Phone Answering
Paying for Ads in Denver Tech Center (DTC)? Check Who Answers the Phone
Why Denver Tech Center companies should check the call log before they raise an ad budget.
Companies in Denver Tech Center (DTC) sell to national accounts, and a search ad can ring from a prospect anywhere in the country. Owners judge those ads by clicks, and the phone is where the prospect decides whether to keep going.
A click on a search ad costs money whether or not anyone follows through. A call from the same ad costs the same money, and a caller who reaches voicemail has often dialed the next business on the results page before your greeting finishes. This post covers what those calls are worth, how many go unanswered, and what to put behind your ads so someone picks up.
By the Numbers
What a Click Costs and What a Call Is Worth
WordStream’s 2025 benchmarks, drawn from 16,446 US search campaigns, put the average Google Ads cost per click at $5.26 across industries. Attorneys and legal services average $8.58, home and home improvement average $7.85, and business services average $5.58. At the home improvement average, ten clicks cost $78.50 before anyone has called.
The people who call from search tend to buy. Google has reported that 40% of home services consumers who call from a search ad go on to make a purchase, and BIA/Kelsey research puts the revenue from a phone call at 10 to 15 times the revenue from a web lead. Both figures appear in Invoca’s roundup of home services statistics.
The Gap
How Many of Those Calls Get Answered
A 2024 study by 411 Locals found that small businesses fail to answer 62% of their incoming calls. Invoca reports that 18% of home services calls go unanswered on weekdays and 41% on weekends. A business that pays $7.85 for a click, earns the call, and then misses it has paid for a customer and handed that customer to whoever answers next.
The Cost You Control
A Missed Ad Call Costs More Than a Missed Referral Call
A referral caller already trusts you, so some of them leave a message and wait. An ad caller picked your number off a page of competitors, and the next number is one tap away. Every unanswered ring gives that caller time to tap it.
DTC Callers
A Prospect in Another Time Zone Still Expects an Answer
DTC firms sell business services to companies whose workdays run on Eastern or Pacific time. A prospect in New York checks vendors while your owner sits in a meeting. Buyers who call a business services firm have usually shortlisted two or three vendors, and the vendor that answers gets the conversation.
A live answer from 8 to 5 Mountain covers the working day for most of those callers. The receptionist can take a message, schedule an appointment, or pass the call along according to your instructions.
The Solution
What Should Answer Calls From Your Ads
Intelligent Office phone answering puts a live team behind your ad number from 8 to 5. The team answers in parallel, so when an ad pushes five calls through in ten minutes, five callers reach a person. Receptionists screen calls and filter spam, and calls that hang up in under 5 seconds are not charged, which covers the robocalls a published number attracts.
Technology handles routing, call recording, appointment scheduling, and CRM integration, and a person finishes each conversation. Match your ad schedule to the hours we answer. After-hours coverage is a paid add-on, so decide whether your ads should run past 5 and add the coverage if they should.
Next Step
Three Checks Before You Raise Your Ad Budget
Call your own ad number at noon and again at 4:45 and see who answers. Compare your ad schedule to the hours someone picks up. Then ask your ad platform how many calls it recorded in a typical month and compare that number to the calls you remember answering. The difference is the money you spent on callers who never reached you.
Watch
Meet the Intelligent Assistant
Watch the Intelligent Office team introduce the Intelligent Assistant, the phone service behind the calls described in this post.
Why Intelligent Office DTC Is Built Around Real People
The team that answers your DTC calls works at Intelligent Office Denver Tech Center, and you can come to the office and meet them. Your customers reach a person you know instead of a system you have to trust.
Sources
WordStream 2025 Google Ads Benchmarks supplies the cost per click figures. Invoca home services statistics supplies the Google, BIA/Kelsey, and weekday and weekend figures. 411 Locals supplies the 2024 unanswered call study.
