The Call Tracking Terms Glossary
Your guide to all the acronyms and terms in the call tracking world you always wanted and can always come back for when things get tough.
- Automation Rules
- Block Caller
- Call Analytics
- Call Capping
- Call Flow
- Call Greetings
- Call Recordings
- Call Surveys
- Call Tagging
- Call Tracking
- Call Whispers
- Caller ID
- Dashboard
- Destination Number
- DNI Tracking Code
- Dynamic Number Insertion
- Email Notifications
- Email Summaries
- Export Leads
- Filters
- Geo-routing
- Hang Up
- Integrations
- JavaScript tracking code
- Keypad Entry (IVR)
- Lead Scoring
- Lead Values
- Media Library
- Notes
- Number Pools
- Offline Conversions
- Pool Checker
- Porting of numbers
- Qualified Calls
- Reports
- Robocalls
- Swap Target Number
- Tracking Numbers
- Tracking Sources
- Transcriptions
- Users
- Visitor Tracking
- Voicemail
- Webhooks
- Whitelabel
………… A
Automation Rules
Automation Rules enable automated lead classification. Specify your criteria, like marketing source, call duration, and spoken words with your desired trigger and automatically qualify, score, tag, or assign value to calls that match your criteria.
………… B
Block Caller
Blocking unwanted or SPAM callers allows you to add a specific caller ID to the SPAM list, preventing the caller from calling your tracking number again.
………… C
Call Analytics
Call Analytics is the method to collect, analyze, and report the call data that is tracked by a call tracking software. Its value for marketers and sales teams is major since it provides very significant customer insights with regard to marketing performance that businesses can deploy to optimize the Return On Advertising Spend (ROAS) of their campaigns and drive more quality phone leads and conversions.
Call Capping
Call capping sets a limit on the number of calls that your client will receive from a particular pay-per-call or advertising campaign during a specific time period.
Call Flow
A call flow defines the route that your callers will follow once they call your tracking number. It can be as simple as an 1:1 flow connecting every phone lead to one destination or as extra as you need to align your call flow with your business requirements, using the advanced call routing capabilities.
Call Greetings
A call greeting is a recorded message or script that plays when someone calls your phone number. It serves as a friendly or informative introduction to the call and can include information like your name, company, and a request to leave a message if you’re unavailable. Greetings help you to set the ground for a friendly upcoming conversation, create a positive image using your brand’s voice, and guide your callers to the right destination.
Call Recordings
Call recording is a process where audio conversations or phone calls are recorded and saved for future reference or analysis. Analyzing call recordings can provide insights into customer preferences, pain points, and trends, helping businesses tailor their products and services accordingly.
Call Surveys
Call surveys allow agents or even yourself to automatically tag calls by pressing a digit on their dial pad, after the end of the call. Keypad scoring allows you or your teammates who handle calls to instantly tag calls without the need of any additional software.
Call Tagging
Call tagging is a call tracking feature that allows users to attach labels or tags to individual phone calls. These tags are used for categorizing, organizing, and retrieving calls for various purposes. Call Tags simplify your lead management process by highlighting the core of each conversation into a single label.
Call Tracking
Call Tracking is the method that allows you to track marketing activities that drive calls to your business. This is done by pairing what we call a tracking number, with a source you wish to track i.e. Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Newsletters, Offline ads, etc. These numbers forward calls to your business, with no change in the process whatsoever, allowing you to even record calls or play whispers to agents prior to answering the call.
Call Whispers
Call Whispers are a form of real-time audio cue or notification that is discreetly played to the callee just before they answer an incoming call. These whispered messages are heard only by the callee and not the caller on the other end of the line.
Caller ID
This is the caller number that shows in your phone screen and reports. By default all call tracking platforms show the number of the caller but there are ways to mask this with Caller ID masking options.
………… D
Dashboard
A call tracking dashboard is a page where you can add all the call tracking reports you want to monitor. It typically is customizable, can be shared with clients or team members and exported in PDF form.
Destination Number
The destination or receiving number, is the number that will receive the call when someone calls your tracking numbers.
DNI Tracking Code
The tracking code is a JavaScript element added to websites to facilitate Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) across the entire site. Typically a single line of code that can be manually inserted, or it can be incorporated through our WordPress plugin or Google Tag Manager.
