What counts as a Lead?

This is how we count leads in your GravityPulse reports. We want you to know exactly what’s in the number.

Why this matters

Not every call or form is a real lead. Some are spam. Some are wrong numbers. Some are existing clients, suppliers, or job applicants. If we counted all of them, the number would look bigger than it is — and you’d be left to sort through them yourself.

We’ve set up filters so only real leads get counted. Here’s how it works.

The filters

A call or form is counted as a qualified lead only if it passes all five filters:

1. Call lasts at least 45 seconds Short calls are usually misdials, hang-ups, or someone reaching voicemail. 45 seconds is long enough to filter those out, short enough to keep real quick questions. For forms and chats, we look at whether they were completed properly instead.

2. First-time caller Repeat callers are usually existing clients, suppliers, or people inside your team — not new prospects. We only count the first call from each phone number.

3. Caller is in your service area Calls from outside your area don’t count, no matter how long they last. We set your service area when you start with us, and we can change it anytime.

4. Not spam Our call-tracking tool catches spam and robocalls automatically. Anything it flags is removed before we count. If you or our team flag something as spam later, that’s removed too.

5. Not a duplicate If the same person calls twice in 30 days, it counts as one lead. After 30 days, they count as a new lead if they call again.

What we don’t count

• Calls under 45 seconds
• Existing clients, suppliers, or vendors
• Wrong numbers and sales calls
• Robocalls and spam
• People asking for directions or hours
• Job applicants
• Calls from outside your service area
• Repeat contacts from the same person within 30 days
• Form submissions our spam filters catch

We don’t listen to your calls

Every filter above uses basic call information — how long the call was, where it came from, which number it called. We don’t record your calls, we don’t read your forms, and we don’t listen in to decide what counts.

This matters for counsellors, physiotherapists, lawyers, bookkeepers, and any practice where what’s said on a call is private, privileged, or covered by rules like PIPEDA or PHIPA.

If you want calls recorded for your own training or quality purposes, we can set that up separately with the right consent language. It’s not part of how we count leads.

When you flag something

Sometimes a call gets through the filters but shouldn’t count — maybe it was your cousin, or a supplier we didn’t recognise. You can tell us, and we’ll remove it from future lead counts.

We ask that flags be based on facts, not feelings. “This was my neighbour” is a fact. “This didn’t feel like a real lead” isn’t — that’s about whether the sale went well, which is a different question. Our job is to measure whether marketing brought in real inquiries. Whether those inquiries close is up to your sales process.

Once a report is out, the numbers are final

After we send you a report, those numbers don’t change. If you flag something later, we handle it in the next report, not by redoing the old one.

If we notice you’re flagging a lot of the same kind of thing, that tells us our filters are missing something. We’ll tune the filters going forward. That’s a better fix than changing past numbers.

How we show cost per lead

Google Ads has its own way of counting conversions. We use that data to tune your campaigns day-to-day — it’s what Google needs to find more good leads for you.

For your reports, we use our own number: Cost per Qualified Lead (CPQL).

CPQL = (Ad spend + our management fee) ÷ Qualified leads

This means the cost-per-lead you see in your GravityPulse report uses the filters above. We also show Google Ads’ own cost-per-lead right next to it, so you can see both.

Your setup can be adjusted

The defaults above work for most practices. Some settings can be tuned for yours — the call length threshold, your service area, the duplicate window. If we adjust anything, it’s written down in your setup so you always know how your numbers are calculated.

Why we do it this way

We want you to trust your reports. That means showing you what counts, what doesn’t, and why — and doing it the same way every month.

The filters aren’t secret. They’re the same ones used by good call-tracking tools across the industry. What we do is write them down, apply them consistently, and show our work.

That’s the standard.