Click Fraud FAQ

What is click fraud?
Yahoo! Search Marketing wants advertisers to understand that traffic quality and click fraud are two very different things. Click fraud is generally considered to be clicks made with bad faith with the sole purpose of generating a charge to the advertiser with zero possibility of a legitimate site visit or transaction occurring. We agree. But from a technical perspective, it is impossible to look into someone's mind at the time they click to see whether they are clicking with bad faith. In other words, we can't read users' minds. Instead, Yahoo! Search Marketing has to look at what identifiable behavior may indicate bad faith. In terms of identifiable behavior, we define click fraud as detected illegitimate bots and certain repetitive clicks. And we have created sophisticated software that identifies this behavior and attempts to filter out charges for these clicks so that you are not billed for them. We do not disclose how we define repetitive clicks or the details about our proprietary technology because we do not want to educate those who are acting in bad faith.

Traffic quality clicks refers to all clicks that are not click fraud, which includes everything from perfectly converting clicks to those that do not convert. It refers to clicks from domestic and international users and clicks from our various distribution channels and products. We realize that advertisers are concerned about traffic quality issues such as receiving traffic from unwanted sources or increased amounts of traffic. While we are not legally obligated to address traffic quality issues, our aspiration is to bring good value to our advertisers. We welcome information from advertisers about traffic quality concerns.

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What is the Click Protection System?
The Click Protection System is designed to detect click fraud. We receive billions of searches per month which lead to several million clicks onto advertiser listings each day. We strive to ensure that our customers are satisfied with their advertising experience and work to maintain productive and active relationships with advertisers. As part of our effort to maintain advertiser satisfaction, we utilize the Click Protection System, which includes sophisticated software that evaluates each of our advertisers' clicks.

Our Click Protection System uses search and click data to make both rules-based inferences and pattern recognition-based inferences about which clicks constitute click fraud. While the details cannot be disclosed, the core mechanics involve many data points.

If the data points indicate click fraud, our Click Protection System software marks the identified click in our billing system, and the advertiser is not charged for it. However, the advertiser still receives the click through and we are therefore unable to remove the click from the advertiser's own Web logs. That is, you still get the traffic but you are not charged for it.

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Why does the Click Protection System exist?
We developed the Click Protection System to assist us in identifying click fraud and creating a better user experience for our advertisers. While the Advertiser Terms and Conditions agreement provides that you will be charged for all clicks on your listings, we realize that our customers are concerned about click fraud and maintaining customer satisfaction is a top priority. Therefore, even though we are not obligated to, we voluntarily designed the Click Protection System and enhance it. Please note that nothing in these FAQs alters, amends, modifies, revises or supersedes any terms, conditions or limitations in the Advertiser Master Services Terms and Conditions, nor increases or alters in any way Yahoo! Search Marketing's liability to its advertisers.

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What happens if someone keeps clicking repetitively on my listing?
The Click Protection System uses a variety of techniques to filter clicks before they show up as a charge on your reports. Detecting click fraud is very complex and requires arduous analysis, and we work hard to develop and update the Click Protection System. Maintaining advertiser satisfaction is a top priority, which is why we also have dedicated employees who are vigilant in their analysis of potential click fraud.

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Does Yahoo! Search Marketing monitor the effectiveness of its Click Protection System?
Yes. We don't assume that our Click Protection System technology is perfect. There will always be people who attempt to find and exploit weaknesses in the software. Therefore, clicks are reviewed after the Click Protection System software has run to identify click fraud. When situations arise in which our specialists discover click patterns that seem to suggest click fraud, we may upgrade the Click Protection System to prevent the billing of such clicks in the future as a goodwill effort to maintain customer satisfaction.

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How do I know the Click Protection System is working?
Our Click Protection System software is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, you may receive clicks for which you are not billed. However, for advertisers to verify the effectiveness of the Click Protection System, they should have a tracking URL specific to Yahoo! Search Marketing in place on all of their listings.

We provide our advertisers with traffic from many sources. This means that an advertiser's Web logs often show a click or a page view as coming from Yahoo! or one of our distribution partners, which can be confusing. A Yahoo! Search Marketing tracking URL removes the possible source of confusion.

Suppose you are the advertiser who owns the site http://www.joesbagels.com. Your tracking URL would be: http://www.joesbagels.com/?source=yahoo.

With the tracking URL, you are able to review your Web logs for the phrase "source=yahoo." You will be able to see the targeted traffic that Yahoo! Search Marketing is delivering to you.

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Why may third party tracking software packages show that I'm not getting as many clicks as Yahoo! Search Marketing is reporting?
To address this issue, we recommend that you have a tracking URL specific to Yahoo! Search Marketing in place. Adding a tracking URL allows you to see just how many clicks you're getting not only from Yahoo! directly but from our extensive affiliate network as well. If you do not have tracking URLs in place, you should add them. Then review your server logs to count your hits (not unique users) where the requested page contains the phrase "source=yahoo." With the tracking URL, your server logs will likely match numbers provided by Yahoo! Search Marketing.

On the subject of counting unique users: Different companies do it differently and this means there are varying levels of accuracy.

Some third party tracking software packages count unique users differently. For example, as of April 2005, one third party provider simply counted one IP address for every half-hour interval as a unique user. The problem with this counting technique is that it does not take into consideration the existence of proxy servers.

Proxy servers are computers that act as agents for multiple users. The effect of proxy servers is that thousands of truly unique users can all share the same IP address. An example of proxy server traffic is XYZ Company. XYZ Company routes all of its subscribers through a limited number of IP addresses, so any one XYZ Company IP address can map back to tens of thousands of separate XYZ Company users. Some tracking software fails to take the proxy server condition into account.

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If the Click Protection System addresses click fraud, does that mean that all other traffic will convert?
Just as your local shoe store gets customer traffic that is 'just looking', so do sites on the Internet. Once a potential customer arrives at an advertiser's site, it is that advertiser's challenge to keep that person interested and to provide the right information to close the deal.

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Do you bill only for one click per IP address per day?
No. One of the reasons that we don't do this is because there are a large number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who use proxy servers to serve their subscribers. Proxy servers are computers that act as agents for multiple users. The effect of proxy servers is that thousands of truly unique users can all share the same IP address. Almost all users who come to your site from a workplace (e.g. General Motors) will come through a proxy server. Since many users access the Web from their offices, many of our advertisers' own Web logs will show repetition of certain IP addresses.

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Will your Click Protection System detect if my competitor tries to click on my links?
We do not approve of repetitive clicking by competitors on each other's links. Our Click Protection System is designed to recognize certain repetitive clicks and we work to prevent such clicks from being charged to our advertisers.

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Does your Click Protection System filter out spiders and robots?
Spiders and robots are instructed not to spider our search listings. Our Click Protection System is designed to identify the spiders and robots that violate these instructions.

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What can I do if I have questions about the clicks for which I have been charged?
Please contact the Yahoo! Search Marketing Customer Solutions department by using the Support Request Form, a link to which is found at the bottom of nearly all pages in your account. Enter your request and attach any relevant documents before submitting your inquiry. A Customer Solutions employee will investigate your account and contact you directly.

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I asked a customer service agent to review clicks onto my account, and they asked me to provide some information from my web server logs. Why?
Advertisers have information on their server logs which can assist in the detection of click fraud. For example, information about the amount of time a user spends on an advertiser's site and the number of pages within that site that are navigated is valuable to our click protection efforts. Yahoo! Search Marketing welcomes information from advertisers that can help identify click fraud.

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