Traffic Scoring: The Qualitative Solution

Until now, the online advertising industry as a whole has viewed traffic quality on a binary basis. Search engines discuss "valid" and "invalid" traffic. Search engine marketing companies optimize around traffic that either converts or does not convert. Click fraud companies analyze traffic to distinguish "fraud" from legitimate users.

The bottom line is that with the exception of a small percentage of obvious robot traffic, the vast majority of clicks and impressions simply cannot be determined to be good or bad. Rather, they are of a certain quality. Quality, in this context, means the likelihood that they will lead to a productive action for the advertiser (i.e.: a sale, etc.). Depending on their various attributes, clicks are of higher or lower quality, on a graduated scale.

In other words, Clicks are not black or white - they are grey.

Using advanced statistical modeling, employing tens of thousands of combined metrics, Authenticlick assigns each click or impression an AQUA Score ® (Authenticlick QUAlity), which identifies the precise quality of an ad transaction, relative to all of the other ad transactions on the web. This click or impression score, similar to a consumer credit score, pinpoints the statistical likelihood that it will be productive from the perspective of an advertiser - the likelihood that it will convert.

To understand some of the implications and applications for this technology, please review our Solutions.