Pay-per-call glossary
Main article: Pay-per-call
This glossary defines the terms used across paypercall.wiki.[1] Each entry links to the source from which the definition is drawn; terms for which no source has been found are omitted rather than defined from memory. Entries are alphabetical and each has its own anchor.
A–C
[edit]- Accepted call rate
- The share of calls that a buyer approves after filters and review; one of the metrics AffNinja recommends tracking.[1]
- AEP
- The Medicare annual enrolment period, during which Medicare-related call offers peak; Medicare is listed by AffNinja as the vertical with the strictest compliance requirements.[1]
- ANI
- Automatic number identification, the telephone-network feature that delivers the caller's number to the called party; platforms capture it on every call and use it for duplicate detection.[2][1]
- Attestation
- Under STIR/SHAKEN, the level of confidence a carrier attaches to a call's caller ID: full (A), partial (B) or gateway (C).[3]
- Billable call
- A call that meets the buyer's rules and is therefore paid; CallScaler describes scoring calls on a 0-to-100 scale for billing eligibility.[4]
- Buyer
- The advertiser that pays for calls: an insurer, law firm, contractor or a call centre reselling to one of these.[1]
- Buyer hours
- The hours during which a buyer accepts and pays for calls; calls outside them may fail or route differently.[1]
- Call connect rate
- The share of callers that reach a buyer rather than dropping before routing.[1]
- Call marketplace
- An exchange in which several buyers bid for calls in real time; Adam Young describes Ringba's platform as built around real-time bidding for calls.[5][4]
- Call tracking
- Software that provisions dynamic numbers, attributes calls to their source, records duration and routes calls; AffNinja names Ringba, Invoca and Retreaver as examples.[1]
- Cap
- A limit on the number of calls a buyer will take, per day or concurrently; routing must match the buyer's available agents.[1]
- CPA (cost per action)
- A model that pays for a sale, quote, sign-up or policy; contrasted with pay-per-call by its longer attribution and stricter validation.[1]
- CPL (cost per lead)
- A model that pays for a submitted form; its main risks are fake leads and low buyer contact rates.[1]
D–L
[edit]- DNI (dynamic number insertion)
- The practice of inserting a different tracking number into a web page for each visitor source so that calls can be attributed; AffNinja lists dynamic numbers as a core call-tracking feature.[1]
- DNC (do not call)
- Registries of numbers that must not be called; scrubbing against them is part of the compliance layer AffNinja describes.[1]
- DTMF routing
- Routing based on digits the caller presses on the keypad, such as a zip code; CallScaler describes DTMF zip-code routing with longest-prefix matching.[4]
- Duplicate window
- The period during which a repeat call from the same number is not paid; AffNinja lists new-versus-repeat caller status among the qualification signals and the duplicate window among the rules a publisher must ask for.[1]
- Duration
- The length of a connected call; the most common qualifying rule, used to filter accidental, dead or low-intent calls, though AffNinja notes that duration alone does not make a good call.[1]
- GEO
- The geographic filter on an offer, expressed as states or zip codes; buyers pay only where they operate.[1]
- IVR (interactive voice response)
- An automated menu that asks the caller questions before the call connects, used to confirm service need, age, debt amount, insurance type or buyer fit.[1]
- Lead generation
- The business of producing prospective customers for a buyer; pay-per-call is described by AffNinja as "leadgen with a live buyer on the other side".[1]
- Live transfer
- Handing a caller directly to an approved buyer, usually from an outbound or inbound call centre; paid per transfer in debt relief, insurance and solar.[1]
M–P
[edit]- Network
- An intermediary that aggregates buyers, sets payout rules, onboards publishers and handles payment; most pay-per-call programmes are found inside specialist networks.[6]
- Offer
- A buyer's or network's listing of what it will pay for: vertical, geography, hours, qualifying rule, allowed traffic and payout.[1][6]
- One-to-one consent
- An FCC rule adopted in 2023 that would have required consent to be given to one seller at a time and calls to be logically and topically associated with the consent; vacated by the Eleventh Circuit on 24 January 2025.[7][8]
- Pay-per-call
- A model in which the publisher is paid when an inbound phone call meets the buyer's rules.[1]
- Pay-per-click
- Advertising priced per click; unrelated to pay-per-call except that both are abbreviated "PPC" in some directories.[6]
- Pay-per-transfer
- A payout model in which payment triggers when the caller is transferred to an approved buyer.[1]
