Protecting ads when the leads arrive as calls
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When the lead is a call, click fraud is easy to mix up with a short conversation, a missed call and a call that never sat on a visit. The first time call data is passed, Metrica creates four goals within a day. “Call” counts any call, missed ones included. “Target call” is a conversation longer than 30 seconds. “Unique call” is the first time. “Unique target call” is the first time and longer than 30 seconds. Thirty seconds is the threshold of a ready-made goal, not a sign of inflation.
Click fraud is not the same as a short beep. Below is the order: which number links to a visit, when a goal will not appear, and what Direct still does not treat as an invalid conversion.
Four goals and your own threshold
A footnote in the help text calls 30 seconds the average time by which a call can be treated as a target. Another duration, a first or a repeat call, answered or missed, and one quality tag are set as a goal by hand. After the automatic goals are deleted, the next transfer brings back only “Call”.
The glossary says the same about a target call: a goal created when call data is passed, including from call tracking, for a conversation longer than 30 seconds. That is a threshold, not a detector of inflation.
Click fraud and sklikivanie do not turn a missed call into an invalid click. Invalid clicks are another list. Direct does not treat as invalid traffic repeat conversions in different visits, a repeat Thank-you, a wrong contact, untargeted fields or a form for a reward. An empty phone conversation does not appear from that list by itself: the call lives in Metrica’s goals.
A dynamic number and a static one
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 links such a call to the nearest visit that fits in time. A static call is not linked to visitors’ visits. The data appears in reports within 3 hours after the upload. Call tracking may pass duration, whether the call was missed, whether it was the first, and the phone number, but only the date and time are required.
A static number therefore does not prove which ad the call came from. Ads need a dynamic number, or the “Call” goal will not sit on a visit. A separate detector of inflated calls is not part of this order: the record is what call tracking passed.
When a call does not become a goal
There is no link if the visitor or click identifier is not in Metrica’s database, if the visit was after the call, or if the visit was earlier than 21 days before the data was sent. “Call” goal statistics appear only when the link succeeds.
In “Calls, in detail” the date is the moment of the call. The goal achievement 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-linking window. It is the same length as the offline-conversion window for yclid, but the help text states it for the call separately. Do not read linking statuses in offline-conversion reports blindly: look at the share in the upload settings.
An offline conversion can be written in by passing ClientId, UserId, yclid or PurchaseId, the identifier of a goal event, and a Unix time. For yclid the conversion attaches to the visit with that ad, not to the last visit. The data lands on the visit if no more than 21 days passed between the visit and the file being processed. The help text calls ClientId the most accurate identifier for offline data: a random anonymous browser identifier. An order from the CRM that is already on the visit can be changed for another 111 days. Twenty-one and 111 days are windows for supplementing a visit, not a retention period for personal data.
Who calls and why they click does not replace the link. A refund is not started by a short call.
Checking a day’s calls, in order
Make sure the counter is yours, not an automatic one.
Split dynamic numbers and static ones. A static number will not sit on a visit.
Wait up to 3 hours after the upload before you look for the call in the report.
Check the four automatic goals. A missed call is in “Call” and is not in “Target call” unless the conversation is longer than 30 seconds.
Do not read 30 seconds as inflation. If you need your own threshold, set it as a separate goal. After the automatic goals are deleted, only “Call” comes back.
Check the link: the identifier is in the database, the visit is not after the call, the visit is not older than 21 days before the send.
Do not require the detailed-report date to match the date in “Conversions”. The example is a visit on 11 March and a call on 13 March.
An offline write-in by yclid goes on the ad’s visit, not the last visit, and it must fit in 21 days before the file is processed. An order from the CRM can still be edited for 111 days.
Do not declare a repeat visit, a bad contact or a bonus form an invalid Direct conversion.
Three calls as an example
A teaching example.
The first: a dynamic number, a visit on 11 March, a conversation on 13 March longer than 30 seconds, the data sent the same day. The link succeeded. There is a “Target call”. In the detailed report the date is 13 March; in “Conversions” on 13 March there is no achievement — it sits on the visit of the 11th. That is not a lost lead.
The second: a static number. It will not link to visits, even if the conversation is long. There will be no “Call” goal on a visit. For the ads this call does not sit on an ad.
The third: dynamic, and the click identifier is absent from the database. There is no link, and goal statistics do not appear. That is not proof of click fraud and not a refutation. It is the linking rule.
