Pay-per-call has a vocabulary problem. Buffers, pings, DIDs, concurrency, connected time: the words are all short and none of them are obvious, and most explanations online are written to sell something rather than to explain it. These pages are the explanations we wish we had been handed.
Where to start
New to buying callsStart with what pay per call is, then read about buffers and connected-time billing before you spend anything.Setting up deliveryDestinations, routing, SIP and PSTN, and how a call physically reaches your phone.Running a deskAvailability, daily limits, dayparting, staffing, and the metrics worth tracking.Compliance basicsGeneral information on TCPA, do not call, recording consent, and calling hours. Not legal advice.
The full guide library
How Callmart worksThe whole path from creating an account to answering a call, with nothing skipped.What is pay per call?You pay for a phone call that reaches a real person, not a form fill or a click that might turn into one.What is an inbound call marketplace?One place where more than one source of calls meets more than one buyer, under a shared set of pricing and delivery rules.What is a call buffer?The buffer is the line between a call you pay for and a call you do not, measured in seconds of connected time.How connected time billing worksThe clock starts when your line answers, not when the call was first offered to you.How call pricing worksPrice is not a single number per campaign. It is a set of tiers, each tied to a different connected-time buffer.How a prepaid wallet worksYou fund the wallet first, then calls that qualify are charged against the balance as they happen.How call disputes workIf a charge does not look right, you can flag it for review. Here is what makes a dispute worth submitting.How call recording worksEvery inbound call leaves a record you can go back to, for coaching, verification, and disputes.How call routing worksA call has to travel from a publisher's traffic source to a specific buyer's ringing phone, and routing is what decides the path.What is a destination number?It is the phone number or SIP address you tell the marketplace to ring when a call is routed to you.SIP vs PSTNOne is the traditional phone network. The other is voice carried over the internet. Both can deliver a Callmart call to you.What is a DID number?It is a phone number, but not necessarily attached to a physical line. It exists to route calls to wherever you tell it.IVR basics for call buyersAn automated system that answers first, often before a human ever picks up the line.Warm transfer vs cold transfer vs direct inboundThree different ways a call can arrive on your line, and three different levels of context you get when it does.Concurrency and caps, explainedConcurrency is how many calls arrive at once. Caps are the controls that keep that number inside what your team can actually handle.Daily call limits and spending allowancesTwo separate controls: how many calls you take in a day, and how much any one teammate can spend doing it.What is dayparting?Buying calls only during the hours your team is actually there to answer them.What call quality meansThe phrase gets used to mean several different things. It is worth separating them before you judge a campaign by it.Duplicate calls, explainedA repeat caller is not automatically a duplicate call in the billing sense. The distinction matters more than it seems.Publisher vs affiliateOne brings in calls. The other brings in buyers. They are separate programs with separate roles.What is ping post, and how does it work for calls?Ping post lets a buyer's own system say yes or no to an opportunity before it commits to it.What is E.164, and why do call APIs require it?E.164 writes a phone number the exact same way everywhere, so no system has to guess what it means.What does caller ID actually show a buyer?Caller ID on an inbound call is the calling number. Branded caller ID on an outbound call is a separate, carrier-verified system.How do you measure and improve answer rate?Answer rate tells you what share of the calls delivered to your desk actually got picked up by someone.How do you calculate cost per acquisition from bought calls?CPA is what one new customer actually cost you, once you count every call it took to get there.What does a call actually cost, beyond the price?The price per call is the easy number. Staffing time and follow-up time are the ones people forget to count.How do you measure close rate on inbound calls?Close rate is easy to calculate and easy to get wrong, depending on what you count as a close.What is the TCPA, and how does it touch call buyers?The TCPA is a federal law aimed mainly at outbound telemarketing, but it shapes how a call desk should operate too.What is the Do Not Call Registry, and who does it cover?The National Do Not Call Registry restricts telemarketing calls to numbers on it. State lists can add further restrictions.What do you need to know about call recording consent?Recording a phone call touches consent laws that vary by state, and getting it wrong carries real exposure.What is the difference between one-party and two-party consent?One-party consent needs one participant to agree to a recording. All-party consent needs everyone on the call to agree.What calling hour rules apply to outbound calls?Calling hour rules are measured in the called person's own time zone, not yours, and states can be stricter than the federal window.What do resident, non-resident, and appointment mean?You need the right license and the right appointment before you can sell in a given state, not just an interested caller.What are the different types of insurance leads?Shared, exclusive, aged, real time, and calls describe different things about a lead: who else has it, and how fresh it is.How should you open an inbound insurance call?The consumer already called you. The opening's job is not to sell, it is to earn the next thirty seconds.How do you staff a desk to match the hours you buy calls?Buying availability without matching staffing just moves the cost from calls to missed calls.Why treat availability as a daily discipline, not a setting?Every unanswered call behind a switched-on toggle is a call you paid the chance to take and did not.How do you scale call volume without breaking your desk?Volume that outgrows staffing does not show up as a big failure. It shows up as a slow, steady drop in answer rate.What does the first 30 days of buying calls actually look like?The first month is mostly setup, small tests, and reading your own numbers before you commit real volume.Which metrics actually matter on an inbound call desk?A handful of numbers, tracked consistently, tell you more than a dashboard full of ones you only glance at.
Common questions
01Is this content specific to Callmart?
Mostly not. These pages explain the concepts as they work across pay-per-call generally, then say how Callmart handles each one. If you buy calls somewhere else, most of it still applies.
02Is any of this legal advice?
No. The pages that touch TCPA, do not call rules, recording consent, calling hours, or licensing are general information only. Confirm your own obligations with your own counsel and the relevant regulator.