This year, Google has created two new ways to incorporate phone numbers into your pay per click ads. Having a phone number in your ad can allow visitors to connect directly to you and easily get information or complete a conversion, which is not always easy from a mobile device.  Here are the two different ways you can include a phone number in your PPC ads:

Click-to-Call Phone Numbers

Earlier this year, Google announced click-to-call phone numbers, which are available on local and national ads that appear on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. This feature will allow you to add a phone number, which will appear as the last line of your text ad. This lets  users on mobile devices easily click on your phone number to call, rather than navigating through your website from their device. 

Here is an example of the ad on a mobile device from the Google blog:

Setting us this feature is very simple.  In AdWords, under ‘Locations, Languages, and Demographics’, set up the location extension and add your phone number.  Then, make sure you’ve chosen to show your ads on mobile devices under ‘Networks, Devices, and Extensions”. Once that is done, your phone number will now show when your ad is displayed on mobile devices.  To view the clicks on the phone number, under the ‘Campaign’ tab, click ‘Segment” and then on ‘Click Types’.

Phone Numbers In Ads

This is a brand new feature and is only currently being tested by a few advertisers.  This feature allows you to include a phone number in your ad that is not included directly in the text of an ad.  Google confirmed to Search Engine Land that they were testing this feature:

“We’re currently testing a feature with a small number of advertisers in which a phone number can be included within the ad to help them more effectively engage with customers who prefer to connect over the phone.”

This is different from the click-to-call phone numbers and is not likely to be a browser extension.  Not much else is known about this feature at this time. Here is an example of an ad with the phone number included, also from Search Engine Land: