This article describes buyers, both as partners in the real world who are responsible for the calls sent to your targets and as a record in your Ringba account.

The functions described in this article are included in all subscription packages. This article is intended for admin users.

This article contains the following sections:

• Buyers
• Buyers List Screen
  • Available Actions
• Adding a Buyer
  • Buyer Configuration Fields
  • Buyer Predictive Routing Fields
  • Buyer Shareable Tags Fields
• How to Assign a Target to a Buyer
• How to Invite a Buyer User
• How to Simulate a Buyer's View of Reporting
• Buyer Management FAQ

Buyers

A buyer is a partner who purchases calls routed to their targets. Buyers could be local businesses, pay-per-call networks, call centers, or anyone else who wants to buy calls.

You create buyer records in your Ringba account to represent your buyer partners. Then you can assign targets to those buyer records to accurately and precisely manage your call flow. For example, you might have a buyer with multiple campaigns in different verticals. You can use buyers records in Ringba to keep track of all these activities under a single buyer.

If you don't already work with buyers, you should consider it. Working with partners  can help your business grow.

You can also invite someone from the buyer's company to be a buyer user in your Ringba account. Adding a buyer user gives that person access to the following features:

• Reports, but only including the data for calls that were connected to them and information that relates to their own targets and only for dates after the day you added the buyer user to your account
• Basic target settings
• Profile settings
• The ability to pause targets
• The ability to manage concurrency and target caps (if enabled) 
• The ability to dispute call conversions

Buyers List Screen

You navigate to the Manage Buyers screen by clicking Targets > Manage Buyers in the left navigation bar. You can use the search bar at the top of the screen to search for buyers by name or ID.

A table appears with a row for each buyer in your account. The table contains the following columns:

• Company Name: The name of the buyer's company.
• Sub ID: The buyer's tracking sub ID.
• Can Pause Targets: Indicates whether buyer users can pause their targets.
• Can Set Target Caps and Concurrency Caps: Indicates whether buyer users can set the concurrency and call caps of their targets.
• Can Dispute Conversion: Indicates whether buyer users can dispute call conversions.
• Restrict Duplicates: Indicates how Ringba routes calls from Caller IDs that have previously connected or converted. See Duplicate Call Routing - Buyers for more details.
• Hour: The revenue for this buyer in the last hour.
• Day: The revenue for this buyer in the last day.
• Month: The revenue for this buyer so far this month. If the buyer has a value in the Monthly Revenue cap field, you also see that value here.
• Total: The total revenue for this buyer. If the buyer has a value in the Global Revenue Cap field, you can also see that value here. 
• Status: The status of the buyer. Valid values are green (open) and yellow (capped). 
• Actions: Icons you use to perform actions on a buyer. See the next section for details. 

You can click most of the column headers to sort the table by the value in that field. Click the header again to reverse the sort, and click it a third time to remove the sort. You can use the icons in the Actions column to perform other operations on target groups from the list screen.

Available Actions

The Actions column contains icons you can use to manage buyers:

Click the icons in the Action column to perform the following actions:

• Edit Buyer: Expand the buyer record for editing.
  Tip: You can also click the buyer name to open the buyer for editing.
• Manage Invites: Expand the panel where you can invite buyer users and see the status of previous user invitations. See the Inviting a Buyer User section later in this article.
• Reset Caps: Click to reset the buyer's numbers to zero. This tool lets buyers start receiving calls again if they had stopped due to hitting a cap.
  Note: Resetting a buyer's cap does not affect the buyer's targets' caps. 
• Show References: Click to see a list of targets, ring tree targets, and groups associated with the buyer.
• Delete Buyer: Click to delete this buyer. When you click this icon, a confirmation window appears so you can see the targets, ring tree targets, and groups associated with the buyer before proceeding.
• View Activity: Click to see a change history of this buyer.

How to Add a Buyer

Adding a buyer to your account lets you track revenue and assign targets to the buyer. Use the following steps to add a buyer:

1. Navigate to Targets > Manage Buyers.
   The Manage Buyers screen appears.
2. Click the Create Buyer button at the top of the screen.
3. Complete the fields. See the following section for a description of the fields.
4. Click Create when you're done to save the buyer record.

