Click Quality
Objective: Learn about click quality in Microsoft adCenter.
Introduction
Click quality is a serious issue for pay-per-click advertisers. This tutorial will
define standard quality clicks, low quality clicks, and invalid clicks and show
you some tools within Microsoft adCenter that can help you identify, monitor, prevent,
and report suspected click activity.
back to top
What Does Click Quality Mean?
Microsoft adCenter categorizes clicks as either standard-quality or low-quality.
- Standard-quality clicks are the ones you're billed for.
- Low-quality clicks exhibit characteristics of low or unclear commercial intent,
and can exhibit patterns of unusual activity. You are not billed for low-quality
clicks.
Invalid clicks fall into the low-quality category, and are identified as having
characteristics typical of user error, robotic activity, or fraudulent activity.
To minimize the impact of invalid clicks and make the most effective use of your
advertising spend, it's important to closely monitor your ad click traffic for any
uncharacteristic changes in click volume, click-through rate, or conversion rate.
back to top
Monitoring and Preventing Low-Quality Clicks
Monitoring and preventing low-quality clicks requires ongoing monitoring. Microsoft
adCenter has real-time and post-click systems to help identify potential low-quality
clicks. And there are a number of things that you can do to monitor the click activity
on your website.
- One key activity is to keep a close eye on your overall click-traffic patterns.
In general, you should be aware of your average click volume per day, per week,
and per month. When you have a good understanding of your typical traffic patterns,
you'll be able to spot uncharacteristic changes that might indicate questionable
click activity. Remember, though, that increased traffic alone does not necessarily
mean you are receiving low-quality clicks. To account for these natural fluctuations,
set up a monthly budget that allows for daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal trends
as well as promotions and sales. For more information about setting up budgets,
visit adCenter Help.
- Another helpful tip is to enable conversion tracking. With conversion tracking,
you'll be able to more easily spot trends or spikes in traffic that also have low
conversion rates, which might indicate low-quality click activity.
- You can also take advantage of the report customization options and add low-quality
clicks to the reports you run.
- A final tip is to use web-tracking software to monitor traffic on your site. This
software can help you analyze the behavior of traffic on your site as well as highlight
potential low-quality clicks.
back to top
Reporting Low-Quality Clicks
If you believe that you have identified low-quality click activity that adCenter
has not already detected, contact adCenter Support. After adCenter Support receives
your request, a representative will contact you. Depending on the outcome of our
investigation, your bill will be adjusted accordingly.
back to top
|
