Patent ID: 8725561

Claim:
A method of managing a pool of phone numbers to be associated with advertisements and for attributing an ad impression on publisher media outlets based on a call to an associated phone number, the method comprising: connecting a unique phone number from the managed phone number pool with an advertisement such that each unique phone number is associated with only one advertisement; setting a connection time period for the connection between said phone number and said connected advertisement; serving the connected advertisement via the media outlet, where the unique telephone number is displayed in the advertisement; initiating a countdown of the connection time upon said serving; registering a call to the unique telephone number; identifying the connected advertisement connected to the unique phone number; attributing an ad impression to the media outlet based on the identified advertisement in response to the registered call; checking, after said initiating, if the connection period is expired; if the connection period is expired, releasing the connection between the phone number and the connected advertisement such that the number is no longer connected to the ad; and if the connection period is not yet expired, determining if at least one call was made to the connected number between a current checking step and a previous checking step; adjusting a remaining time for the connection period based on said determining; and waiting a predetermined time before performing a subsequent checking step.