Basically, pay per call (or PPCall) means that a business is paying to receive inbound phone calls from prospective customers or leads.
Businesses worldwide are looking to connect with potential customers over the phone and pay on a per call basis.
Similar to any other lead generation strategies, this business model is a simple way for advertisers or affiliates to buy and connect to qualified calls from people who are seeking an immediate solution to a problem they are facing at that very moment.
How it works
Step 1 — Advertiser creates a Pay Per Call campaign.
An advertiser creates their Pay Per Call campaign for a product or a service that they want to sell.
A Pay Per Call campaign is literally anything where someone can pick up the phone and make a purchase.
Step 2 — Pay Per Call Network promotes the campaign to their Publishers.
A Pay Per Call Network (broker) promotes a campaign to their publishers (affiliates).
Essentially, the broker connects the advertisers and publishers together so that neither party has to go through the process of managing all those connections and do all that business development work.
These networks take a cut of that transaction between the advertisers payout and what they pay affiliates to facilitate this process and manage some of the setup, tracking, and accounting between all of the parties.
Step 3 — Publishers apply to the campaign and receive a unique tracking number.
Publishers come and apply for that Pay Per Call campaign and will receive a unique tracking number.
Once campaigns are set up by networks, affiliates / publishers can apply and promote these campaigns.
They will receive a unique tracking number as soon as they are approved.
Step 4 — Publishers generate inbound calls through traffic sources.
Publishers generate inbound calls through their traffic sources. They then create advertising campaigns on the internet or through traditional media or other channels to find consumers that are interested in the products or services they are promoting.
Step 5 — Customer sees tracking numbers and clicks to call.
When customers see the ad and they are interested in the products or services being offered, they call the affiliate's unique tracking number.
Step 6 — Call is tracked and attributed to the publisher that generated the call.
When a customer calls that unique tracking number, the network's call tracking platform credits the affiliate with the phone call and keeps track of all the callers' information and commissions owed to the publisher.
Step 7 — Customer is routed to the Advertisers.
After the call, the consumer is routed to the advertiser's call center through the network in real time.
Depending on the network or broker, the call may go to any potential buyers based on the caller's information, the concurrency available, the hours of operation of the buyers, the capacity, and other limiting factors.
Step 8 — Publisher gets paid for calls that meet the payout criteria for the campaign.
Every campaign has unique requirements when it comes to call duration, geographic location, demographic information, IVR choices, etc.
When a call meets all the payout criteria, then the affiliate/publisher gets paid for that call.