Advertisers Cutting Off Calls Before Duration Met (20)
Title pretty much says it all. The advertiser cuts off the call prior to the conversion duration being met, and then simply calls the person back, thus not having to pay for the call. Have any of you experienced this?
I know that Retreaver has "caller obfuscation" that provides an incorrect caller ID number until the duration is met, at which point the correct number appears.
Thoughts?
Yes. That is a shady practice that some unscrupulous advertisers use to get free calls. I would immediately bring it to the attention of your network AM. Did you listen to call recordings or did you do a test call to find out?
I listen to all calls and, recently, calls have been cutting at very opportune times. Unfortunately, I work directly with the advertiser, but I have been sending the recording to the affiliate manager. She is very responsive, but it is bothersome since these are high-value $100 conversions.
I am going to take a guess and say this is in the Rehab/Addiction vertical. I experienced the very same thing over a year ago in the same vertical and I would suggest you immediately stop running traffic until it can be verified as to what is happening. Unfortunately, just as there are some affiliates who are bad apples, there are also some advertisers that fall into the same category.
Feel free to PM me.
How do you listen calls? I am experiencing same issue.
If you're network is using Invoca, ask your AM to give you access to call recordings.
When running PPCall offers it is always important to spot check calls as some advertisers do use this shady method to get free leads. I protected the affiliates the by listening to calls from Invoca while I was working at certain affiliate networks. This is rampant within the Tech Support PPCall vertical.
Here are some things to keep eye on when listening to calls:
1. The call center agents ask for the caller's phone number in case the call gets disconnected at the very start of the connected call
2. The caller is still talking and the call gets disconnected just before the call duration payout criteria
3. Call conversions drop drastically
Look for patterns and send the calls to the AM or direct advertiser. This will let the advertiser know that you are on to them and you may notice that your call conversions mysteriously increase.
You can use: Retreaver, CallRail, CallTrackingMetics, plus many others. Retreaver is the most powerful for affiliates, and also the most cost-effective, as there is no monthly fee, and the numbers are at cost.
Tech support is notorius for doing this so we try to get raw calls only so theres no duration requirement
That's disgraceful. Such people should be put out of business.
If you have proof of this, please post the proof + name of the company/advertiser here so no one will (continue) work(ing) with them in the future!
Make sure you clarify if the "duration" is total duration or if it's talk duration.
Normally, networks and centres pay on talk duration.
Also, ensure you're not having users put to a voicemail because the network or centre doesn't have enough agents on hand.
Most networks should have recordings, so you would be able to requests these for the shorter calls to see if an agent is answering or if they're asking a specific question to know if to hang-up so the call doesn't qualify or if they're hanging up to call the user back and avoid paying you.
And as said before, most affiliates we work with would all rather have raw call [which is on talk connection - the call needs to be answered]
Good luck! Hope you get this solved 
The thing is with all of these unscrupulous advertisers or 'buyers' is that the more they fleece good affiliates, they less traffic they receive (calls or web leads) so it's self-defeating.
Good advertisers who want a steady volume of good quality traffic from publishers will tend to avoid this practice because it kills heard-to-gain relationships with good publishers.
Originally Posted by monetisedave
Unfortunately, as John Maynard Keynes pointed out, "In the long run ... we're all dead".
Def happens allot in the rehab space. Lots of shady characters. We have a killer rehab buyer but even then I always recommend our pubs be proactive. With Invoca you can use webhooks to link out to another system and we have them set alerts when a certain % of calls drop close enough to duration. Since we monitor this and the pub does, it ensures no funny biz happens.
You should always test out these offers yourself to see if something like this is going on.
Funny how naive some of you are. Why is it shady to cut off before you have to pay? If you know you dont get a sale out of that guy, why go over the duration? It makes perfect sense.
Originally Posted by dispoboy
If you have experience running pay per call campaigns, you will quickly come across many of the games and tricks that some advertisers can play, like hanging up right before the x minute mark and then calling the consumer back, or not counting the IVR time part of the call, etc.
This is why it is important to test out the call yourself before running a pay per call offer.
They ask for call back number and cut the call... I see it as the network responsibility to credit us. same as they won't pay us if we violate the terms
Always seed your calls/leads/etc.
Seeding means that a certain % of calls/leads should be 'plants' placed by you, to do quality assurance on the advertiser.
Hey Positive carry,sorry to hear that but when you deal with advertisers who can't take good volume what they do is cut the call before it meets the conversion criteria.There can be two solutions -you can start deal on the basis of raw calls or deal with big advertisers who can do business in volume and won't be cheeky like small advertisers.
Hit me up on Skype-aniket_sharma2
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