and they can be scheduled to appear only during business hours. They fit service businesses where the phone closes the sale. The mistake is leaving them running outside staffed hours, which spends budget on calls nobody answers and buries the conversion data under missed rings.

Full definition

Lead Form Assets

Attaches a form directly to a Google ad so someone can submit contact details without visiting your site, formerly called lead form extensions.

Google shows a hosted form after the click, prefilled from the signed-in account, and you retrieve the leads by webhook or CSV download. It suits mobile-heavy searches where a slow landing page loses people. Two things trip advertisers up: leads never reach your CRM unless the webhook is wired and monitored, and the low friction that lifts volume also admits unqualified submissions, so qualifying questions matter.

Full definition

Side by side.

The differences that actually change what happens in your account.

	Call Assets	Lead Form Assets
What the searcher does	Taps to dial and speaks with a person, or leaves voicemail.	Types into fields and submits, no voice interaction at all.
What counts as a conversion	A call that clears a minimum duration threshold, if you're using call conversion tracking.	The form submission itself, the moment it's sent.
Timing control	Can be scheduled to only show during set business hours.	Runs any time the campaign runs; no built-in hours restriction.
Staffing dependency	High - an unanswered call is a wasted conversion opportunity and a real cost.	Low - a submission waits in the dashboard or CRM until someone follows up.
Where the record lives	Call reporting inside Google Ads, plus your phone system if you track separately.	Inside Google Ads, retrieved by webhook, CSV, or CRM integration.
Typical failure	Running outside staffed hours, spending on calls nobody answers.	Nobody checking the dashboard or webhook, so leads sit unread.
Best fit	Urgent, local, phone-first services like emergency repair or booking by phone.	Any service where a written lead and a callback on your schedule works fine.

What actually separates them.

A call asset's conversion happens in real time over the phone; a lead form asset's conversion happens the instant a form is submitted, with no live interaction.

Call assets can be scheduled to specific hours so they only run when staffed; lead form assets have no equivalent hours restriction because nobody needs to be live to receive a submission.

Call tracking depends on a duration threshold to count as a conversion, while a lead form conversion counts the moment it's sent, with no duration involved.

An unanswered call is a lost opportunity the moment it happens; an unread lead form submission just waits, recoverable whenever someone checks the dashboard.

Call assets suit businesses where talking is how the sale actually closes, while lead form assets suit businesses where a callback on your own timeline works just as well.

Which one should you use?

Use Call Assets when

The phone is genuinely how you close the sale - a quote, a booking, an urgent job.
You're staffed to answer calls during the hours the ad would run and can schedule around that.
You want conversion tracking tied to real call duration, not just a tap.
Your service is local and time-sensitive enough that speed of contact matters more than written detail.

Use Lead Form Assets when

You'd rather collect written details and call back on your own schedule than staff live phones.
The inquiry needs a couple of qualifying fields before you know if it's worth a callback.
You're not staffed for phone coverage during all the hours your ads run.
You want a written record of what the person asked for before you call them.

Common questions.

Do I need a forwarding number to track call assets as conversions?

You need Google's call conversion tracking enabled, which typically uses a Google forwarding number so the platform can measure call duration and count it as a conversion once it clears your threshold. Without it, the tap-to-call button still works for the searcher, but you lose the automatic conversion count and only see clicks.

Can I schedule when lead form assets show, like I can with call assets?

Not through the same hours mechanism - call assets have a built-in ad schedule for exactly this reason, since an unanswered call is wasted, but a lead form asset doesn't need staffing to receive a submission, so Google doesn't offer the same hours control for it. If you want a form to only run at certain times, that has to be done at the campaign or ad group schedule level instead.

Why do my call conversions look lower than my actual answered calls?

The most common cause is the duration threshold - short calls that don't clear it aren't counted even if the conversation was legitimate - followed by calls that came through a number other than the tracked forwarding number. Checking your threshold setting against how long a typical qualifying call actually runs usually explains the gap.

Or stop choosing between them.

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