The Complete Call Tracking Glossary
CTM has been a leader in the call tracking industry for a long time, and we sometimes take for granted that everyone here uses the same terminology that we do. But we recognize that call tracking terms are not part of most marketers’ everyday vocabulary. We want to make sure everyone has a cheat sheet when it comes to common definitions within call tracking. And we don’t even want to assume a universal understanding of the phrase “call tracking,” so we’ll start there!
The Fundamentals of Call Tracking
Call Tracking
Traditional call tracking is the process of tying an advertising source to a phone call using unique phone numbers. Modern call tracking has evolved beyond phone calls to effectively tie any conversation (form fills, texts, chats) back to its marketing source, for offline and online channels.
*Call tracking can’t help you find a phone, keep tabs on your partner’s cell, or tell you when a package will be arriving. We can certainly understand the confusion!
Activity Reports
Activity Reports provide an overview of your calls over a set time period, sorted by a dimension of your choice. You can apply filters and date ranges to narrow down which calls you want to include in the report, and select a view (such as calls by source, calls by hour of day, or calls by campaign) to organize call data in the way that’s most useful to you.
Dynamic Number Insertion (DNI)
The core element of online call tracking, dynamic number insertion (DNI) uses a short line of code to automatically switch phone numbers on a website to match the user’s source, geographic location, or other custom trigger. You can then use the dynamically generated number to match a conversation back to that user’s web activity.
Number Pools
Number pools are a quick, easy way to buy phone numbers for your business and set them up as tracking numbers for all your online marketing channels, whether that’s Facebook ads, your Etsy store, your YouTube channel, or PPC ads.
Number pools allow you to buy numbers in bundles or “pools” that will attach and track all your online ad sources, or what’s known as “marketing attribution.” You’ll adjust the number of numbers in the pool based on the average number of visitors to the online source.
Receiving Number
After someone calls a tracking number, the conversation gets forwarded to a receiving number. The receiving number is the phone number of a specific team member or call queue that will actually be picking up the call and answering.
Target Number
A target number is a phone number that will be swapped with a tracking number using DNI. It’s the phone number that exists on your website when no call tracking has been implemented or triggered. You might have multiple target numbers on one website.
Tracking Code
The tracking code is JavaScript added to a website to power dynamic number insertion (DNI) across the site. For CTM, it’s one line of code provided in the software that can be copy/pasted and added to a site manually, with a plugin for WordPress users, and through Google Tag Manager.
Tracking Number
Tracking numbers are the phone numbers used in dynamic number insertion, or on other marketing materials, that are associated with your call tracking provider. You own the phone number, but it’s configured in software like CTM to provide the call’s source, call recordings, and other features. They route to the desk phones, cell phones, or other business lines your team uses.
Tracking Source
Tracking sources are buckets that contain related tracking numbers and are built to provide high-level, at-a-glance attribution. Online tracking sources are used to define the parameters DNI uses to swap the most relevant phone number for a website visitor. An offline tracking source would be static numbers you might add to a print ad or email footer. A popular example of an online tracking source is “Google Ads” used with dynamic number insertion for all website visitors who came to the site through a Google search ad.
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Enhancing call tracking through intelligence and reporting
Call and Conversation Analytics
The category of data you can collect through call tracking is known as call analytics, or conversation analytics. Metrics from conversations provide managers and teams with performance benchmarks to review and analyze. Examples could be talk time, the source of a call, or aggregated volume of texts or chats handled by Sales.
Call Scoring
A call score is a categorization of a phone conversation to apply a measure of quality or additional context. It can be applied either automatically or by the Sales team member on the call. There are multiple ways to score a call, but a rating of 1 to 5 is often the core, as well as marking a call as a converted sale or not. Additional tagging can be done to further contextualize the call.
Conversation Intelligence
Conversation intelligence is an advanced feature of conversation analytics. It’s the process of analyzing spoken words through call recordings and transcriptions to identify and extract patterns, signals, and actionable insights for Marketing and Sales teams. Examples could be automatically identifying and prioritizing high-value prospects or creating best-practice examples from real conversations for new team members.
Keyword Spotting
Keyword spotting tools provide automated analysis of conversations to identify words or phrases spoken, as they happen, to trigger follow-up actions, categorize your calls, or alert you if high-priority actions need to be taken.
Tagging
Tags make it easier to organize and filter your call log’s Activities, run reports, and analyze trends over time. They are especially useful for tracking activity related to a specific product, promotion, campaign, or issue, giving you better visibility into customer interactions and performance.
Transcription
Transcriptions are the written account of a spoken conversation. They can be real-time during a conversation, or processed after a conversation has ended.
Triggers
Triggers automate processes in your account based on specific call details, such as applying tags, adding dollar values, sending text messages, or updating custom fields. Actions can be triggered at the start or end of a call or based on events that happen during a call.
Read our comprehensive guide for a more detailed approach to lead scoring for Sales and Marketing success.
Improving conversation efficiency and experience
Call Management
Call management is the system and tools in place to get a phone call where it’s supposed to go. The goal of call management is to increase efficiency and speed in getting calls answered and to improve the caller experience by getting calls to the most appropriate party.
Call Routing
Like call management, call routing is the specific path a call takes to connect the caller with the most appropriate party. It can be a self-selection in a voice menu, an automated process, or manually sent through a receptionist.
