What Is Click to Call?
Click to call (also called "tap to call" on mobile) is a phone number link on a website that lets visitors start a phone call directly by clicking or tapping it. On a mobile device it opens the phone app, and on a desktop it may open FaceTime or another calling app.
In HTML, click-to-call links use the tel: protocol, for example <a href="tel:+15551234567">Call Us</a>. When a visitor clicks that link, their device starts a call to the number.
For local and service businesses that take inquiries by phone, click-to-call links are one of the most important parts of a website, because a visitor can become a lead with a single tap.
Why Click to Call Matters
Someone who clicks a phone number on your site has moved past browsing and is ready to talk. Call tracking company Invoca looked at more than 60 million phone calls and found that 37% of phone leads converted during the call, from 22% in business services up to 46% in home services.
On mobile devices, where over half of web traffic now comes from, tapping a phone number is often easier and faster than filling out a contact form. For industries like home services, healthcare, legal, and real estate, phone calls are often the main way new customers reach out.
Many websites don't track these clicks, so when a visitor taps your phone number, calls your office and books an appointment, your analytics has no record of it. As far as your data is concerned, that visitor bounced.
Click to Call Tracking
Click-to-call tracking means recording when a visitor clicks a tel: link on your site and sending that event to your analytics and advertising platforms. This lets you:
- Count phone leads: See how many phone clicks your website generates alongside your form submissions
- Attribute calls to traffic sources: See whether phone leads come from organic search, paid ads, social media, or other channels
- Optimize ad campaigns: When call click data flows back to platforms like Google Ads or Meta Ads, their algorithms can optimize for visitors who actually call, rather than visitors who only click
- Identify high-performing pages: Find which pages on your site drive the most phone calls
Without it, you can end up undervaluing the traffic sources that bring in calls and making budget decisions on incomplete data.
Click to Call on WordPress Sites
WordPress makes it easy to add phone number links to your site, since most themes and page builders support tel: links, but tracking clicks on those links usually takes Google Tag Manager configuration or custom JavaScript.
Conversion Bridge tracks phone link clicks through its built-in Core WordPress integration. When that's on, every tel: link click on your site is tracked and sent to your connected analytics and ad platforms, with no code or tag manager setup. It works with 19 analytics platforms and 11 ad platforms.
You can also change the event label (the default is "Phone Click") and enter a separate conversion label for each ad platform that uses one, like Google Ads.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does click-to-call tracking work on desktop computers?
Yes, although on desktop a tel: link usually opens a calling app like FaceTime. The click is tracked whether or not the call connects, because what's being measured is the visitor clicking the phone number.
Is click-to-call tracking the same as call tracking software?
No, call tracking software (like CallRail or WhatConverts) assigns dynamic phone numbers to track which ad or page generated a call, while click-to-call tracking measures when someone clicks a phone link on your site. Click-to-call tracking is simpler and doesn't require changing your phone numbers, but it doesn't capture call duration or outcomes.
Can I track email link clicks the same way?
Yes, mailto: links (email address links) can be tracked as conversion events the same way as tel: links. Conversion Bridge tracks both phone and email link clicks through the same Core WordPress integration.