What Is Pay-Per-Call Marketing and How Does It Work?

Pay-per-call is a performance model where a business pays for qualified inbound phone calls instead of clicks or impressions. The business sets the rules for what counts as a qualified call, and the marketing partner generates and routes those calls.

How calls are generated

Calls come from paid search, display, social and other media campaigns that feature a tracked phone number. When a consumer dials, the call is logged with its source, time and location.

Qualification and routing

Before a call reaches your team it can pass through filters such as state, time of day and a short set of screening questions. Calls that match are transferred live to your agents; calls that don't are handled elsewhere.

Billing

Most campaigns bill on calls that last longer than an agreed duration, often 60 to 120 seconds. That threshold protects you from paying for hang-ups or wrong numbers.

Is it right for your business?

Pay-per-call works best when your product is sold or scheduled over the phone and each customer has a meaningful lifetime value, as in insurance, healthcare, legal and home services.