Pay-per-call, defined in plain English.

Answer rate

The share of delivered calls a buyer actually picks up during posted hours. Low answer rates waste billable calls and can lower routing priority.

Billable call

A call that meets the program's qualification rules: a new prospective customer in the buyer's service area, asking about a covered service, connected past the buffer time or with intent established sooner.

See also: Buffer time, Intent

Break-even close rate

The close rate at which gross profit from calls equals the call spend. Calculated as price per call divided by revenue per customer times gross margin.

Buffer time

The minimum connected duration before a call becomes billable. It protects the buyer from paying for wrong numbers and solicitors. Common thresholds are 60, 90, or 120 seconds depending on the vertical.

See also: Billable call, Intent

Buyer

The business that receives and pays for exclusive calls: a contractor, law firm, agency, insurer, or any company in a covered vertical.

Call credits (prepaid balance)

The prepaid balance a buyer funds and draws down as calls are delivered. There are no contracts or monthly fees; the buyer tops up when needed.

Call recording

Audio capture of the call for quality review and disputes, with disclosure where the law requires it. Buyers can replay recordings in their portal.

Call routing

The real-time decision that sends a caller to a specific buyer based on location, industry, hours, capacity, licensed states, and performance.

Call type

A sub-service within a vertical, such as water heater repair within plumbing or storm damage within roofing. Industry pages list the call types the program drives.

Caller ID passthrough

Delivering the consumer's real phone number to the buyer instead of the tracking number. Required for follow-up and for dispute review, and a standard we enforce on traffic partners.

Client portal

The buyer's dashboard: live call log, recordings, credit requests, a built-in CRM, billing, volume and budget controls, and pause. Included with every account.

Close rate

The share of answered calls that become paying customers. Together with ticket size and margin it decides whether a per-call price is profitable.

Credit (call credit)

A refund of the per-call charge back to the buyer's balance when a call did not qualify. Requested from the call record, reviewed against the recording and the billable rules, and typically resolved within a few days.

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Total spend divided by the number of new customers it produced. For pay-per-call, price per call divided by close rate.

Dispute window

The period after a call during which a buyer can request a credit. In this program it is 7 calendar days.

Do Not Call (DNC)

Federal and state registries of consumers who opted out of telemarketing. Inbound calls initiated by the consumer are generally exempt, and partners must still honor any opt-out a caller expresses.

Duplicate call

A repeat call from the same phone number within a set window after a call the buyer already paid for. Duplicates within 14 days are not billed again.

Exclusive call

A call routed to exactly one business. The caller is never sold or transferred to a second buyer, in contrast to shared leads that go to several companies at once.

See also: Shared lead

Incentivized traffic

Calls generated by paying or rewarding consumers to dial. Prohibited in the program because the callers have no real intent.

Intent

Evidence that the caller wants the service: asking for a quote, estimate, appointment, price, or callback. In pay-per-call, clear intent can make a call billable even if it ends before the buffer time.

Licensed states

For insurance, legal, financial, and medical buyers, the list of states in which the buyer may legally serve customers. Routing is restricted to callers from those states.

Mini CRM

The lightweight customer tracker inside the portal: grade calls, add notes, mark what closed, and track revenue per caller.

Onboarding

The short setup process: industry, service area, hours, destination numbers, and funding. Most accounts go live within 24 to 48 hours.

Pause

Temporarily stopping call delivery from the portal without closing the account. Used when a buyer is booked solid, closed, or short-staffed.

Pay-per-call

A performance advertising model where the buyer pays for qualified inbound phone calls instead of clicks, impressions, or form leads. The price is set per call and usually varies by industry and market.

See also: Billable call, Buffer time

Ping and post

A technical handshake used between traffic sources and buyers. The source pings with call details and a price is returned, then the call is posted (transferred) if accepted. Mostly relevant to publishers and networks, not to end buyers.

Publisher (traffic partner)

A party that generates consumer intent, through search, maps, display, social, or owned media, and sends the resulting calls into the program in exchange for a payout per qualified call.

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Revenue divided by advertising spend. A ROAS of 5x means five dollars of revenue for every dollar spent on calls.

Ring tree

A routing method that rings eligible buyers in priority order until one answers. In an exclusive program the caller still connects to one business only.

Robocall

An autodialed or prerecorded outbound call. Prohibited as a traffic source; every call in the program is dialed by the consumer.

Service area

The geography a buyer accepts calls from, defined by metro, county, ZIP list, or state. Calls from outside it are not routed and are credited if they slip through.

Shared lead

A consumer inquiry, usually a web form, sold to multiple businesses at the same time. Buyers compete to reach the consumer first, and the consumer often hears from three to five companies.

TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a US law governing autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts and telemarketing consent. Consumer-initiated inbound calls sit outside most of its restrictions, but follow-up outreach must comply.

Tracked number

A phone number assigned to a campaign so every call can be attributed to its source, timed, recorded, and routed. The consumer sees the tracked number in the ad; the call is forwarded to the buyer's real line.

Vertical

An industry category such as plumbing, roofing, personal injury, or Medicare. Pricing, buffer time, and qualification rules are set per vertical.

Volume pricing

A reduced per-call rate for buyers who commit to a monthly call target across multiple markets, typical of nationwide and multi-location programs.