What is a good contact rate for AI voice agents?

A good contact rate for AI voice agents is 30-50% on outbound campaigns, meaning 30-50% of attempted calls result in a meaningful conversation with the intended recipient. Rates above 50% indicate excellent list quality or optimal call timing.

What is the typical cost per appointment with AI?

AI cost per appointment typically ranges from $30-$100 depending on the industry and campaign type, compared to $200-$500 for human BDC agents when factoring in total cost of employment. Automotive dealerships average $40-$60 per AI-set appointment.

How do I track AI agent performance?

TrafficDriver.ai provides a real-time dashboard with all key metrics: contact rate, conversion rate, appointment count, cost per appointment, and show rate. Each metric is broken down by campaign, agent type, and time period for detailed analysis.

Best Practices · 2026-02-25 · 7 min read

The 5 Metrics That Matter for AI Voice Agents

Contact rate, conversion rate, cost per appointment, show rate, and appointment-to-sale ratio. Here's how to measure your AI's performance.

Not all metrics are created equal. Your AI agent makes thousands of calls per day — but which numbers actually tell you if it's performing well?

Here are the 5 metrics that matter most, why they matter, and what good looks like.

1. Contact Rate

What it is: The percentage of attempted calls that result in a meaningful conversation with the intended recipient.

Formula: Conversations ÷ Calls Attempted × 100

Why it matters: If the AI can't reach people, nothing else matters. Low contact rates signal bad data, poor call timing, or wrong phone numbers.

Rating	Contact Rate
Excellent	>50%
Good	35-50%
Average	25-35%
Poor	<25%

How to improve it: Clean your data, optimize call timing (evenings and weekends often perform better), and use list segmentation.

2. Conversion Rate

What it is: The percentage of conversations that result in a booked appointment.

Formula: Appointments Booked ÷ Completed Conversations × 100

Why it matters: This is the AI's core competency — can it take a conversation and turn it into a confirmed appointment?

Rating	Conversion Rate
Excellent	>15%
Good	10-15%
Average	5-10%
Poor	<5%

3. Cost Per Appointment (CPA)

What it is: The total cost of the AI campaign divided by the number of confirmed appointments.

Formula: Total Campaign Cost ÷ Appointments Booked

Why it matters: This is the single most important business metric. It tells you the real ROI of your AI investment.

Industry	AI CPA	Human BDC CPA
Automotive Sales	$40-80	$300-600
Automotive Service	$25-50	$200-400
Insurance	$50-100	$250-500

4. Show Rate

What it is: The percentage of booked appointments where the customer actually shows up.

Formula: Appointments Shown ÷ Appointments Booked × 100

Why it matters: A 100% booking rate means nothing if no one shows up. High show rates indicate the AI did a good job setting expectations and creating commitment.

Rating	Show Rate
Excellent	>80%
Good	65-80%
Average	50-65%
Poor	<50%

5. Appointment-to-Sale Ratio

What it is: The percentage of shown appointments that result in a closed sale.

Formula: Sales ÷ Appointments Shown × 100

Why it matters: This measures the quality of AI-set appointments. If your close rate on AI appointments is lower than human-set ones, the AI may be booking unqualified prospects.

Typical benchmarks:

AI-set appointments: 15-25% close rate
Human BDC-set appointments: 12-20% close rate
Walk-in customers: 10-15% close rate

The higher close rate on AI appointments reflects better pre-qualification during the call.

Want a real-time dashboard of all these metrics? See TrafficDriver.ai in action.