WebProNews » Reggie Davis

Yahoo Introduces Click Filter Report

Doug Caverly — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:24:24 +0000

Yahoo’s quite proud of its Click Protection System, and the company wants the rest of the world to feel the same way. A new Click Filter Report will show every user just how many clicks are being discarded.

"We want to give you as much transparency as we can," wrote Reggie Davis, Vice President of Network Quality, on the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog. "The Click Filter Report provides information for any timeframe you want. You can customize the report to include data such as impressions, invalid clicks, invalid click rate, and average cost-per-click."

Yahoo Click Filter Report
(Photo Credit: Ysmblog.com)

Davis reported that between 12 and 15 percent of clicks are normally discarded, but the percentage will vary from account to account. In the event something seems unusual, users can make click investigation requests.

"Additionally," the vice president noted, "if you are using our analytics tools, you can track data such as click conversion rate and revenue." All sorts of views are available.

Of the whopping two comments that have been made so far following Davis’s post, both are positive. Even if Yahoo hasn’t attracted a huge following with this move, it at least represents a smart step.

Yahoo Partners With Click Forensics

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:03:51 +0000

Yahoo has partnered with third party click-tracking firm Click Forensics to combat click fraud.

ClickForensics Logo
(Photo Credit: ClickForensics)

Yahoo is the first search engine to work with a third party click auditing company. The partnership will allow advertisers to share sensitive account information, such as click data with Yahoo through Click Forensics to eliminate click fraud and low quality traffic.

"Click Forensics will also provide additional advertiser feedback to Yahoo in an effort to help improve traffic quality," said Reggie Davis, vice president of marketplace quality at Yahoo, speaking on a panel Monday at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York, where the partnership was announced.

Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics, who was also on the panel said, "This means we’re going to work together on your behalf to identify and find these bad clicks. I applaud Yahoo in taking a really bold step in working with a third party."

A January Click Forensics report found that overall click fraud rate for online advertising was 16.6 percent in the last quarter of 2007, up from 14.2 percent in the last quarter of 2006.

Yahoo Enhances Ad Traffic Quality

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:47:45 +0000

A new option for Yahoo’s advertisers allows them to have better control of where their ads appear on Yahoo’s Publishing Network.

Yahoo Enhances Ad Traffic Quality

Not every site eligible to display advertising from the Yahoo Publishing Network may be a desirable destination for every advertiser. For whatever reason, traffic from a particular domain doesn’t provide a marketer with the best benefits.

Yahoo addressed this by making a new feature available for its search marketing clients. The company’s top click quality officer, Reggie Davis, posted about it on the Yahoo Search Marketing blog:

The new Blocked Domains feature, which launches later this month, is just the latest among several initiatives we are undertaking in order to in order to provide increased value. Others include:

Discounts
You may automatically receive pricing discounts based on our assessment of the quality of traffic coming from our partner distribution network.

Click protection
We have installed a system to track and identify clicks that we believe shouldn

Yahoo Acknowledges Illicit Clicks Exist

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 11:59:08 +0000

The company has made its first ever disclosure on the clicks it discards, numbering between 12 and 15 percent of the ones it receives as either "invalid or of inferior quality.

Having click fraud undo the positive results seen so far by Yahoo with its revamped search advertising system would represent a critical step backwards for the company. Keeping their momentum going as they try to make some gains against Google means heading off threats before they turn into a virtual 24-like scenario.

Trust in the advertising system has to remain at a high level. Yahoo doesn’t need more class action lawsuits cropping up over accusations of click fraud. They made a couple of announcements that indicate Yahoo will be more proactive about the problem.

A Reuters report noted Yahoo’s appointment of one of its associate general counsels, Reggie Davis, to the position of vice president of marketplace quality. Davis has been involved with defending Yahoo from click fraud lawsuits like the Checkmate action.

The other big news came as Yahoo formally put a number on the illicit clicks it sees: between 12 and 15 percent. These are clicks that Yahoo tosses out before they hit the accounts of their advertisers.

Clearing up the definition of an invalid click will be important. "We need to take some of the inconsistency out of this issue," Davis said in the report.

Yahoo’s moves received approval from Click Forensics head Tom Cuthbert. Calling him a close observer of search industry click fraud efforts might be understatement; he has been openly critical of the lack of transparency into click fraud fighting.

Cuthbert continued to call for independent third-party auditing of click activity, to ensure advertisers fully understand the issues surrounding illicit clicks, namely in how well Yahoo and others keep them from hitting client accounts.