Yahoo Addresses Quality, Click Fraud

Yahoo paid search is adding some new features for advertisers. In a few weeks they will launch Blocked Domains. Like Google AdWords, you’ll be able to block specific domains that you do not want your ads to appear on. You will be able to block up to 250 domains per account. That includes blocking an entire domain, a subdomain or a directory in a particular domain.

You’ll also be able to block by continent. By default your ads will only show in North America. You can change the default in the administration.

Yahoo is also launching discounts for quality advertisements.
It’s a twist on Google’s quality score. Rather than rewarding advertisers whose ads are clicked on and offer higher quality, you get an automatic discount if your ads generate quality traffic. So those of you who don’t think search engines should have a say in what kind of ad you write, this seems to be the trend. You will be either rewarded or penalized.

Click fraud is always a concern for advertisers. Yahoo is implementing a system to identify the fraud and advertisers will not be billed for those clicks.
Last year researcher Ben Edelman found that Yahoo’s network was rife with “spyware” and “adware” programs. They place ads on behalf of Yahoo advertisers, charge them for clicks on the ads, then split the revenue with their partners. It seems late but hopefully this begins to address the issue.