A fourth, for the window: the visit is on 1 February, the send is on 1 March. More than 21 days. There is no link. An offline file by yclid with the same delay will not land on the visit either. The 111 days apply to editing an order that is already added, not to the first linking of a call.
Checklist
The counter was created by you.
The number is dynamic if you need a link to a visit.
No more than 3 hours of waiting have passed — or you are no longer waiting past that in vain.
The four automatic goals are not mixed: missed, longer than 30 seconds, first, first and long.
Thirty seconds was not called inflation.
Your own threshold, if you have one, is a separate goal, and you remember that after the automatic goals are deleted only “Call” remains.
The identifier was found, the visit is not after the call, the 21-day window was kept.
The detailed date and the conversion date were checked against the 11 and 13 March example.
An offline yclid conversion sits on the ad’s visit.
The five “not an invalid conversion” cases were not mixed up with the call.
How to split a day across the four goals
The same batch of calls produces four different numbers. They cannot be averaged.
“Call” is the widest. Missed, short and long go in together. A rise in this goal while “Target call” falls often means a batch of missed calls, not a batch of thirty-second conversations. The 30-second threshold is what separates them. The footnote calls 30 seconds the average time which, on Metrica’s data, is enough to treat a call as a target. That explains the threshold. It is not a study of your industry.
“Unique call” removes repeats. A person who called yesterday and today is not unique on the second day. If the ads brought one client five times, “Call” grows by five and “Unique call” by one, if the first time was inside this report window. A repeat does not become an invalid Direct conversion: the help text places repeat conversions in different visits outside invalid traffic. For a call, uniqueness is a property of the Metrica goal.
“Unique target” needs both conditions at once. A short first call is not in it. A long repeat is not in it either. Mixing it with “Target call” demands uniqueness where it was not claimed.
If the automatic goals were deleted and you kept your own threshold, for example another duration, the next data transfer brings back only the “Call” goal by itself. The custom threshold has to be created again. Otherwise the report on the next day suddenly counts every call, missed ones included, and that looks like a fraud spike, although it is one automatic goal coming back.
The upload requires a date and a time. Duration, a miss, whether it was the first, and the number may be sent by call tracking, and they may not. Without a duration there is nothing to build “Target call” from: the 30-second threshold has nothing to apply to. The report then keeps the wide “Call”, and it is early to read that as the quality of conversations.
The second day of the example
A teaching continuation.
Twenty calls were uploaded to your counter in a day. Five missed: they are in “Call”, not in “Target call”. Seven conversations are shorter than 30 seconds: also only the wide “Call”, unless a custom goal is set. Six are longer than 30 seconds and are first calls: they are target, unique, and unique-target. Two are longer than 30 seconds, but the person had already called: they are target and not unique.
Two of the six long ones sat on a visit from the day before yesterday, the data left today, and the 21-day window was kept. In “Calls, in detail” the date is today. In “Conversions” today these two are absent. That is the visit rule, as in the 11 and 13 March example, not a hole.
Three calls arrived on a static number. They are not linked to visits, they are not in a visit goal, although the moment of the call may be visible in the detailed report after the upload, within 3 hours. They are not proof for an ad.
One dynamic call refers to a click that is not in the database. There is no link. It is not added to the six long ones.
An offline file with yclid for yesterday’s order can still be edited for 111 days, because the order is already on the visit. A new call on a visit three weeks old, if today’s send missed the 21 days, will not land on the visit. The 111 days do not repair that lateness.
A bad number the person dictated in the conversation is not an invalid Direct conversion. A repeat visit with a new call is not either. A “call me back” form for a bonus is not either, if it is a form for a reward. The call goal and these five cases stand side by side and do not replace each other.
A day of calls stops being one figure, “leads”. Four goals, the number type, the 21-day window, the shift of the conversion date, and the list of what Direct does not treat as invalid — five checks. While any one is empty, a short beep can still be taken for click fraud, and a long conversation for a click that was certainly charged. Neither follows from these rules.
It is worth checking the upload again the next day: the data may have arrived within 3 hours, and the link only if the identifier was found. A call that was absent in the evening may appear in the morning in the detailed report and still be absent from “Conversions” of the same calendar day, if the visit was earlier. That is not a reason to recreate the goal. It is a reason to open the visit. If there is no visit at all, because the number is static or the identifier is empty, the morning adds nothing to the goal. The conversation then stays in call tracking as a date and a time — the required fields — and does not become an ad conversion. Protecting the budget at that moment starts with the number type and the 21-day window, not with a suspicion of every short call.