Resources
Glossary
Every key pay-per-call term, defined in plain English.
- Pay Per Call
- A performance marketing model where the advertiser (buyer) pays only when a qualified phone call is generated, rather than per click or impression.
- Inbound Call
- A call initiated by a prospective customer to a business, typically driven by an ad, listing or landing page.
- Exclusive Call
- A call delivered to a single buyer only — never shared or resold to competitors, which drives far higher conversion than shared leads.
- Shared Lead
- A lead (or call) sold to multiple buyers at once, forcing businesses to compete to reach the same prospect first.
- Buyer
- The business that purchases calls — e.g. a contractor, agency or insurance agent that wants more phone leads.
- Publisher
- A media owner, affiliate or agency that generates calls and sells them into a network or to buyers.
- Network
- A platform that connects buyers and publishers, handling tracking, routing, billing and quality control.
- Payout
- The amount a publisher earns per qualified call, set by vertical, geography and call quality.
- Bid / CPA
- What a buyer pays per qualified call (cost per acquisition/action). Higher-value verticals like legal command higher CPAs.
- Duration Threshold
- The minimum call length required for a call to count as billable, used to filter out hang-ups and junk.
- Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI)
- Technology that shows a unique tracking phone number per visitor or source so calls can be attributed accurately.
- IVR
- Interactive Voice Response — an automated menu that pre-qualifies and routes callers before connecting them to a buyer.
- Call Routing
- Rules that direct each inbound call to the right buyer based on geography, hours, quality or capacity.
- Attribution
- Tying each call back to the campaign, keyword or publisher that produced it, so you can optimize spend.
- Conversion Rate
- The share of calls that become customers. Exclusive, qualified calls convert dramatically better than shared leads.
- Call Quality
- A measure of how likely a call is to convert — based on intent, duration, source and caller info.
- Fraud Detection
- Systems that flag fake, duplicate or low-intent calls so buyers don’t pay for junk.
- White Label
- Reselling a pay-per-call platform and/or inventory under your own brand, with no visible third-party branding.
- Vertical
- An industry category such as roofing, insurance, legal or home services that calls are generated for.
- Caller Intent
- How ready a caller is to buy — high-intent callers are actively seeking the service right now.
- Return Policy / Buffer
- A window in which clearly invalid calls (wrong number, misdial) can be returned and not billed.
- Concurrency
- How many calls can be handled at once; important for buyers scaling volume during peak demand.
- Geo-Targeting
- Restricting calls to specific states, regions or ZIP codes that match a buyer’s service area.
- TCPA Compliance
- Adherence to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and related rules governing how calls and leads are generated.
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