Call tracking for tradies: how it works, what it costs in Australia

Short answer

Call tracking shows which ad, web page, Google listing or van sign made someone phone you. For a trade business that gets most of its work by phone, it shows you which marketing spend brings in jobs.

Only running Google Ads? Start with Google’s free call reporting. Spending on ads, SEO and a Google Business Profile? A paid tool with dynamic numbers on your website costs about A$25 to A$150 a month for a small business.

If you record calls, play a “this call may be recorded” message first. Recording rules differ by state.

What call tracking is

Call tracking gives each marketing channel its own phone number, then records which number each caller rang. You see a list of calls with where each one came from: the Google ad and keyword, the page on your website, your Google Business Profile, Facebook, the sign on your ute.

“Call tracking” also gets used for two other things: apps that log calls on staff mobiles, and looking up who an unknown number belongs to. This guide is about the marketing kind.

How it works

Call tracking tools use two methods, and most businesses use both.

Dynamic numbers on your website. You add one line of code to your site. When someone visits, the code swaps your phone number for a tracking number tied to that visitor’s source: a Google ad, a Facebook post, an organic search. When they ring it, the call forwards to your normal phone and the tool records where they came from, down to the ad keyword and the page they were on. This is called dynamic number insertion (DNI), and the caller won’t see the swap.

Fixed numbers for everything offline. One tracking number for the van, one for the letterbox flyer, one for your hipages or Oneflare profile, one for the local footy club sign. Each forwards to your phone, and each call is tagged with its source.

For each call you get the caller’s number, time, length, source and, if you turn it on, a recording and transcript. Better tools also track web form enquiries, so calls and forms sit in one report, and send conversions back to Google Ads so it bids on the keywords that bring calls.

Does a trade business need it?

If you spend money on more than one marketing channel, yes. Without it, you’re relying on “how did you hear about us?”. Customers forget, or say “Google”, which could mean an ad, a search result or your Business Profile.

It’s less useful when nearly all your work comes from word of mouth and repeat customers.

How many trade businesses track their calls?

Not many, at least on their websites. We crawled 7,126 Australian and NZ trade business websites found through Google Maps and looked for the code call-tracking tools put on a page. 198 of them (2.8%) had it:

Plumbers were the most likely to have it (5.8% of plumbing sites), then air conditioning (3.6%) and electricians (3.3%). Painters were the least likely (1.5%). NZ sites had it more often than Australian ones (4.3% against 2.3%), mostly Delacon, spread across many different Delacon accounts.

If you track calls from your website, you’re one of the few trade businesses near you on Google Maps doing it.

The free option: Google’s call reporting

If Google Ads is your only paid channel, start here.

• Calls from ads. Google shows a Google forwarding number in your ad. You see each call’s length, start time, the caller’s area code and whether it connected. Google doesn’t charge when someone dials the number by hand. A tap on the call button costs the normal click price (Google).
• Calls from your website. Add Google’s snippet and visitors who arrived from a Google ad see a forwarding number on your site (Google).
• You set the minimum call length that counts as a conversion, such as 60 seconds, so wrong numbers don’t count.

Its limits:

• It only tracks people who came from a Google ad, not your SEO, Business Profile, Facebook or van.
• Google’s forwarding numbers belong to Google and change, so you can’t put them on anything else (Google).
• Google’s call recording and AI-qualified calls are US and Canada only.
• Google forwarding numbers are available in Australia but not New Zealand.

Paid call tracking tools in Australia

Prices from each provider’s Australian pricing page, checked 25 October 2026.

WhatConverts dropped its Australian number price from US$7 to US$4 and its per-minute rate from US 9.5c to US 6c on 2 October 2026 (WhatConverts). Their AU pricing pages don’t label the currency, but both bill in US dollars (CallRail), so the Australian-dollar cost moves with the exchange rate.

What a small trade business would pay

Say you want four tracking numbers (website, Google Business Profile, van, flyers) and take about 300 minutes of tracked calls a month:

Two things push the bill up. Calls answered on a mobile often cost more per minute than calls to a landline: CallRail adds a US 12c-a-minute mobile surcharge in Australia. And CallRail and CallTrackingMetrics round each call up to the next minute.