Buyer Configuration Fields

Some of the configurations you set here are also available from the Manage Buyers screen. See the Buyers List Screen section earlier in this article for more information.

Beyond those, you also see the following fields:

• Limit Revenue: Toggle this switch on to set a revenue cap for the conversion amount.
  If you toggle this switch on, several more switches appear for you to configure the Global Revenue cap, Monthly Revenue cap, Daily Revenue cap, and Hourly Revenue cap. You can enter whole number or numbers with decimals in these fields.
• Revenue Recovery: Toggle this switch on to enable and configure revenue recovery for the targets and ring tree targets (RTTs) associated with this buyer.
  If you toggle this switch on, fields appear for you to configure the Connection Threshold to Reroute and the number of Reroute Attempts at the buyer level. You can also configure these settings at the target or RTT level. See Revenue Recovery FAQ for more information about how Ringba uses these configurations.

Buyer Predictive Routing Fields

The following fields appear in the Predictive Routing Settings section:

• Estimated Revenue: Use this field to decide whether to use the campaign settings for estimated revenue per call. If you select Use Estimated Revenue, more fields appear for you to configure the predictive routing configuration in more detail.
• Priority Bump: Use this slider to give the buyer a priority bump in predictive routing.

Note: See Predictive Routing for more details on how to complete these fields.

Buyer Shareable Tags Fields

The following fields appear in the Shareable Tags section:

• Override Shareable Tags: Toggle on this switch if you want to override the shareable tags specified on the campaign.

Note: See Shareable Tags Between Ringba Accounts for more details on how to complete this section.

Once you click the Create button, the system creates the buyer. Now you can assign targets and invite buyer users to review reports about their targets' calls.

How to Assign a Target to a Buyer

Assigning targets to a buyer tracks all the revenue generated from calls that have been sent to their business so you can get paid for you calls.

Use the following steps to assign a target to a buyer:

1. Navigate to Targets > Manage Targets.
   The Manage Buyers screen appears.
2. In the list of targets, find the one you want to assign to the buyer and click the Edit icon in the Actions column on the right side of the screen.
3. Select the buyer in the Buyer field.
4. Click Update at the bottom of the record to assign the target to the buyer.

How to Invite a Buyer User

Inviting a buyer user gives  your partner the ability to sign in to your account and view reporting and detailed analytics about the calls that were sent to their targets.

Use the following steps to invite a buyer user:

1. Navigate to Targets > Manage Buyers.
   The Manage Buyers screen appears.
2. In the list of buyers, find the one where you want to invite a buyer user and click Manage Invites icon in the Actions column on the right side of the screen.
3. Click Invite User.
4. Enter the buyer's contact information and click Invite. 
   The system sends an email to the buyer user to complete their registration and sign into their account.

From the buyer user's interface, buyers users can take the following actions:

• View reports
• Manage their targets
• Update their profiles
• Pause targets (if enabled)
• Manage concurrency and caps (if enabled)
• Dispute call conversions (if enabled)

How to Simulate a Buyer's View of Reporting

You can see what reporting data your buyer user can access by simulating the buyer's view on the Reporting screen. Use the following steps:

1. Navigate to Reporting > Default.
2. Click the Admin field and scroll down to the Buyers section to find the buyer you want to simulate.
   Tip: You can also start typing the buyer's name in the field to search the list.
   
    
3. Click the buyer's name.
   The Reporting screen updates to show only the information the selected buyer can access.

Buyer Management FAQ

What features are available for buyers?

Buyers can view reports with data for calls that connected to them, manage their targets, update their profile and (if enabled) pause targets, manage concurrency and caps, and dispute call conversions. Buyers cannot see other information, like information from publishers, for example.

Note: Your buyer users can see reporting data as of the day you add the user to the account. Buyer users cannot see reporting data from before you added them.

Does resetting a buyer's caps affect the buyer's targets' caps?

No, if you reset the buyer's caps, the related targets' caps are unaffected. So if a buyer still isn't getting calls after you reset the caps, you should check the targets to make sure they aren't capped as well.

What should I do if I need help with managing buyers?

If you have any questions or need additional help with your Buyer configuration, please reach out to our support team via chat or email at support@ringba.com.