Dynamic Number Insertion
Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI) is a short script of code added in your website which is responsible for the dynamic number swapping in order to assign unique phone numbers to website visitors and gathers all the essential data for monitoring a caller’s interactions and journey before, during, and after the phone call.
When a visitor lands on your website, a tracking number is assigned to them from a pool of available tracking numbers. As a result, every individual browsing your site perceives a distinct phone number throughout their visit. Once they leave your website, the phone number is released, ready to be assigned to your next visitor.
DNI ensures that each visitor sees a specific phone number that is tied to their session, allowing you to accurately attribute incoming calls to their respective marketing sources, campaigns, ads, keywords etc.
………… E
Email Notifications
Sometimes you want to be informed via email if a phone call matches specific conditions (e.g. missed call, abandoned call, quality call, etc.). Email Notifications allow you to configure a notification that will reach your email the moment the condition is met allowing you to take action (call back, fix line issues, etc.)
Email Summaries
Email Summaries are a great way to keep track of your call activity. They can typically be configured to be sent daily, weekly or monthly and shared between team members and clients.
Export Leads
Lead exporting refers to the process of transferring to another system or downloading your call tracking data in CSV or XLS file types. This data typically includes details such as caller IDs, call duration, date/ time, call outcome, call page and any other information that can be used for sales and marketing purposes.
………… F
Filters
Use filters to choose the calls you want on your dashboard and in reports. This way, you’ll see detailed call data that’s most relevant. You can also save filters to easily find calls that match specific criteria anytime.
………… G
Geo-routing
Geo-routing refers to the process of assigning where specific prefixes, area codes or country codes will be routed when a caller that meets these criteria calls a tracking number. The call tracking user is able to configure routing of calls to specific destination numbers when callers with a specific caller ID prefix or area code call.
………… H
Hang Up
Used in the call flow builder to automatically disconnect your call in certain conditions.
………… I
Integrations
Call Tracking Integrations allow you to connect your call tracking platform with your favorite tools and send call tracking data in real-time.
………… J
JavaScript tracking code
Another name or term for the DNI tracking code.
………… K
Keypad Entry (IVR)
An IVR, or Interactive Voice Response, is a technology system used in telecommunications that allows callers to interact with a computerized voice system through voice and keypad entry. IVR systems are commonly encountered when calling customer service lines, businesses, or automated hotlines. They serve as a way to efficiently route calls and provide automated assistance to callers.
The Keypad Entry feature in particular differs slightly from a traditional IVR, in the sense that the callers don’t interact with an automated assistant but are automatically routed to the destination of choice
………… L
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is a method used to evaluate and rank potential customers or leads based on their likelihood to become paying customers. It ensures that marketing generates leads that meet the criteria for potential customers, and sales teams can concentrate their efforts on leads that are most likely to convert.
Lead Values
A phone lead value typically refers to the estimated or assigned monetary worth or value of a potential customer or sales opportunity generated through a phone call. In a business or sales context, when someone makes a phone call to inquire about a product or service, express interest, or provide their contact information, that individual becomes a “lead.” The lead value represents the potential revenue that can be generated from converting that lead into a paying customer.
………… M
Media Library
The media library is a collection of all the media files you use in your call flows. A complete library of your call whispers, call greetings, call surveys and voicemail greetings in MP3 or WAV format.
………… N
Notes
A section under each call record that allows you to log notes for the specific call.
Number Pools
Number pools in call tracking refer to a collection of tracking numbers used for tracking and routing incoming calls from different marketing sources or campaigns. They are essential for session based call tracking and used along with Dynamic Number Insertion.
………… O
Offline Conversions
Offline conversions refer to the action of tracking and measuring the impact of online advertising on customer behavior that takes place outside of the digital environment. This means that offline conversions refer to any action or behavior that happens in the physical world, such as a customer placing a phone call and making a purchase after being exposed to an online advertisement.
The process of monitoring and measuring customer interactions and conversions that take place outside the digital environment, such as in physical stores or over the phone, is known as offline conversion tracking (OCT).
