How Often Do Business Addresses, Phone Numbers, and URLs Change?

Business information changes all the time. Companies relocate, update phone systems, switch domains, redesign websites, and merge offices. Even if your contact records are accurate, the company details your campaigns depend on can still change over time and become outdated.

TL;DR

• According to Data Axle data, the U.S. sees about 12,500 business address changes per day, 21,000 phone numbers that change or disconnect, and 36,000 business URLs that are created or updated.

• This is a market-wide benchmark based on a commercial business database, and not a guarantee about what you will see in your own CRM. Use it to understand how quickly company fields change, then track your own mismatch rate to see where you stand.

• The USPS processed 98,000 change of address requests per day in 2021 for both businesses and individuals. The USPS NCOA system also maintains roughly 160 million permanent change of address records covering individuals, families, and businesses.

What Daily Business Data Decay Means for Outreach and Targeting

Data decay is often framed as people changing jobs, but it also shows up in company details changing over time. Offices move, main phone numbers get switched or disconnected, and websites and domains get updated, all of which adds to the problem.

If you use the daily benchmark as a reference point, the yearly totals add up quickly. About 4,563,960 address changes, 7,638,720 phone number changes or disconnects, and roughly 13,175,040 business URLs created or updated.

If you target accounts by location, route calls through a main line, enrich records from domains, or run direct mail, those company fields can be wrong even when your contact list looks fine.

Why Business Info Changes So Often

These fields change for normal, everyday reasons. Companies move and consolidate as offices relocate, warehouses shift, branches open or close, and locations get combined after a merger. Phone systems change too, with new providers, updated IVRs (Interactive Voice Responses), department reshuffles, and numbers that eventually get disconnected. Websites and domains are just as changeable, since rebrands, agency rebuilds, redirects, and full site migrations happen all the time.

Even if you are reaching out to the right company and the right person, outdated company details can still misroute your outreach, and you end up spending time on outreach that never reaches the right place.

How Business Data Decay Impacts Campaign Performance

Here are four common ways decay shows up in campaigns:

1. Territory and geo targeting becomes less accurate
   If you segment by state, metro, ZIP radius, or within X miles, old addresses can put accounts in the wrong segment. That means you may target the wrong accounts, tailor messaging to the wrong location, and see conversion rates drop.

2. Call connect rates drop
   When numbers are disconnected or the main line has changed, you get more dead dials and more time spent just trying to reach anyone. Over a week of outbound, that adds up very fast.

3. Direct mail gets expensive and hard to measure
   Bad addresses waste printing and postage, delay follow-ups, and undermine attribution because a portion of mail is never delivered.

4. ABM, enrichment, and record matching change
   If you rely on domains for audience matching, enrichment, or web personalization, an outdated URL can create duplicate records and bad matches.

How to Measure Your Business Data Decay Rate in Your CRM

Benchmarks are useful, but the most actionable number is your own mismatch rate.

Start by pulling a sample of 200 to 500 target accounts, from either current pipeline accounts or your core ICP segment. For each account, validate three company fields: address, main phone number, and website or domain. Record each field as match, mismatch, or unknown.

Then calculate mismatch rates by field, such as address mismatch rate, phone mismatch or disconnect rate, and website mismatch, redirect, or dead rate.

Repeat the same check for a second segment. In most cases, the mismatch rates vary significantly by segment.

Once you know your mismatch rate, it is easier to set the right refresh cadence. If 12% of your phone numbers are wrong after six months, refresh your call lists at least twice a year, and more often for your highest volume segments.

FAQ

How is business-field decay different from contact decay?

Contact decay is when people change jobs, titles, or email addresses. Business field decay is when company details used for routing and identification change, like an address, main line, or domain. You need to manage both, because either one can break targeting, routing, and measurement.

How often should I refresh addresses, phones, and domains?

If you run campaigns year round, here is a practical baseline:

For direct mail: verify addresses before every mailing.
For calling: verify main lines ahead of major outbound campaigns, and more often if you sell into SMB-heavy segments.
For ABM and enrichment: validate domains before enrichment or audience updates.

Then use your own mismatch rate to set the final cadence by segment and channel. You can also read our blog on a 90-day verification cycle for more information.