Call

Pay per call

You pay for a phone conversation.

No form to chase and no waiting for a reply. Also no hiding from the calls your business does not answer. Here is the whole model in plain words.

Part 01 Call

What the money actually buys

A live person on your phone, nothing further.

Pay per call skips the form. Your number, or a tracking number that forwards to you, is put in front of people searching for your service, and you are charged when a call comes through that meets the agreed rules. No inbox, no chasing, no wondering whether the number is real. The person is on the line.

People shorten this to PPC in conversation, which is how it gets confused with pay per click. They are not the same purchase at all. One ends with a browser tab. This one ends with a ringing phone.

Step by step

From dial tone to invoice

01 They dial A tracking number from an ad, a listing or a search result, not your own line.
02 The call is screened A short menu or a live agent checks the trade, the job and the town.
03 It matches your filters Right service, inside your area, inside your hours, under your daily cap.
04 Your phone rings Answer it, and the billing clock starts counting real conversation.
05 The threshold passes Commonly 60 to 120 seconds of talking. Cross it and the call bills. You are charged now
06 You book, or you do not The fee is the same. The recording tells you which of the two it was, and why.

The one step you fully control is answering. It is also the one most often missed.

Billable

The billable call

Not every call is charged. Providers set a duration threshold, commonly 60, 90 or 120 seconds of real conversation, with time spent in the menu excluded. Below the threshold, no charge. Above it, the call bills whether or not you win the job.

Picture this

A locksmith's phone rings at ten past nine. The caller is locked out, wants a price, hears the number, says they will think about it, and hangs up after two minutes. That call was over the threshold, so it bills. The homeowner may still ring back an hour later when nobody cheaper turns up, and that second call may bill as well unless duplicates are excluded.

Remember

A conversation is a better starting point than a form. It is still not a booking.

Part 02 Call

What happens before your phone rings

The screening is the product you are paying extra for.

Calls cost more than clicks and usually more than form leads, and the reason is the work done in front of you. Someone or something has already taken the call, checked the basics and decided you are the right business to connect it to.

The usual path of a call

1 The person searches, or sees an ad, and dials a tracking number
2 A short menu or a live agent checks what they need and where they are
3 The system checks that against your filters: trade, area, hours, daily cap
4 The call forwards to your line, and the clock that decides billing starts
5 The call is recorded and logged against your account for both sides to review

IVR

The menu that screens

An automated menu asking one or two questions before connecting: what the job is, or which town they are in. Cheap and consistent, but blunt. A live screener costs more and catches more, including people who are clearly not going to buy.

What good screening removes

Wrong trade, wrong town, telemarketers, people chasing a job with your company, and callers with no intention of hiring anyone.

What no screening can remove

Price shoppers, tyre kickers, people who will book with whoever is free first, and the caller who changes their mind that afternoon.

A click

$5 to $10

A form inquiry

$20 to $60

A screened call

$35 and up

Directional ranges from published industry figures. In home services, per call pricing varies widely with the trade and the size of the typical job, and premium categories go much higher.

Part 03 Call

The rules that decide your bill

Get these in writing before the first call arrives.

Almost every argument about a pay per call invoice comes from a rule that was never agreed in plain words. There are only a handful of them and they are all easy to ask about on day one.

The ruleWhat to pin down

The rule Duration

What to pin down How many seconds make a call billable, and whether menu time counts

The rule Duplicates

What to pin down Whether the same number calling twice in a week bills twice

The rule Return window

What to pin down How long you have to dispute a call, often 24 to 72 hours

The rule Existing customers

What to pin down Whether a current customer calling the tracking number bills you

The rule Missed calls

What to pin down Whether a call that rang out with no conversation can bill

The rule Hours and area

What to pin down Whether calls outside your set hours or radius can reach you at all

The rule Caps

What to pin down Your daily and monthly limits, and how fast a pause takes effect

If a provider cannot answer these clearly, that is your answer.

You might say

“They only asked the price and hung up. Why am I paying?”

The honest answer

Because the call met the agreed rules. That is the honest answer, and it is also why the rules matter so much. A sensible threshold and a working duplicate policy remove most of these. Losing a price shopper is a sales problem, not a billing one.

Recording

Listen to your calls

Call recording is the one advantage this model has over every other. You can hear exactly what the customer asked, what your team said, and where the job was lost. Check the recordings are available to you, and tell your team calls are recorded.

Part 04 Call

The cost of the call you did not answer

This is the number nobody runs.

In every other model, a missed opportunity is invisible. In this one it is on the invoice and in the recording, which makes it the most useful model for finding out how much your phone habits are actually costing you.

THE MATH Call

40 billable calls at $45$1,800
Answered by a person27
Rang out or went to voicemail13
Jobs booked from the 279

Cost per booked job $200

Example numbers. If the 13 missed calls had booked at the same rate, that is roughly four more jobs from money already spent.

Fixes that cost nothing

Set your hours in the account so calls stop arriving when nobody is there
Give the forwarding number a second destination before voicemail picks up
Return every missed call the same day, by text as well as by phone
Give whoever answers a price range they are allowed to say out loud
Listen to five recordings a week, including two you lost

You might say

“My team cannot answer while they are in a customer's house.”

The honest answer

Fair, and that is exactly the case for a second destination, a shared line or a simple answering service. Whatever it costs, compare it against the calls you are already paying for and not answering. That comparison usually decides it quickly.

Remember

A billed call that rang out is the most expensive silence in your business.

Part 05 Call

Ask before you pay

Seven questions, then decide.

Ask before you pay

? Exactly how long must a call last before it bills, and does the menu count?
? Do you charge for customer service calls from people who already hired me?
? Wrong numbers, repeat callers and calls that ring out: what happens with each?
? What happens to callers outside my service area or outside my hours?
? How do I dispute a call, and how long do I have?
? Are calls recorded, and can I hear them?
? Who owns the tracking number if we part ways, and where has it been advertised?

That last question is worth more than it looks. A tracking number that has been used elsewhere can bring you calls meant for another business, and a number that leaves with the provider takes your call history and any repeat callers with it.

Where pay per call shines

Urgent trades where the customer wants to talk right now: lockouts, leaks, no heat, a door that will not close.

Where it struggles

Considered, high value projects where people want a quote by email first, and any business that cannot reliably answer the phone.

Remember

Pay per click buys a visit. Pay per lead buys an inquiry. Pay per call buys a conversation. None of the three buys a paying customer.

Keep reading

The other ways you can be charged

Most owners are paying two or three of these at once without ever comparing them on the same page. Here is the rest of the set.

CPC

Pay per click

You pay for a visit.

Read it → CPL

Pay per lead

You pay for an inquiry.

Read it → CPA

Pay per appointment

You pay for a meeting or a booking.

Read it →

Back to the plain guide → Get your free audit →