What VICIdial CID Groups do and when to use them

A CID (caller ID) — the caller ID number that shows on the person you are dialing — is one of the most important knobs on an outbound floor. VICIdial's CID Groups give you a reusable pool of caller IDs and rules for which one each call presents. They are close cousins of Campaign AC-CID, but with two real advantages: the same set of CIDs can be shared across multiple campaigns, and you can split them by state, not only by area code. There is also a third option to skip geography entirely and just rotate a pool of numbers across every call.

The shared-pool part is the practical win. With Campaign AC-CID, each Campaign carries its own caller-ID logic, so running the same numbers across three campaigns means maintaining the same list in three places. A CID Group is defined once and referenced by every campaign that needs it, which means a number you retire is retired everywhere at once. On a floor that rotates numbers to stay clean, that single point of maintenance is what keeps the whole thing manageable.

The three group types

• STATE — the group matches the lead's state field to a CID for that state. If no match is found, the dialer falls back to the campaign's own CID.
• Area code — picks a CID by the lead's area code, the same idea Campaign AC-CID uses.
• NONE — no geographic split. The active CIDs simply rotate on every call, which is the only mode that unlocks auto-rotation.

How a call picks its caller ID

flowchart TD
  A[Dialer places a call] --> B{CID Group type}
  B -->|State| C{Lead state matches}
  C -->|Yes| D[Use matching state CID]
  C -->|No| E[Use campaign default CID]
  B -->|Area code| F[Use CID for area code]
  B -->|None| G[Rotate active CIDs]
  G --> H{Auto rotate enabled}
  H -->|Yes| I[Swap active CID on schedule]
  H -->|No| J[Even rotation per call]

Auto-rotation on NONE groups

With a NONE-type group you can set CID Auto Rotate Minutes so the system flips through the pool, keeping only one CID active at a time and switching every X minutes while dialing is happening. CID Auto Rotate Minimum holds the current CID until at least that many calls have gone out before the next swap. Any CID whose description is NOROTATE is left out of the cycle. For reference, one hour is 60 minutes and 24 hours is 1440.

Why bother rotating at all? Carriers and analytics services flag numbers that dial heavily, and a number that gets tagged as Spam Likely label tanks your answer rate. Rotating across a clean pool spreads the volume and slows that tagging. It is not a substitute for proper STIR/SHAKEN call attestation, but it is a sensible operational layer on top of it.

Note: a STATE group is only as good as your lead data. If the state field on a lead is blank or wrong, the dialer falls back to the campaign default, so clean lead loading matters as much as the group itself.

CID strategy and team structure go together once you scale — different teams often need different caller-ID pools. For how grading and ranking shape who dials what, see campaign ranks and grades, and for the team model behind it all, read our users and groups guide.

Caller-ID health starts with a clean, dedicated box. See VICIfast plans to launch a single-tenant VICIdial server in under 40 seconds.