………… P
Pool Checker
The pool checker is your little helper to estimate the optimal amount of tracking numbers you need to add to your pool. The pool checker pings your Google Analytics 4 account, calculates your user’s average session duration and number of visitors and calculates the optimal amount of tracking numbers needed to be added to your number pool for lossless call attribution.
Porting of numbers
Number porting, in simple terms, is the process of transferring your existing tracking numbers from one provider to another. This allows you to keep the same tracking numbers even if you switch to a different call tracking platform.
………… Q
Qualified Calls
Phone calls that meet campaign requirements to be considered a converted call. These calls are then sent to Google Ads as offline conversions.
………… R
Reports
In call tracking software, reports refer to detailed and organized summaries of call-related data and analytics. These reports provide valuable insights into various aspects of a business’s call performance and marketing efforts. Call tracking software typically generates call tracking reports based on the data collected from incoming phone calls, such as call volume, call sources, call duration, and more.
Robocalls
Robocalls are automated phone calls made by computerized systems, often with pre recorded messages or generated text-to-speech messages. These calls are typically used for various purposes, including telemarketing, political campaigns, debt collection, and scams. Robocalls can target tracking numbers and can be a nuisance to recipients, as they can disrupt their daily routines and privacy.
………… S
Swap Target Number
A swap target number is essentially the phone number(s) displayed on your website, when call tracking features are not in use. DNI (Dynamic Number Insertion) plays a vital role by substituting it with a tracking number. It’s worth mentioning that a single website can have numerous swap target numbers (groups).
………… T
Tracking Numbers
A tracking number refers to a unique phone number that you own and you can use to monitor and analyze incoming phone calls towards your business. Tracking numbers are typically associated with specific marketing campaigns, advertisements, marketing sources or are used in a number pool.
Tracking Sources
Tracking sources can encompass various channels, such as online ads, social media, email marketing, print media, radio, and more. Online tracking sources are used so the DNI script can know which number to display to a visitor.
Transcriptions
Call transcriptions refer to the process of converting phone call conversations from audio recordings into written text. It typically involves the use of state of the art speech recognition software and algorithms to analyze the audio and produce a written transcript of what was said during the conversation.
………… U
Users
Invite specific team members or clients to access and interact with your call data. Different user types have varying privileges, including editing, creating tracking numbers,viewing call data and managing settings.
………… V
Visitor Tracking
Visitor level tracking is suitable for companies that gather and analyze data at the user level i.e. the visitor’s journey before, during and after a call.
Each time a customer visits your website, he will be assigned a tracking number from your pool of tracking numbers.
This means that each visitor sees a unique phone number the entire time he or she navigates your website. When he or she leaves, we free up this phone number so it can be re-assigned to your next visitor.
DNI collects all the information you need to track a caller’s behavior, while is responsible to do the dynamic number swapping on your website.
Visitor tracking gives you plenty of information, here is all the data that you can gather:
- Source Type (Google PPC, Google Organic, referrals from yelp.com, etc.)
- Keywords (for all PPC)
- Which landing page drives the most calls
- Referring domain
- Source / Medium / Campaign
- Which tracking number was called
- Date and time of the call
- Caller ID
- Country, State, City
- Duration of the call
- Complete page view history of the caller
Voicemail
Choose to route calls directly to Voicemail or when calls go unanswered. You can configure a personalized voice greeting that the caller will hear before they leave a message. Recorded messages are stored in your call tracking account for you to listen.
………… W
Webhooks
Webhooks are a way for web applications to communicate with each other in a real-time manner.
They facilitate integrations between different applications or platforms.
For instance, a CRM system can use webhooks to receive updates from your call tracking platform, ensuring both systems stay synchronized.
Whitelabel
A white label call tracking solution offers branded customization including: dashboards, emails and custom domain.
A call tracking & analytics platform is a powerful tool that helps agencies optimize their marketing efforts and prove the real value of their work to customers.
Yet, introducing call tracking as a White Label Solution in your agency portfolio serves as a strong advantage against competitive agencies, letting you keep customers satisfied, but also avoid possible distractions.
………… X
………… Y
………… Z
Conclusion
This call tracking glossary is a work in progress. It currently features over 40 call tracking terms but new call tracking terms are added on regular intervals, so bookmark this page to be constantly up to date with call tracking terminology!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR