Google Ads Local Actions Conversions Explained

Local actions conversions are a Google Ads feature that tracks specific actions people take on your Business Profile after seeing your ad, things like tapping "Directions" or "Call." They're not the same as store visits conversions, and they're not a replacement for standard website conversion tracking. They're a third, narrower category, and mixing the three up is the easiest way to misread your reporting.

What local actions conversions actually track

Per Google's own documentation on local actions conversions, the feature records these actions:

Directions, someone taps the "Directions" button on your ad or on a later organic search result for your business.
Clicks to call, someone taps to call your business.
Website visits, someone clicks through to your website from your Business Profile.
Other engagements, a reporting-only bundle covering actions like Share Location, Save, Photos, More Info, and Place Exploration.
Orders and menu views, vertical-specific actions for food businesses with those options enabled on their Business Profile.

Each one gets its own full breakdown, what specifically triggers it, whether it's biddable, and how to set it up, linked above.

Google's example is worth repeating because it shows the whole path: someone sees your ad, visits your Business Profile for a specific location, and clicks "Directions" from there. That click is what gets counted, whether it happens right after the ad click or later, from an organic search result.

The default attribution window is 30 days, and it's editable on the conversion goal page.

Which of these you can actually bid on

Not every action in that list is available for Smart Bidding to optimize toward. Google's documentation splits them into bidding-eligible and reporting-only:

Directions, available for bidding in Performance Max, Search, and Shopping campaigns.
Clicks to call, available for bidding in Performance Max only.
Website visits, other engagements, orders, and menu views, reporting only. You can see them, you can't set a bid strategy around them.

Google's documentation doesn't mention Demand Gen in connection with local actions conversions at all, for bidding or reporting. If you're running Demand Gen and expecting these goals to show up, don't assume they will, confirm it directly in your account rather than going off what a campaign-type overview might imply.

What's required to set them up

The core requirement, per Google's documentation, is active location assets on your Google Ads account. "Local actions conversions are available for all advertisers with active location assets," full stop, no separate opt-in.

Location assets themselves are usually created by linking your Google Business Profile to your Google Ads account, the same requirement I covered in the Google Maps sponsored pins post. If your GBP and Ads account were set up separately, that link is the first thing to check.

Setup, in order:

Link your Business Profile to Google Ads, if it isn't already, so location assets can be created.
Confirm location assets are active, not paused or excluded at the campaign or ad group level.
Wait for at least one qualifying action to occur. Google's documentation is explicit that your account needs at least one conversion for a given local actions goal before that goal gets created.
Google auto-creates the conversion goals as hosted goals. There's no tag or pixel to install for these, they're generated from location asset interaction data, not website code.
Add the relevant goals as campaign-level objectives if you want the bidding-eligible ones (directions, calls) influencing Smart Bidding, rather than sitting there as reporting-only.

How this is different from store visits conversions

This is the mix-up I see most often, and it matters because the two features measure different things in different ways.

Store visit conversions estimate actual foot traffic to a physical location using aggregated, modeled location data, not a direct click someone made. Local actions conversions count an explicit action, a tap on "Directions" or "Call," nothing modeled about it.

They're related (both lean on location assets, both matter for the same kind of business) but they're not the same conversion type, don't report the same number, and aren't set up the same way. If you're trying to measure actual visits, local actions conversions are a proxy at best. Directions requests correlate with visits, they aren't visits.

How this differs from standard website conversion tracking

Standard conversion tracking needs something firing on your site, a Google tag, a GTM trigger, an event tied to a form submission or purchase. Local actions conversions skip that entirely. They're generated from interactions with your Business Profile and location assets, which is why Google calls them "hosted" goals, there's no code for you or a developer to install.

That's a real convenience, but it also means local actions conversions only ever tell you about engagement with your listing, not what happens on your website once someone lands there. A business running both should keep its standard website tracking exactly as rigorous as before. Local actions conversions add a layer of visibility, they don't replace the layer you already have.

Who this actually matters for

Local actions conversions are only relevant if you're both of these things at once:

A multi-location or storefront local business with a Business Profile Google can attach location assets to. A service-area business with no physical, ad-eligible location has nothing for this feature to hook into.
Running Search, Performance Max, or Shopping with location assets active. Confirmed Demand Gen support isn't in Google's documentation, so I'd treat that campaign type as unverified for this feature until Google says otherwise.

If that's not your setup, this feature has nothing to offer you. A single-location service business running Local Services Ads and standard Search campaigns with no storefront isn't the audience for this, that's a different tracking conversation entirely.

Frequently asked questions

Are local actions conversions the same as store visits conversions? No. Store visits are a separate, modeled estimate of actual foot traffic. Local actions conversions count specific clicks, like "Directions" or "Call," on your Business Profile. They're related features that both depend on location assets, but they measure different things and are set up separately.

Do I need to install any code to use local actions conversions? No. Google generates them automatically as hosted conversion goals once your location assets are active and at least one qualifying action has occurred. There's no tag or pixel involved.

Which campaign types can bid on local actions conversions? Directions can be bid on in Performance Max, Search, and Shopping. Clicks to call can be bid on in Performance Max only. Website visits, other engagements, orders, and menu views are reporting-only, not biddable. Google's documentation doesn't mention Demand Gen for this feature at all.

Do I need a Business Profile to use local actions conversions? The stated requirement is active location assets, not a Business Profile directly. In practice, location assets are usually created by linking a Business Profile to your Google Ads account, so for most businesses the two amount to the same thing.

Does this replace my regular Google Ads conversion tracking? No. Local actions conversions only measure engagement with your Business Profile and location assets. Your standard website conversion tracking, forms, calls, purchases, still needs to be set up and maintained separately.

Full detail on setup and eligibility is in Google's own documentation on local actions conversions.

If you've got locations and you're not sure whether your location assets are even active, or whether your local actions goals line up with what's actually happening on your website, that's exactly what conversion tracking covers.