Personal injury lawyers love advertising with Google Ads and often use toll-free tracking numbers for analytics. You may have several call tracking phone numbers in your ads, on landing pages, and even on your website.

But you’re probably wondering how to stop spam calls to call tracking phone numbers because when your call tracking numbers receive a lot of spam calls and calls from people who dialed the wrong number, it’s costing you a lot of money.

Will Google Charge Me for Wrong Numbers and Spam Calls on My Google Ads?

You will NOT be charged by Google when someone calls your tracking number directly because the call never went through Google Ads.

Google will not charge you unless someone clicks on your Google Ad or Google Call Button. Wrong numbers and spam calls are dialed directly to your tracking number and not your Google Ads.

Spam Calls and Calls From People Who Dialed the Wrong Number Are Costly!

The real cost of spam calls and wrong numbers is the cost of your call center operators and the potentially valuable calls they miss.

Spam calls tie up call center operators or your staff, and because they were busy answering spam calls, they may miss calls from valuable personal injury clients. Spam calls and wrong numbers also create analytical problems.

How to Reduce Wrong Numbers and Spam Calls to Your Call Tracking Numbers

Use only non-toll-free tracking numbers with Google Ads. If you’re getting too many spam calls, ask your Google Ads campaign manager to change the tracking number. If you really want to use a toll-free tracking number, never use a tracking number with 800 or 888.

A lawyer advertising our personal injury vanity phone number 1-800-HURT-911® with an 800 tracking number complained that his call center was getting many calls unrelated to accidents and that the callers were dialing an 800 number that was not 1-800-HURT-911. The calls were tying up his call center and causing problems with analytics.

These people called 800 toll-free call tracking phone numbers used by the Google Ads campaign management company the lawyer was using.

What was happening? The unwanted calls which had nothing to do with personal injury or accidents were “misdials” (the caller called the wrong number) to the 800 tracking number. People saw a toll-free phone number somewhere with another toll-free exchange such as 888-XXX-XXXX and dialed 800 by mistake.

Why were there misdials? 800 has become a brand in itself. People see a phone number such as 888-XXX-XXXX or 866-XXX-XXXX, and they instinctively dial 800-XXX-XXXX.

The solution to stop unwanted calls to a tracking number is to use a non-toll-free tracking number or a toll-free exchange that’s not 800 or 888.

What If I Don’t Use a Toll-Free Tracking Number and Still Get Spam Calls?

If you’re using a non-toll-free tracking number and still receive wrong numbers, just ask your Google Ads campaign manager or the company providing the call tracking number to change the tracking number.

When we started using call tracking phone numbers, one of them received a lot of wrong numbers (misdials), and spam calls, just like I do on my home and cell phones. We simply changed the tracking number. Unfortunately, I can’t change my home and cell phone numbers.

Some of your call tracking phone numbers may be used for a long time without problems and suddenly start receiving wrong numbers or spam calls. Again, just change the tracking number, and the problem will go away.

Find out how to use tracking numbers with a vanity phone number for personal injury advertising.

Have a question or comment about How to Stop Spam Calls to Call Tracking Phone Numbers? Leave a comment below!