Call Forwarding
A simple form of call routing, call forwarding takes a call to one phone number and passes the conversation to another phone number. The caller will only see the original phone number called, not receiving information on the operational phone number used internally by the business.
Call Queue
Call queues are a type of call routing for teams where multiple individuals are designated to answer the same kinds of calls. It allows the business to set up rules for how to distribute calls to those teams. It can be based on availability, a specific order, or other customizable options.
Coaching
In this context, coaching focuses on improving sales and contact center agents’ performance by reviewing calls’ content. You can do this in real time with tools like our Live Conversations monitoring dashboard or after a call wraps up with call recordings.
Contact Center
Contact centers are businesses’ central communication hubs, typically encompassing sales and customer support teams. They manage customer inquiries across multiple channels, including calls, text, form fills, website chats, and social media profiles.
GeoRouting
GeoRouting, or geographic routing, dynamically routes calls to the location that is closest or most relevant to a specific caller. This type of call routing works to eliminate the need for placing callers on hold and transferring calls and is ideal for businesses with multiple locations.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Menu
A very popular form of self-selected call routing is an IVR. It’s a menu before a call starts to give the caller multiple options to choose from to get their call answered by the right person or team. An example would be “press one for Sales, or press two for Support.”
Omnichannel
Beyond phone calls, customers and prospects connect with businesses through various methods. Omnichannel is a business strategy that gives their audiences a seamless experience regardless of which channel they choose. Omnichannel encompasses all methods of communication like form submissions, texts, live chats, social media, and calls.
Softphone
A softphone is a phone powered by the internet, so you can make calls from your laptop, desktop, or any device connected to the internet. It’s software that can be customized for the needs of the organization or teams using it.
Webhooks
Webhooks refer to third-party software that connects with CTM, usually to share data with it and enrich reporting. Unlike native integrations built by our team, the data sharing goes one direction from elsewhere into our platform. We’ve made it easy to see what’s what in our Integrations directory.
VOIP
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is the method and technology that powers voice communications over the internet. Both desk phones and softphones can be configured to deliver calls through a VoIP provider using this technology.
CTM branded terms to know
AskAI
AskAI is a tool that prioritizes sales-ready leads based on custom AI prompts to determine key signals like buyer readiness and sentiment. It can also be a time-saver for customer-facing teams to quickly scan conversation history and generate digestible summaries and insights.
FormReactor®
The CTM FormReactor helps bring form fills together with all your conversions to give a full picture of your lead activity. You can create custom forms inside of CTM to add to your website, or sync with your existing forms. The FormReactor provides attribution for your form submissions and connects you to features to automatically follow up and close leads faster.
Google Ads Direct Connect
Get additional attribution data from your call ads in real-time and optimize your campaigns with our seamless, bi-directional Google Ads integration. This integration lets you track conversions directly into Google Ads for any activity with a GCLID, GBRAID, or WBRAID.
LeadReactor®
A powerful outbound calling solution that automates calls in the background so agents don’t have to manually dial numbers that may result in voicemails, dead air, and hang-ups. It connects a live person to an agent only when the call is answered. When combined with AskAI and ChatAI, businesses can sift through large volumes of data, qualify leads, and automate workflows.
Spam Detective
To avoid businesses wasting time answering spam calls, Spam Detective identifies likely spam and gives users the option to add tags or route them through a different menu. This allows teams to treat spam calls differently, saving time and effort, and allowing a second opportunity for those callers to verify their intent.
Smart Dialer
Build custom lists for outbound campaigns and automatically begin conversations when your team is available. Intelligently leverage your team’s schedule and availability to effortlessly reach your audience with a Smart Dialer.
Smart Routing
Smart routing is a tool that expedites communications using customizable If/Then conditions to build a sophisticated workflow. When someone calls, they’re automatically routed to the most relevant person or team. It consolidates the routing benefits of IVRs, queues, and other call management features to create a personalized and automated path for callers.
Trust Center
Trust Center is CTM’s hub for helping businesses comply with telecom regulations. Once you’re signed into your account, it’s your go-to for submitting different regulatory paperwork you might need, such as a request for Branded Caller ID.
VoiceAI
VoiceAI is CTM’s customizable voice AI agent that captures and qualifies leads, manages overflow, and answers routine inquiries. Businesses configure their agents based on their uploaded knowledge sources. Check out some common use cases of VoiceAI.
Bonus Acronyms
CTM (formerly CallTrackingMetrics)
It’s been the nickname our friends have called us for a long time. In 2026, we made the switch to CTM instead of CallTrackingMetrics officially.
SaaS
SaaS stands for Software as a Service. It’s a way of delivering software online and gives the developer a way to update and maintain the service without requiring customers to install or purchase anything new. As an example, CTM is an award-winning SaaS provider.
UCaaS
Unified Communications as a Service. This is a type of cloud-based service that includes an internet-powered telephone system, plus the ability to message, chat, and bring other forms of communication together. UCaaS often focuses on internal communication.
CCaaS
Contact Center as a Service. Similar to UCaaS, CCaaS provides cloud-based telephone and communication tools. The focus is on improving call center functionality and efficiency, leading to better customer communication.
While this is already a lot to get a handle on, it still just scratches the surface of the functionality and benefits of call tracking. Want to get a good feel for the impact these tools can have for your team? The best next step is to request a demo of the CTM platform.