- Ping/post
- A process in which a lead or call is offered to several buyers and routed to the one with the best match or bid.[1]
- Postback
- A server-to-server message that reports a call's outcome to the publisher's affiliate tracker, carrying click and source identifiers.[1]
- Prior express consent
- The TCPA's requirement for autodialed or prerecorded calls to mobile numbers; the Eleventh Circuit held it is satisfied when a consumer clearly and unmistakably states a willingness to receive the call.[9][7]
- Publisher
- The party that generates calls, also called the affiliate, using search, paid media, local pages, video or consenting email and SMS lists.[1]
Q–Z
[edit]- Qualified call
- A call that meets all of the buyer's rules on duration, geography, hours, IVR answers, caller status, consent and buyer fit.[1]
- Qualified call rate
- The share of calls that match the buyer's rules.[1]
- Rank and rent
- A publisher method in which a website is ranked for a niche and city and then rented to a local business for a monthly fee, or sold; the number on the site can also be routed to a pay-per-call buyer. See the site's [summary page](/rank-and-rent/).[10]
- Recording consent
- The requirement to obtain consent before recording a call; most states require one party's consent and a smaller group, including California, Florida and Washington, require all parties'.[11]
- Revenue per call (RPC)
- Revenue divided by all calls, including rejected ones; AffNinja prefers it to raw payout as a measure.[1]
- A payout model in which the publisher receives a share of the closed sale or policy.[1]
- Ring tree / priority routing
- The ordered list of buyer targets to which a call is offered; routing must match buyer capacity, hours and geography.[1][4]
- RTB (real-time bidding)
- An auction in which several buyers are pinged simultaneously and the call goes to the winning bid before it connects; offered by CallScaler as an add-on and central to Ringba's platform.[4][5]
- Scrub
- A buyer's rejection of a call, for reasons such as consent, duplicate caller, geography, duration or buyer fit; AffNinja recommends tracking the scrub reason.[1]
- Static number
- A tracking number fixed to one campaign or publisher, as opposed to a dynamically inserted number.[4]
- STIR/SHAKEN
- A suite of protocols that attaches digital certificates to call information so that providers can verify caller ID; required of US carriers by FCC deadlines in 2021 and 2023.[3]
- Target
- A destination to which a platform can route a call, such as a buyer's phone line or call-centre queue.[4]
- TCPA
- The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, which restricts autodialed and prerecorded calls to mobile numbers without prior express consent and provides US$500 to US$1,500 in statutory damages per violation.[9]
- Tracking number
- A unique phone number assigned to a publisher, campaign or source so that calls can be attributed; CallScaler prices local numbers at US$0.50 per month.[4]
- Traffic source
- The channel from which a publisher's callers come: SEO, Google Ads, social lead funnels, native advertorials, local pages, YouTube, or email and SMS.[1]
- Vertical
- The industry category of an offer, such as insurance, legal or home services.[1][12]
- White-label buyer portal
- A branded reporting interface a network gives its buyers; listed by CallScaler as a platform feature.[4]
See also
[edit]- Pay-per-call – main article
- How it works
- Regulation
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag "Pay Per Call Affiliate Marketing Statistics". AffNinja. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ "Automatic number identification". Wikipedia. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b "STIR/SHAKEN". Wikipedia. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Pay Per Call Tracking Software". CallScaler. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b "Adding a New Channel: Get Started with Pay Per Call (fireside chat with Adam Young)". Everflow. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b c "Pay Per Call Affiliate Networks". Business of Apps. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b "Eleventh Circuit Vacates FCC's TCPA One-to-One Consent Rule". Morrison Foerster. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ "Eleventh Circuit Vacates the FCC's One-to-One Consent Rule". Kaufman Dolowich. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ a b "47 U.S. Code § 227 – Restrictions on use of telephone equipment". Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ "Local Sites Pro". localsites.pro. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ "Recording Phone Calls and Conversations – 50-State Survey". Justia. Retrieved 10 September 2026.
- ^ "The Pay Per Call Report – September 10, 2021". Ringba. Retrieved 10 September 2026.