Microsoft adCenter has added click quality reports, according to a post on the adCenter blog by Brendan Kitts, program manager for click quality for Microsoft adCenter.
Because all clicks don’t necessarily carry the same value, adCenter categorizes them as either standard quality or low quality. Standard-quality clicks are the clicks that you want, that ordinarily result in conversions, and that you are billed for.
Low-quality clicks are clicks that adCenter classifies as non-billable, including those that adCenter has identified as:
- Invalid clicks
- Clicks that have characteristics of low or unclear commercial intent
- Clicks that exhibit patterns of unusual activity
- Clicks that originate from spiders, robots, questionable sources, or test servers
- Clicks that should be filtered out for other reasons
Some traffic that adCenter has flagged as low quality might ultimately result in conversions for you, which is why the label “low quality,” rather than “invalid,” provides a more accurate description of this class of traffic.
Kitts also points to a few studies that show adCenter producing a higher conversion rate than other ad platforms, including research from Atlas, Nielsen/Netratings, Compete and WebSideStory (now Visual Sciences).