PARKED.COM - Official Thread!

[ZOX]

Hi,

Welcome to the OFFICIAL PARKED.COM thread!

 

[sugimail]

Since somebody brought up about Quality Score, I have problems with this as well.

Can anybody here tell me how does the Quality Score has been calculated? On what variabel does the QS calculated? Does the country, keyword, source of the traffic or else?

I want to improve my traffic QS but without a hint/clue, that would be too much range to dig up...

 

[Mike]

You can ask your account rep and they will tell you. :tu:

Well,...i'm not going to ask my account rep for the Quality result of each domain that i've got parked at Parked...
Even though my portfolio is small, it would take quite some time to get all the numbers together and i'm not expecting Chris or Donny for that matter, to dig out the QScore of each domain when i could possibly do this myself. Actually, i'd rather do it myself to retain as much overview and understanding over my own portfolio, do it on the fly for each domain and observe whether there are changes in scoring as the market shifts, domains are optimized, etc.

So, Donny -> Is there a way for us to calculate the Quality Score ourselves or can Parked place a QScore tab as part of the "Edit" feature of each domain?

IB

 

[CoolMark]

Well,...i'm not going to ask my account rep or Donny for that matter for the Quality result of each domain that i've got parked at Parked...

Me neither. I don't see why they can't just add it to the Domain Statistics page as another column.

I didn't even know the Quality Score existed until I read these posts.

 

[Donny]

The "traffic quality" score aka TQ score is only available to a certain number of customers. My rule of thumb is that if you have more than 100 clicks per day, you probably have a score. But it's based on account, not domain level. We are working on adding the TQ scores to accouts that Yahoo has them for.

The TQ scores are calculated based mainly on conversions. I don't know the exact formula that is used but it's quite technical. Something like if you have 1 click out of 100 convert for the advertiser you are a 10. Something like that. But I don't know the exact numbers. What I have found is that if you are less than a 4 either your traffic is fake, you have some really crappy traffic or you are getting a lot of traffic to a domain and the traffic is not targetted. A good example of the last part is if you had an old porn site and you decided to send the traffic to another keyword that wasn't adult based.

TQ scores internally at Yahoo are based on different keyword groups. So if you have a lot of insurance traffic you may have to convert at 1 in 50 to be a 10. But the basket weaving market you may only have to convert 1 in 1000 to be a 10. Sorry, I don't have a clue what converts at what. But I can tell you that usually the higher priced keywords seem to have lower scores in many cases.

Donny

 

[Varon]

The "traffic quality" score aka TQ score is only available to a certain number of customers. My rule of thumb is that if you have more than 100 clicks per day, you probably have a score. But it's based on account, not domain level. We are working on adding the TQ scores to accouts that Yahoo has them for.

The TQ scores are calculated based mainly on conversions. I don't know the exact formula that is used but it's quite technical. Something like if you have 1 click out of 100 convert for the advertiser you are a 10. Something like that. But I don't know the exact numbers. What I have found is that if you are less than a 4 either your traffic is fake, you have some really crappy traffic or you are getting a lot of traffic to a domain and the traffic is not targetted. A good example of the last part is if you had an old porn site and you decided to send the traffic to another keyword that wasn't adult based.

TQ scores internally at Yahoo are based on different keyword groups. So if you have a lot of insurance traffic you may have to convert at 1 in 50 to be a 10. But the basket weaving market you may only have to convert 1 in 1000 to be a 10. Sorry, I don't have a clue what converts at what. But I can tell you that usually the higher priced keywords seem to have lower scores in many cases.

Donny

This is very interesting. I'm not sure how Yahoo gets the conversion rates from its advertisers esp in the case of services like legal consel. Here you may have the case of a lead who may actually decide to call the legal firm after a few days rather than just instantly fill up a contact form. I'm wondering how these advertisers track conversions from a domain and report back to Yahoo.

The other part is that most of the higher priced keywords are for service verticals related to keywords like refinance, legal representation, insurance and in minor cases, health insurance quotes. I presume these too have the same complicated conversion tracking scenario. Simply because, the visitor doesn't just immediately buy a product but may request a quote, an information booklet etc. This makes it pretty tedious to track an actual conversion from a domain because the lead time to an actual "sell" has a gestation period.

