Why a click is not an enquiry
In shortA click means someone opened your website. An enquiry is a call, a message or a sent form. If the account counts clicks, the numbers look good while you still do not know how many people really contacted you.
The path from ad to client has several steps, and each one means something different:
- Ad click: someone arrived on the website.
- Visit: someone looked at a page.
- Contact: a phone call, a WhatsApp conversation that starts, or a form that is sent.
- Accepted enquiry: the message really reached you.
- Qualified enquiry: a real business or person, a relevant service, a reachable contact and work you can do.
- Quote and client.
A click on the form button or the WhatsApp button is not an enquiry. It is only intent. So read this page as a description of method: what counts, what can be measured and where measurement stops.
What counts as an enquiry and what can be measured
Each route to you is measured differently. The table shows what is possible and what stays invisible.
| Route | What can be measured | What it does not show |
|---|---|---|
| Form | A successfully sent form, when the website confirms the enquiry was received and that moment is recorded as an action. | Whether the enquiry is real and relevant, or whether it became a job. Opening the form or clicking the button is not counted. |
| Call from the website | A tap on a phone number on a mobile site, or a call to a number on the page. Google lists these as conversion sources. | A tap does not mean the call connected. It does not show what the call was about. |
| Call from the ad | Calls started directly from an ad can be counted as a conversion. | What happened after the call and whether it was about your service. |
| A click on a WhatsApp link on the website can be recorded as an action on the site. | A click opens a chat but does not mean a message was sent. The website cannot see the sent message. | |
| Qualified enquiry | Only your own records: who got in touch, for which service and whether work followed. | The ad account knows none of this until you give it that data. |
For counting calls from a website, Google also offers its own forwarding numbers, but says they are available only to businesses in eligible countries. We have not verified whether that applies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, so we do not promise it. Before we agree anything, we check what is possible and tell you.
Some ways of counting calls only include calls longer than a minimum length you set, so short calls are left out. Keep that in mind when you read the numbers.
What to measure in Google Ads and what only in analytics
Google Ads needs only a few actions that truly mean an enquiry. Everything else should not steer the ads.
Google separates primary actions, which affect how the system optimizes, from secondary ones, which you only monitor. Page views, scrolling and opening a form are better kept as secondary actions or in analytics only. If you set them as primary, the account learns from signals that are not enquiries.
If you use Google Analytics 4, any event can be marked as a key event and turned into a conversion in Google Ads. Google Analytics is not required: actions on a website can also be measured with the Google tag. Analytics is useful for a deeper look at visitor behavior.
Consent and personal data
If measurement uses cookies or similar identifiers, visitors usually need to be told and able to decline. Google states that the advertiser provides the consent notice and passes the visitor's choice on to Google. Consent mode does not display a banner. It passes the choice on to Google's tags.
When a visitor declines, the numbers are incomplete. Google can model part of the gap, but that is an estimate, not an exact count of enquiries. Names, email addresses, phone numbers and message text do not belong in analytics. This is not legal advice: check your own obligations with a lawyer.
How the numbers are used in the account
The agreed actions let the account see which searches and ads lead to enquiries, and let you work out a cost per enquiry. Only your own records show which enquiries were qualified and which became work.
That is why numbers in Google Ads and in your records almost never match. Some visitors decline cookies. Some call without having clicked first. A phone call is credited to the date of the ad click, not the date of the call. The aim is not a perfect match but understanding the difference.
A check before you spend the budget
Do a short check before the ads go live. Every item should pass:
- Send a test enquiry from a phone and from a computer.
- Check that each test enquiry appears once, not twice.
- Check what happens when you decline cookies.
- If the website has two languages, try both.
- Click the WhatsApp button and check that the click is not recorded as a sent enquiry.
- Mark test enquiries so they are not counted as real ones.
What Midaz does here
The work has four steps:
- We review what the account counts today.
- We agree a short list of actions that mean an enquiry for you.
- We check that each one works and is not counted twice.
- We repeat the check before the budget is spent.
We also recommend writing down why an enquiry was not qualified. Over time you see which searches and ads bring the wrong people. We agree the scope and the fee in writing before work starts. If you already have an account that does not bring enquiries, start with the account review.
Related pages: Google Ads management, how much Google Ads costs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Google Ads on a smaller budget, enquiry handling and websites.