How to Configure Pay-Per-Call Targets: Routing, Caps, Examples

If you route calls to multiple buyers, targets are the moving parts that make the money. This guide shows exactly how to configure pay-per-call targets, control delivery with caps and schedules, and avoid common routing mistakes in CallFlow.

Key takeaways

• A target is a routable destination (PSTN number, SIP endpoint, or browser agent) that belongs to a buyer inside a campaign.
• Pick routing based on your goal: priority for best closer first, weighted for volume splits, round-robin for fairness, simultaneous ring for speed-to-answer.
• Control quality and delivery with per-target windows, daily and concurrent caps, geo rules, and duplicate-caller filtering.
• Use IVR, queues, whisper messages, recording, live monitoring, and real-time logs to qualify, route, and audit calls.
• Watch spam-score, apply HLR/line-type and VoIP-caller blocking, blocklists, and rate limits to protect your numbers and buyers.

What a target means in pay-per-call

Targets vs buyers vs endpoints

• Target: a routable destination for a call. In CallFlow, that’s any PSTN phone number, SIP endpoint, or a browser agent.
• Buyer: the account that owns one or more targets. Buyers get their own portal access to view their calls, recordings (if enabled), scheduled reports, and performance.
• Endpoint: the actual termination path. One buyer can have multiple endpoints (e.g., separate queues for sales and Spanish line) represented as multiple targets.

Whisper messages can play to the agent before connect so they know campaign context. IVR menus qualify callers up front. A call queue with hold music buys you time if all targets are busy. Voicemail catches overflow when nothing else is available. Use Duplicate Call Suppression to set duplicate-caller windows and protect buyers from repeat-billed calls.

Where targets live in a campaign

A campaign holds:

• Entry numbers (US toll-free or local, provisioned instantly against your prepaid wallet).
• Routing rules that choose among targets (priority, weighted, round-robin, simultaneous ring).
• Guardrails per target (schedules, caps, geo restrictions, duplicate filtering) and per campaign (blocklists, rate limits).
• Analytics: live call monitoring, real-time logs, and scheduled email reports to you and your buyers.

Think of the campaign as the decision engine. The entry number points to the campaign; the campaign picks a target based on your rules; then CallFlow sends the call down carrier-grade routes to the endpoint you’ve configured.

Core target routing methods (and when to use each)

Priority

How it works: Rank targets from 1..N. The platform always tries the highest priority first. If it’s closed, capped, or unreachable, it moves down the list.

Use it when:

• You have a top closer you trust and backups for overflow or off-hours.
• Buyers want first-right-of-refusal by state or line of business.

Example: Send calls to Buyer A (priority 1). If A hits its daily cap or is outside its call window, spill to Buyer B (2), then Buyer C (3).

Pitfall: Starving lower-priority buyers if the top target rarely caps or is almost always available.

Weighted

How it works: Assign percentage weights (e.g., 60/20/20). The platform distributes new calls proportionally across open, eligible targets.

Use it when:

• You need to guarantee share of volume between multiple buyers.
• You’re testing a new buyer without giving them full flow.

Example: 60% to Buyer A, 20% to B, 20% to C during weekday business hours.

Pitfalls:

• Unbalanced weights (e.g., 99/1) behave like priority but with less predictability.
• Forgetting to adjust weights when a target is added or removed.

Learn more about tuning weight math in Weighted Call Routing.

Round-robin

How it works: The system cycles through a list of eligible targets, one call at a time.

Use it when:

• You want fairness to buyers or agents regardless of answer speed.
• All buyers have similar performance and strict response-time requirements aren’t a factor.

Example: Three call centers alternate every eligible call during 9-5.

Pitfalls:

• If one target is often closed due to its call window, it can create perceived skips. Keep windows aligned or ensure the round-robin pool only contains currently open, eligible targets.

Simultaneous ring

How it works: Ring multiple targets at the same time; the first to answer gets the call and the rest are canceled.

Use it when:

• Speed-to-answer is critical (e.g., short-patience verticals).
• You’re routing to multiple desks/agents within one buyer.

Pitfalls:

• Using simul ring with low concurrent caps can exhaust capacity fast if multiple calls land together.
• Agents may complain about ghost rings if your endpoints send partial ring events—test with your SIP/VoIP endpoints.

Comparison at a glance

Method	Best for	Pros	Pitfalls
Priority	Top closer first, overflow backup	Predictable, easy to reason about	Starves lower tiers if top rarely caps
Weighted	Volume share across buyers	Control percentages, easy A/B testing	Needs ongoing weight maintenance
Round-robin	Fairness across equals	Simple fairness, no math	Misaligned windows/caps break balance
Simultaneous ring	Fastest answer across endpoints	Minimizes ring time, good for hotlines	Burns concurrent caps, needs endpoint testing

For broader decision flows (IVR, schedules, fallback design), see Lead Routing.

