Google does use "smart pricing," which isn't a quality score per se but does reflect the likelihood of conversion.

And for all we know, Google may use some kind of "quality score" internally in its compensation formula, for ad allocation, or for other purposes.

Yea. They don't share that to publishers. I know publishers who got their EPC going up and up and up and then get banned.

It's as if google like the traffic but then think it's bad or something?

A quality score for AdSense publishers? Can you imagine how many discussions, blog posts, articles on CNET, etc, that would spawn? There would be a whole new "niche" created by all the websites offering advice on how to increase your AdSense Quality Score :)

But it will also force some publishers to face reality when Google rates their site with a low number. I think most people who post on this forum take pride in their sites, but that might not be enough. You could put a lot of time into it, and it might look really cool, but if it doesn't convert then Google might give it a 3. To be honest, I think I would get about a 6 or a 7. I can see by eCPM and volume that there's some value in my site, but I don't think it's turning people into zombies who whip out their credit cards ;)

Well, it works in parked.com

When my TQ drops, I rearrange what traffic sent there and both of us are better off.

I think that's a great idea, one that's been suggested many times. This smart pricing black box doesn't help anyone become better publishers and understand their traffic from a commercial point of view. Yes, we would have many threads on that topic, which isn't bad in itself, but we would also get rid of many other threads from people asking about smart pricing filled with speculations and myths that go absolutely nowhere.

I don't understand why Google is so secretive about their smart pricing. What's the worse that can happen? People improving their conversion rate using dubious methods? I have a hard time figuring how people could abuse this indicator in a way that would hurt advertisers.

They are secretive because of threads like this..

[webmasterworld.com...]

I would suggest they let only TRUSTED publishers know their adSense QS ( smart pricing score) .. How they determine trust is a matter of discussion..

I know. I created that stupid thread. But c'mon. If they don't make money why not tell the publisher?

I am aware of teguh123's troubled past ;) But I still wonder, as much as I dislike black hat schemes, if some publishers use black hat methods to increase their conversion rate, outside of getting banned themselves when caught, practically speaking, does anyone else is really hurt by it? Advertisers get their ROI so they won't complain. Buyers aren't tricked into buying stuff.

I would be all for kicking them out if they do, I just don't see the massive "terrible" consequences of displaying a score.

The only problem I see is if someone manage to increase their smart pricing score artificially without providing a real conversion rate to advertisers.

Maybe Google's smart pricing score is secretive because it's actually based on shaky methods that could easily be reverse engineered because it doesn't really take into account conversion rates?

I have solutions for my chinese traffic already.

Basically if we just horde large number of affiliates that market to chinese and put them in one landing page we should be able to make more than adsense. But then again, which one I should try?

[edited by: martinibuster at 8:13 am (utc) on Aug. 5, 2009]
[edit reason] Removed specifics. [/edit]

Oh ya. I am sorry.

I've just been thinking that may be google lost money due to my traffic. I mean advertisers.

I see ads showing up. If your site is in English, ads that show up is in English too. Well, chinese don't read english.

I wonder about paypal penetration in china.

So it looks to me that anyone that advertise in english in china must be someone that don't care or something.

No google system is perfect. Atleast I don't see pefection anywhere. So I am sure it can be manipulated. One way to hide inefficiencies is by obfuscating information and providing vague guidelines.

Don't take me wrong. I love G. ;-) but I try to be realistic.

I know. I created that stupid thread. But c'mon. If they don't make money why not tell the publisher?

It's pretty easy to calculate EPC from your Google statistics and draw your own conclusions.

I would be amazed if Google didn't take into account the quality/location of the traffic as a part of smart pricing.

The way I understand it is that advertisers know where they put their ads.

So advertisers know that chinese traffic worth less and they can reduce the bid for those chinese traffic.

So if an advertiser bid in english and get chinese traffic and then fail to convert, in a sense it's the advertiser's "fault". IMHO.

Of course you can use translator to make a chinese blog and use geoip to send traffic there.

What about if google provide TQ score too?

Because it's something else that certain people would try to manipulate in their favor. Google likely records a TQ and uses it for Smart Pricing, but there's no benefit for Google in displaying a TQ.

Two more things to keep in mind:

1) "Traffic quality" has different meanings in different contexts. You might have the greatest "Freebies for Pennypinchers" site in the world, or the most squeaky-clean "Biographies of Nobel Peace Prize Winners" site on the planet, but that doesn't mean your traffic would convert well for advertisers.

2) It isn't Google's job to influence a publisher's choice of topic or content type. Can you imagine the uproar here if Google told a publisher (either explicitly or implicitly), "You've got a Traffic Quality score of 3 with your 'Life of St. Christopher' site because it doesn't lend itself to e-commerce, but you might be able to raise that to a 7 by changing the topic to 'St. Christopher Medals for Collectors'"?

Ultimately, it's the publisher's responsibility to select the right topic, create content that engages readers, and attract an audience that can be monetized through advertising, affiliate sales, subscriptions, or whatever the publisher's business model calls for.

Traffic quality scores have been used by Yahoo and Google for years. I've probably posted this before, but Google has a wealth of data about traffic quality from their Google Analytics data. I doubt anyone knows the value of a user like Google does.