WHAT IS TRAFFIC QUALITY?

Anchor Intelligence defines traffic quality as a measure of the value of a click or impression along a continuous spectrum of good and bad. Some clicks are “good” because they have a high likelihood of conversion and are thus valuable to the advertiser. For instance, if an individual purchases a lot of books online, any clicks he/she subsequently makes on book-related ads have real value to the advertiser because the individual has demonstrated his/her propensity to purchase books online. Similarly, some clicks are “bad” either because the clicker is acting with malicious intent, or because he/she has a low likelihood of conversion and will provide minimal value to the ROI-focused advertiser. Malicious intent is when the clicker has no intention of converting, thus giving the advertiser no chance of reaping a return on their investment in that click. This can occur when an advertiser attempts to drain a competitor’s advertising budget, or when a publisher attempts to inflate the revenue his/her site earns through hosting ads. On the other hand, a low likelihood of conversion is when a user has a strong aversion to making purchases online, and so his/her clicks are unlikely to result in a purchase, and are therefore less valuable to the advertiser.