Considering these points, I'm sure that most high paying KW's definitely are going to get low quality scores and resulting lower CPC's. In the case of domainers its easy to track conversions, because the parameter involved is just the outgoing CTR.

Donny, it would be great if you could throw more light on the TQ Score analysis as you get more information from Yahoo. It would be interesting to gauge how their linear score model works. This might need us to completely revamp our campaigns.

And in conclusion, what would happen to a domainer account who gets a high 80 score? Does that account get the hghest CPC rates for every sub domain?

 

[Donny]

As far as who gets paid what, from my understand, the higher your TQ score the higher the price the advertiser pays, which in turn the more revenue you get.

So as an example and this is just my understanding and really imaginery numbers.

Partner A with TQ of 10, one mortgage click on #1 which has a maximum price to the advertiser of $1.00. In this case the advertiser would be charged $1.00 as Partner A is a 10.

Partner B has a TQ of 5, same click as above, the advertiser will get a discount off of the $1.00 max bid they had. The advertiser could only may 50 cents to 90 cents for that click because the partner has only a TQ of 5. I do not know the exact discount, but there is a discount but in many cases I do know know what the discounts are.

Not all advertisers participate in the report your conversions back to Yahoo system. (Sorry can't remember what's it's called right now) So let's say you have 1000 clicks today, and only 100 are using the click tracking code, those are the only ones that are considered in your TQ score. Not the other 900.

Each market has different conversion percentages as I mentioned before. You may have to convert 1 in 50 for mortgage/real estate to be a 10. But 1 in 250 for travel. Remember I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but this is how the system works.

Yahoo takes yahoo.com numbers to figure out how to calculate the TQ scores. So if mortgage leads convert 1 in 200 on yahoo.com, then for us it will be the same scoring. Or at least least so I have been told.

Hope that makes a little more sense.

Donny

 

[Varon]

Nice That makes sense. Thanks Donny.

 

[Mike]

Donny,
If i'm understanding everything correctly, your feed providers give you the final numbers as to which clicks are getting paid and which aren't.
What are their parameters to determine what's valid and what isn't?
Hypothetically: If i'm getting 20 clicks from the same IP address and 10 are being paid for, what determines that the other 10 are going unpaid?
Also, a domain that started out at $1400 is dropping to $300 at the end of the day, taking revenue down alongside. Even if there's a shift in revenue, shouldn't the clicks get paid at face value when the click occurs, not at the end of the day where the $ value has dropped significantly? Maybe i'm taking this too "Stock Trading" like, but when i buy or sell something i'm paying the price of the moment, not at the end of the day. Can you shed some light on that?

Thanks in advance!

IB

 

[Varon]

I have noticed an uptrend in my CPC. I saw a CPC increase to $7.50. Whatever it is with the TQ, I'm liking it. I hope I haven't spoken a bit too early.

 

[Mike]

Point in case:

Domain "x", had a click yesterday valued at $4.97 before adjustment.
After adjustment, here's the result:

RPM from $1300 adjusted to $80.83 Click adjusted from $4.97 to $0.97.
$4 Dollars Drop? That's a bit extreme! Now, just for the fun of it, multiply that by 10 clicks and you're suddenly losing $40. This seems to happen to quite a few of my domains on random order.
Donny, can you explain what Ask/Yahoo is actually doing?

Starting the RPM at $1300, are the advertisers getting the difference to $80.83 credited?
Is Yahoo/Ask putting on a decent smile and pocket the difference?
What's causing such an enormous drop in value?

I've asked a similar question before at a different parking provider, but never received an explanation. I'm not "pointing fingers", i'd just really like to understand where the difference/adjustment comes into play - within the same day.
Since you're the only parking provider representative that actually always responds :tu i'll put that question on your virtual desk.

