What is a pay-per-call network?

A pay-per-call network sits between publishers, who bring callers, and buyers, who answer them and pay for the calls that qualify. To start one you need buyers with money behind them, campaigns with clear rules, publishers to send calls, and software that routes, records and bills each call. InboundX is that software, under your own brand.

What do I need before I start?

At least one buyer who will fund a wallet and answer calls, a clear rule for what makes a call worth paying for, and a source of calls. The software comes last, and should not lock you into one niche.

Should I find buyers or publishers first?

Buyers. A publisher's calls are worth nothing until someone is ready to answer and pay. With buyers in place, you know your coverage, your hours and your payout before you ask anyone to send calls.

Do my buyers need a call center?

No. On InboundX a buyer goes online in a browser tab after a short device check, and calls pick up on their own. No desk phone, no softphone, nothing to install.

How do I avoid paying for bad calls?

Bill on what was said. On InboundX a call can be charged the moment every criterion that gates the charge is met, and the full transcript is graded again after hangup. Buyers can dispute a charge inside the dispute window.

Can the network run under my own brand?

Yes. The workspace is your subdomain, your logo and your colours, and email the product sends comes from you. A Powered by InboundX badge is on for new workspaces, and you can switch it off.

Does InboundX supply calls or buyers?

No. InboundX does not sell leads or calls. You bring your own buyers and publishers, and InboundX runs the network for you under your brand.

Home / Start a pay-per-call network

How to start a pay-per-call network

Seven steps, in the order that saves money: buyers first, rules next, publishers last, and bill only the calls that qualify.

01 · The parts

Who does what in a network

Publishers bring callers, from ads, websites or their own lists. Buyers answer the calls and pay for the ones that qualify. You, the network, set the rules, route each call to a buyer, and keep the record that settles who owes what.

Your income is the gap between what buyers pay for a qualified call and what you pay the publisher who sent it. You set both.

Step 1

Pick a niche you can explain in one sentence

Choose one kind of call and one kind of buyer. Write down what makes a call worth paying for in that niche, in words a caller would actually say. That sentence becomes your campaign criteria.

Step 2

Sign buyers before you buy traffic

Buyers are the people who answer the calls. Agree where they take calls from, the hours they work, how many calls a day they want, and what a qualified call pays. Buyers fund a prepaid wallet, so you are never chasing invoices.

Step 3

Set up the software

Open a workspace on your own subdomain with your logo and colours. Connect your own payment processor so buyer money goes to you. Buyers answer in a browser tab, so there are no phones to buy.

The $499 monthly platform fee is free for 3 days. Pay yearly instead ($4,790.40 a year, 20% off) and it is free for 7 days. A card is required. What the product does is on pay-per-call software, and how the brand works is on white-label pay-per-call.

Step 4

Build your first campaign

Set coverage by state or zip, the lead fields a publisher must send, the hold time, and how a call bills: when spoken criteria are met, or on duration.

How InboundX picks the buyer for each call is on the call routing platform page.

Step 5

Bring in publishers

Publishers apply, and their email, phone and ID are checked before they can send calls. Each gets a key for one offer, can dry-run pings before sending real calls, and sees every answer and no-bid reason in their own portal.

Publishers apply at the publisher signup and integrate from the publisher docs. How a ping becomes a bid is on real-time bidding for calls. What your publishers get is on the page for pay-per-call publishers.

The four publisher integration steps in the InboundX docs: ping for a bid, send the call, your call ID, conversions. — What a publisher sees when they integrate, from the InboundX publisher docs.

Step 6

Run calls and watch the record

Every call keeps a live two-channel transcript, a recording, a timeline and the billing. You can listen in, and buyers can dispute a charge inside the dispute window.

The path each call takes is on how it works.

Step 7

Pay publishers and grow

Publishers get a conversion postback with the call ID and payout. Add campaigns, states and buyers as the numbers prove out, one niche at a time.

Watch for

Mistakes that cost new networks

Buying traffic before buyers are signed. Calls arrive with nobody to answer, and the publisher stops sending.

Paying on duration alone when the buyer cares about what was said. A long call is not always a good one.

Letting calls through when no buyer is free. On InboundX a call without a held buyer is refused before anyone answers.

Questions

Asked about starting a network

01What is a pay-per-call network?: A pay-per-call network sits between publishers, who bring callers, and buyers, who answer them and pay for the calls that qualify. To start one you need buyers with money behind them, campaigns with clear rules, publishers to send calls, and software that routes, records and bills each call. InboundX is that software, under your own brand.
02What do I need before I start?: At least one buyer who will fund a wallet and answer calls, a clear rule for what makes a call worth paying for, and a source of calls. The software comes last, and should not lock you into one niche.
03Should I find buyers or publishers first?: Buyers. A publisher's calls are worth nothing until someone is ready to answer and pay. With buyers in place, you know your coverage, your hours and your payout before you ask anyone to send calls.
04Do my buyers need a call center?: No. On InboundX a buyer goes online in a browser tab after a short device check, and calls pick up on their own. No desk phone, no softphone, nothing to install.
05How do I avoid paying for bad calls?: Bill on what was said. On InboundX a call can be charged the moment every criterion that gates the charge is met, and the full transcript is graded again after hangup. Buyers can dispute a charge inside the dispute window.
06Can the network run under my own brand?: Yes. The workspace is your subdomain, your logo and your colours, and email the product sends comes from you. A Powered by InboundX badge is on for new workspaces, and you can switch it off.
07Does InboundX supply calls or buyers?: No. InboundX does not sell leads or calls. You bring your own buyers and publishers, and InboundX runs the network for you under your brand.

Start your network under your brand

Open a workspace, or read how a call moves from ping to bill first.

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