Pay-Per-Call Targets: Controls That Matter

Caps, windows, and qualification

These settings keep buyers happy and your ledger clean. See our daily and concurrent call caps playbook for practical settings and overflow routing examples:

• Per-target call windows: Set days and hours (e.g., Mon-Fri 8:00-18:00 in the buyer’s local time). Prevents after-hours calls from reaching closed desks.
• Per-target daily caps: Limit the number of delivered calls per day. When the cap hits, the target is excluded from routing.
• Concurrent caps: Limit simultaneous calls to a target (e.g., 3 at once). Prevents multi-ring storms from overwhelming small teams.
• Duplicate-caller filtering: Suppress calls from the same caller ID within a defined window (e.g., 30 days). In practice, duplicates are matched on the inbound caller number and your time window; set the window per vertical’s billing rules.
• Qualification: Use IVR menus to route sales vs support vs Spanish. Use queues with hold music for brief spikes. If nothing is open, drop to voicemail.

Agent context and QA:

• Whisper messages: Play a brief prompt such as Medicare - Arizona or Roofing - New Leads to the agent before connect.
• Call recording: Enable per campaign for QA and disputes where permitted.
• Live call monitoring and real-time logs: Watch answer speed and durations in flight.
• Scheduled email reports: Send daily/weekly performance to buyers automatically.

Geo and caller state routing

Route by geography to respect licensing and service areas:

• Caller state routing: Restrict buyers to the states they’re licensed in. If the caller ID state isn’t allowed for a buyer, exclude that target.
• Within-state allocation: When multiple buyers serve a state, use weighted or priority routing among those eligible in that state.
• Combine with windows and caps: A buyer can be eligible for AZ/UT during weekdays only, capped at 25/day with 2 concurrent.

If you need finer-than-state filtering, collect location in the IVR (for example, ask the caller to confirm their state or ZIP) before routing. For detailed techniques on splitting and filtering traffic by state see route calls by state.

Step-by-step: build target routing in CallFlow

Provision numbers

1. Fund your prepaid wallet.
2. Search and provision a US toll-free or local number. Numbers are live instantly.
3. Assign the number to a new or existing campaign as the entry point.

If you manage multiple brands or publishers, consider separate campaigns to keep analytics, blocklists, and caps isolated. For multi-buyer routing setup, see pay-per-call campaign setup for multi-buyer routing.

Add buyers and targets

1. Create buyer accounts; buyers get their own portal access to view calls, recordings (if enabled), and reports.
2. For each buyer, add one or more targets:
   • PSTN number (e.g., their sales line).
   • SIP endpoint (use their SIP URI or register a softphone).
   • Browser agent (for teams working out of the web app).
3. Optionally tag targets by product line or language to keep routing rules readable.

Apply rules

1. Pick a routing method at the campaign or node level:
   • Priority, weighted, round-robin, or simultaneous ring.
2. Set weighted percentages if using weighted.
3. Configure per-target windows (days/hours), using the buyer’s time zone.
4. Set per-target daily caps and concurrent caps.
5. Define geo rules (allowed states per target).
6. Turn on duplicate-caller filtering with a window appropriate to your billing policy (e.g., 30 days for many insurance offers; shorter for urgent home services).
7. Add an IVR if you need to qualify or language-route first.
8. Set queue fallback with hold music and a sane timeout (e.g., 30-60 seconds).
9. Add voicemail as the final catch-all if everything else is closed.
10. Enable call recording and live call monitoring for QA.
11. Configure whisper prompts so agents know the campaign on pickup.

Test and go live

• Dry-run tests:
  • Set a tiny daily cap (e.g., 1) and a narrow time window for each target.
  • Place test calls from different states or test caller IDs to trigger geo rules.
  • Trigger overflow paths: hit a cap, place calls after hours, and trigger queue timeouts to verify voicemail.
• Go-live checks:
  • Remove test caps, restore real windows and weights.
  • Make one real call per path while watching live logs.
  • Confirm recordings save as expected and buyer portal access works.
  • Set up scheduled email reports for buyers.
  • Keep a dashboard open to monitor answer times and durations for the first day.

Real-world configurations you can copy

Home services in 3 states

Scenario: A roofing affiliate running Google Ads across NY, NJ, and CT. Three buyers cover the tri-state area.