IB

 

[Donny]

IB - Simple answer, but I can't get too technical as I don't want to give away everything. But our estimates are based on historical click data that we have over the past 3 years by keyword, by country, by rank. Every click that happens and we get data back from our providers we change the estimates of that keyword either up or down. We also have a per customer/domain system as well, which tries to drill down even closer just for your account/domains.

Our estimates on a brand new domain are always high, but after about 5 days are usually much more accurate. But if you have a domain that's about boats and somebody types in cancer attorneys our system may estimate tht fairly high. Even if I had every price that Yahoo advertisers were bidding, I still would only be 5% off from what I am today because of discounting of TQ scores.

Hope that makes sense.

Donny

 

[chenzen]

Hi Donny,
Can you give a list of countries which are allowed as traffic sources?

Regards,
Chenzen

p.s.: my account manager seems not too much fond of my questions

 

[Donny]

Chenzen,
We accept traffic from all countries. Doesn't mean that their are advertisers in every country for every keyword though. But we do not discriminate against traffic from any country.

Donny

 

[chenzen]

Chenzen,
We accept traffic from all countries. Doesn't mean that their are advertisers in every country for every keyword though. But we do not discriminate against traffic from any country.

Donny

Thanks

 

[whitebark]

Those two .00 cent clicks I had on the single domain updated to .24 cents each - on a pron domain yet. Parked rocks, but why the huge swings Donny?

That domain has been in my account for seven or eight months.

 

[chenzen]

I have found a loophole in the yahoo quality score program! Here is it:

[EDITED]

Just trying to have fun. It's better than keep cursing my EPC and CTR. (Damn, I wish I was a magician!!!)

 

[Varon]

Those two .00 cent clicks I had on the single domain updated to .24 cents each - on a pron domain yet. Parked rocks, but why the huge swings Donny?

That domain has been in my account for seven or eight months.

24 cents for an adult domain is really decent.

 

[whitebark]

24 cents for an adult domain is really decent.

I've seen them as high as $1.29 on that same domain with parked.com. No complaints here - just wondering why the huge update swings... :hehe:

And it did finally happen post update - 1 click no cents. Traffic from India/Phillipines this time on a .ca. No big deal considering the traffic source but we are getting to google-like levels here...

 

[ZOX]

24 cents for an adult domain is really decent.

Hi Varon!
...
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE 1000th Post for 'PARKED.COM!' :kickass: :tu:
...

 

[Varon]

Hi Varon!
...
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE 1000th Post for 'PARKED.COM!' :kickass: :tu:
...

Haha...for a minute I was wondering what you were referring to. I guess I made the 1000th post for this thread. Lets hope that turns out auspicious for my CPC too. I'm totally revamping my campaigns.

 

[hitchhiker]

I have found a loophole in the yahoo quality score program! Here is it:

When you add a fresh domain, you get as much as a high quality domain with the same keyword gets paid. So register a keyword(s) (.) (any ccTLD) and with arbitrage, enjoy it till its EPC goes down to hell. Then remove it and do the same with another ccTLD Enjoy!!!

Just trying to have fun. It's better than keep cursing my EPC and CTR. (Damn, I wish I was a magician!!!)

Quality score applies to the entire porfolio no?

 

[Mike]

Lets hope that turns out auspicious for my CPC too. I'm totally revamping my campaigns.

Care to share some details on what you're doing? (PM me if you like). My CTR is about as active as the proverbial turkey @ Thanksgiving.

IB

 

[mrizos]

Care to share some details on what you're doing? (PM me if you like). My CTR is about as active as the proverbial turkey @ Thanksgiving.

IB

My CTR a little bit better (from 50% to 60%). My RPC's shot up again.

 

[evilopinions]

Yesterday I moved one of my OK OK domain to parked.In about 13 views I got 4 clicks 5 cent a click. The same domain makes 1 $ a day at Bodis. I thought still lets stick out and see what happens....Today morning I checked the stats and all clicks and revenue has disappeared and gone back to zero !

Has this happened to anyone before....

I am very very very surprised

 

[Donny]

evilopinions - I would say the problem was that one person clicked out all 4 times. And that one person had already clicked out on about 20 other domains yesterday, and Yahoo decided not to pay for any of their clicks.

Donny