Inflated calls: how to notice fraud in phone calls
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A threshold of 30 seconds does not catch inflated calls. In Metrica it is the duration after which the ready-made "Goal call" counts as reached. The calls help does not describe a detector of inflated calls: the report receives what call tracking passed, and only if the call was tied to a visit.
Click fraud is counted on clicks. A call is another goal. Before you complain about fraud in calls, sort out what actually grew: taps on a number, any calls including missed ones, or conversations longer than the threshold.
Four goals that appear on their own
A goal call in the Metrica glossary is a goal created when call data is passed in, including from call tracking. It marks calls whose conversation lasted more than 30 seconds.
On the first transfer of call data, Metrica creates four goals within a day. "Call" counts any calls, including missed ones. "Goal call" is a conversation longer than 30 seconds. "Unique call" is a first-time call. "Unique goal call" is a first-time call longer than 30 seconds. A footnote calls 30 seconds the average time which, by Metrica's data, lets a call be treated as a goal. A different duration, a first or repeat call, answered or missed, and one quality label are set as a goal by hand. After the automatic goals are deleted, the next transfer brings back only "Call."
Thirty seconds is the threshold of a ready-made goal, not a sign of inflation. A short hang-up lands in "Call" and not in "Goal call." A series of short calls can inflate the first goal and barely touch the second.
What gets tied to a visit
Call data is accepted by a counter you created: automatic counters do not collect it. Dynamic call tracking pins a number to a session, and Metrica ties that call to the closest suitable visit in time. A static call is not tied to visitors' visits. Data appears in reports within 3 hours after the upload. Call tracking may pass duration, a missed-call marker, whether the call is the first, and the phone number, but only the date and time are required.
Metrica records what call tracking passed. If the export has no duration, there is nothing to compute the "Goal call" from, even if the call can appear in the report.
A call is not tied to a visitor and a visit if the visitor or click identifier passed in is not in Metrica's database, or the visit was after the call, or the visit was earlier than 21 days before the data was sent. "Call" goal statistics appear in reports only when the tie succeeds. In "Calls, in detail" the date is the moment of the call. The goal reach sits on the visit, which may have been earlier: a call on 13 March after a visit on 11 March is visible on the 13th in the detailed report and is not visible on the 13th in "Conversions." Twenty-one days here is the call-matching window. The help asks you not to read tie statuses in offline-conversion reports blindly: look at the share in the data-upload settings.
A tap on a number is not a call
In the list of goal types, "Click on a phone number" and "Calls" are separate. The first watches a press on a number on the site. The second watches call categories passed into Metrica. "Form submission" is a separate type next to them. Conversion is the ratio of goal visits to all visits. In one goal visit the same goal can be reached several times. Several taps on a number in one visit are not several people and are not conversations.
Invalid clicks do not describe this goal. Click fraud and sklikivanie are also about the click, not about conversation length. Who clicks ads and why does not set a call threshold. Whether Yandex refunds click fraud does not follow from a rise in the "Call" goal.
How to read a spike
Check which goal grew. "Call" includes missed calls. "Goal call" is only a conversation longer than 30 seconds. The threshold is not a fraud detector.
Check that the counter is yours. An automatic counter does not collect calls.
Separate dynamic call tracking from static. The second is not tied to visitors' visits, and you cannot see which session called.
If the call is missing from conversions, check the window: the identifier must be in the database, the visit not after the call, and not earlier than 21 days before the upload. The date in the detailed report and the conversion date can diverge, as in the 11 and 13 March example.
Do not take a tap on a number for a conversation. That is another goal type, and several reaches in a visit are not several callers.
Do not expect Metrica to flag inflation by itself. It writes the duration it was given and the tie. You decide about fraud by comparing the goals, not from the single figure 30.