Config:

• Campaign entry numbers: one toll-free number for ads and a local number for localized landing pages.
• Geo routing: State-based inclusion—each buyer allowed only in the states they service.
• Method: Weighted routing 60/20/20 between Buyer A/B/C within each eligible state pool.
• Schedules: Mon-Fri 8:00-18:00 in each buyer’s time zone.
• Caps: 30/day per target; 3 concurrent per target.
• Qualification: IVR prompt like Press 1 for new roof, 2 for repair to steer warranty calls elsewhere.
• QA: Recording on; live monitoring during launch week.
• Fallback: If all targets are closed or capped, queue for 45 seconds, then voicemail with a voicemail prompt: we’ll call back first thing tomorrow.

Why this works: You maintain promised share, avoid after-hours complaints, and keep buyers inside their service areas while preserving speed-to-answer.

Insurance with strict caps

Scenario: Medicare or other insurance buyers licensed per state; strict compliance around duplicate billing windows.

Config:

• Geo routing: Hard state allowlists per target; exclude states where the buyer isn’t licensed.
• Method: Priority tiers inside each state—Buyer A gets first-right-of-refusal, B and C serve as overflow.
• Caps: Daily caps per target based on agreed volume; concurrent caps set to 2-3 depending on staffing.
• Duplicate suppression: 30-day window per caller number to reduce re-billing disputes.
• QA: Recording enabled; live call monitoring and real-time logs during open enrollment spikes.
• Reporting: Scheduled daily buyer reports including total calls, connected, average duration, and recordings.

Why this works: You protect licensing constraints, respect caps, and reduce repeat-caller disputes with a conservative duplicate window.

After-hours handling

Scenario: Daytime buyers close at 6 pm; you still get calls from ads and IVR returns.

Config:

• Primary window: 08:00-18:00, weighted 50/30/20 across three day buyers.
• After-hours rule: 18:00-22:00 route to a smaller pool (two buyers) with different weights (70/30) and higher concurrent caps.
• Overnight: If all after-hours targets are closed or capped, send to a short queue (30 seconds), then voicemail.
• Whisper: After-Hours Roofing - Connect Quickly so agents know calls are time-sensitive.
• Review: Check next-morning analytics for queue times and voicemail volume; adjust after-hours weights if one buyer consistently misses calls.

Quality, spam, and fraud safeguards for targets

Before the call

• HLR/line-type lookup: Identify invalid or non-dialable numbers and deprioritize low-quality traffic sources.
• VoIP-caller blocking: Optional block for known low-intent or fraudulent VoIP ranges where your vertical underperforms.
• Rate limits and blocklists: Apply per-number or per-campaign limits to shut down floods and abusive sources quickly.
• Spam-score monitoring: Track toll-free and local number spam reputation so your answer rates stay healthy. See our guide on Toll-Free Number Spam Score.

During the call

• Live call monitoring: Watch in-progress calls for short-duration spikes that indicate spam or mis-routing.
• Real-time logs: Validate the selected target, applied geo rules, duplicate decisions, and cap checks on each call.

After the call

• Analytics: Review answer rates, average durations, and buyer-by-buyer performance. Outliers often point to endpoint issues or scripting gaps.
• Adjust routing: Pause or cap targets showing abnormal short calls; tighten duplicate windows or geo rules for sources that churn repeats.
• Scheduled reports: Send buyers consistent summaries so disputes are confined to edge cases rather than blind spots.

For deeper reporting practices, see Call Analytics.

Troubleshooting and optimization

Symptoms

• Uneven delivery vs plan (e.g., one buyer getting far less than their share).
• Buyer complaints about after-hours or out-of-state calls.
• Missed calls or high abandon rates; queue timeouts.
• Duplicate disputes from buyers.
• Slow time-to-answer on simul ring or many short calls.

Root causes

• Mis-set weights or priorities (e.g., 80/10/10 when you meant 60/20/20).
• Overlapping or wrong time zones in call windows.
• Daily or concurrent caps reached earlier than expected.
• Geo rules too narrow (starving volume) or too broad (compliance risk).
• Duplicate window too short (buyers see repeats) or too long (you block valid return calls).

Fixes

• Rebalance weights and verify percentages sum correctly. If equal treatment is required, consider round-robin.
• Align windows to each buyer’s time zone; audit daylight saving time behavior during transitions.
• Raise concurrent caps for targets with fast agents, or add more targets to the routing pool.
• Widen or refine geo rules; where caller ID geolocation is unreliable, add an IVR state confirmation step.
• Tune duplicate policy to the vertical: longer for insurance, shorter for emergency services.
• Confirm behavior in real-time logs, then validate with scheduled reports over several days.

A practical next step

Start with one campaign, two or three buyers, and clear caps and windows. Use weighted routing to match your promised volume split, record calls for the first week, and watch live logs any time you change a cap, window, or weight. When you’re ready to build, you can provision a number and set up your first campaign in minutes from your prepaid wallet — create your account at create your account. If you want a second set of eyes on your routing plan, contact us.