Which number goes where

Google Business Profile. Google’s rules say the phone number “must be under the direct control of the business” and can’t redirect to someone else’s number (Google). They don’t mention call tracking numbers either way. Two approaches are common:

• Keep your real number on the profile and put a tracking link (a URL with ?utm_source=gbp) on the website button. You’ll track people who click through to your site, but not people who call straight from Google.
• Put a tracking number on the profile as the main number and add your real number as an additional number. You’ll track profile calls. The risk is your number no longer matches the one on your website and directories, which some local SEO practitioners warn against.

Whichever you pick, keep your real number the same across your website footer, directories and invoices.

Australian number gotchas

• 1300, 1800 and 13 numbers. 1800 is free for the caller, and 1300/13 numbers cost the caller a local-call rate from a landline. You, the number holder, pay part or all of the call (Department of Infrastructure). Rental starts around A$5 to A$15 a month plus per-minute charges, and at the providers we checked, calls answered on a mobile cost two to three times more per minute than calls answered on a landline.
• CallRail limits. CallRail’s support pages say it “is unable to forward calls to 1300 numbers” and doesn’t support Australian 04 mobile numbers as tracking numbers (CallRail). If your business number is a 1300, check that before you sign up.
• Toll-free tracking numbers cost more. CallRail charges US$21 a month for a toll-free number against US$4.20 for a local one. WildJar charges the same A$8.50 for local, toll-free and mobile numbers.
• Local numbers look local. A 07 number on a Brisbane plumber’s website reads as local. Most tools let you pick tracking numbers by area code.
• Verification. Australian numbers usually need proof of business: ABN, address and ID. WhatConverts asks for these by email before it issues AU numbers.

Recording calls: the rules

This is general information, not legal advice.

• Federal law makes it an offence to record a phone call as it passes over the phone network “without the knowledge of the person making the communication” (Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979). Telling people up front deals with “knowledge”.
• New South Wales needs every party to consent, apart from limited exceptions, under the Surveillance Devices Act 2007 (NSW legislation).
• Victoria and Queensland let a party to a conversation record it without the other person’s consent in most situations, with limits on sharing the recording (Victoria Legal Aid, Queensland OIC).
• The Privacy Commissioner’s guidance is to tell callers “at the beginning of the conversation” so they can hang up or ask not to be recorded (OAIC).

You can’t tell which state a caller is in, so play a short recorded greeting before the call connects:

“Thanks for calling [business name]. Calls may be recorded for quality and training.”

WhatConverts, CallRail, WildJar and ServiceM8 Phone can all play a greeting like this.

Call tracking vs a phone system in your job app

Some job apps sell their own phone add-on. ServiceM8 Phone, for example, is A$29 a month for 500 minutes, with recording and transcripts attached to the job card (ServiceM8).

A job-app phone tells you who called and links the call to their job. Marketing call tracking tells you where they came from. ServiceM8 Phone’s pages don’t mention swapping numbers on your website by source, so it won’t tell you which ad or page made someone call. If you want both, you’ll run both: the tracking tool on your marketing, forwarding to the phone system in your job app.

How to check it’s working

1. Open your website in a private browser window with a test tag on the address, like yoursite.com.au/?utm_source=test.
2. Check the phone number on the page has changed to a tracking number.
3. Ring it from your mobile.
4. Within a few minutes, the call should appear in your tracking tool with “test” as the source.

If the number doesn’t change, the script isn’t loading on that page, or your number on the page doesn’t match the format the tool is looking for.

In New Zealand

Google’s forwarding numbers aren’t available in NZ, and CallRail only sells in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. WildJar lists NZ prices (Starter NZ$150 a month, Growth NZ$89 plus NZ$15 a number), and CallTrackingMetrics sells NZ numbers.

Related

• CRM for tradies: what to do with the leads once you’re tracking them.
• Job management software that works with Xero

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Written by Dan Edwards

Dan sets up job management, call tracking and CRM systems for trade businesses. More about Dan.