Google Ads will be sunsetting call ads sometime next year and will be migrating those to responsive search ads. Google wrote, "Call ads are being upgraded to responsive search ads to enable new features and simplify asset creation and management."
Google said that at some point in the future, likely next year, you will no longer be able to create new call ads. Google said all newly created call ads will require a landing page. And then all existing call ads without a final URL won't be automatically migrated to responsive search ads.
Google wrote, "Call ads are designed to encourage people to call your business, and can appear only on devices that make phone calls. When a potential customer clicks the call button in your ad, the ad places a call to you from their device."
This was first spotted by Dario Zannoni who wrote on LinkedIn, "I’m not very focused on lead generation and have never used “Call-Only Ads,” but it appears Google is phasing them out and upgrading to Responsive Search Ads."
Ginny Marvin, the Google Ads Liaison, responded to PPCGreg on X about this saying, "There's not a specific date at this point, but likely will be early next year. Advertisers will be alerted ahead of the change."
There's not a specific date at this point, but likely will be early next year. Advertisers will be alerted ahead of the change.
— AdsLiaison (@adsliaison) October 25, 2024
Google has a detailed help document on this change over here - here is a screenshot of it:
