How to tell a real lead from a fake one

A real lead and a fake one in the account do not match the “invalid traffic” control. Direct does not treat as invalid traffic repeat conversions in different visits, a repeat opening of the Thank-you page, a wrong contact, untargeted field values, or a form filled in for a reward. Real users with no interest in the offer are not removed by the filter either. Separately, a target call in Metrica is a conversation longer than 30 seconds, and the CRM upload has a Spam order status that you set, not the counter.

Click fraud is easy to mix up with a bad lead. Below is the review by layer, and a checklist of what to call real, what to leave in spend, and what to send to Metrica as spam.

The account layer: what will not become an invalid conversion

Direct’s help text keeps five cases outside invalid traffic:

• repeat conversions in different visits;

• a repeat opening of the Thank-you page;

• a wrong contact;

• untargeted fields;

• a form filled in for a reward.

That can be a useless lead for sales and still an ordinary conversion for Direct. Do not wait for antifraud to remove a “crooked phone” or a form filled for a bonus: those lines are not in the invalid list.

Invalid clicks live on another list. Click fraud and sklikivanie do not move an untargeted field there on their own. Who clicks ads, and why explains motives of a visit, but does not change the five cases.

A live person with no interest in the offer is a sixth, neighbouring boundary. That person is not invalid traffic either, and the filter does not remove them. A “just looking” lead from them stays in spend and in the CRM until you set a status yourself.

The call layer: 30 seconds is a goal threshold, not a fake

A target call in the Metrica glossary is a goal created when call data is passed, including from call tracking. It marks calls whose conversation lasted more than 30 seconds.

Thirty seconds is a goal threshold, not a sign of inflation. A 40-second conversation becomes a target call even if the interest is empty. A 10-second conversation does not meet the “target call” goal even if the client was real and called back later. For a lead review, read duration as the goal condition, then decide separately whether the demand is live.

Whether Yandex refunds click fraud is not tied to the 30-second threshold. A short call does not become a refund, and a long one does not prove the click was charged.

The CRM layer: spam is set by whoever uploads

The help text for loading a CRM into Metrica gives five order-status types. “Spam order”, default identifier SPAM, reaches the goal “CRM: Spam order”. Beside it are “Order created” (IN_PROGRESS), “Order paid” (PAID), “Order cancelled” (CANCELLED) and “Order in another status” (OTHER), if you pass the identifier of your own goal of the type “goal event”.

In the help-text example a quality lead is a separate goal passed after the conversation, not the sending of the form itself. The uploading side sets SPAM. On this upload Metrica does not parse the lead text itself.

So a “fake” appears in the report when you named it. While the CRM is empty, Metrica will not label the lead as spam for you. The reverse is also true: a SPAM status does not rewrite the click into Direct’s invalid traffic. The five cases above keep their classification even if the CRM says spam.

One lead, in order

1. Is it a repeat conversion in another visit, a repeat Thank-you, a bad contact, untargeted fields, or a form for a reward? If yes, Direct does not treat it as an invalid conversion. Sales may see an empty lead. The account does not.

2. Is it a live person with no interest? The filter will not remove them. You set the CRM status.

3. Is it a call? The “target call” goal needs a conversation longer than 30 seconds. Shorter, and the goal is not met. That is not a verdict of “fake” or of “live”.

4. After the conversation, pass a separate quality-lead goal, as in the help-text example. Sending the form is not that goal.

5. If the lead is junk, upload the status SPAM. The goal “CRM: Spam order” fires. A paid order is PAID, a created one is IN_PROGRESS, a cancelled one is CANCELLED. Your own status is OTHER plus a goal-event identifier.

6. Do not expect SPAM to shrink Direct spend. The layers differ.

7. Do not name as CPL something these help texts do not define: the goal, the status and the call threshold are enough for the conversation.

An example of changing statuses

A teaching example.

On Monday the form went out with a wrong phone. That is not an invalid conversion. The CRM gets SPAM. Metrica reaches “CRM: Spam order”. The click in Direct does not become invalid because of that.

On Tuesday the same person opened Thank-you again in a new visit. A repeat conversion in another visit and a repeat of the Thank-you page are not invalid either. A second SPAM fits if the review is the same. Two statuses do not add up to “double fraud in the account”.

On Wednesday the call lasted 45 seconds. The “target call” goal is met: the 30-second threshold is passed. After the conversation it turns out the person wanted another service. A quality lead is not passed as a separate goal. You can leave the order as CANCELLED or, if that is your junk rule, SPAM again. The call duration stays a target call. Interest and the goal threshold are different ticks.

On Thursday the form was filled for a bonus, and the fields are untargeted. Both signs are on Direct’s list, and neither makes the conversion invalid. SPAM is set again by the uploading side. A live neighbour with no interest, who simply closed the page and left no lead, does not get this status: there is no lead, and the filter would not take the click anyway.

Checklist

• A repeat in another visit is not called invalid.

• A repeat Thank-you is not called invalid.

• A bad contact is not handed to Direct’s antifraud as an invalid conversion.

• Untargeted fields and a reward form stayed on the same list.

• A live person with no interest is not crossed out of spend by expecting the filter.

• A call longer than 30 seconds is marked as a target call, without the label “definitely a live customer”.

• A call shorter than 30 seconds is not declared a fake only because of the length.

• A quality lead is passed as a separate goal after the conversation, not as the form submit.

• Junk left as SPAM with the default identifier.

• PAID, IN_PROGRESS, CANCELLED and OTHER are not mixed up with spam.

• The CRM status is not described as a rewrite of Direct’s report.

How to read the five statuses side by side

The statuses are not a quality ladder. They are different upload marks.

IN_PROGRESS means the order was created. The lead reached accounting, and that is not enough to call it real in the sense “the person will buy”. The help text does not glue order creation and interest in the offer together.

PAID means the order was paid. That is the closest to money, but payment does not cancel Direct’s five cases after the fact and does not say the click was valid. It says the uploading side passed a payment.

CANCELLED means the order was cancelled. A cancellation happens for a live person with no interest and for a bad contact. The reason is not inside the status type. If the reason is junk, you need a separate SPAM beside it, not a hope that cancellation equals spam.

SPAM is a spam order and the goal “CRM: Spam order”. You set it. Metrica does not classify the lead text on this path.

OTHER is your own identifier of a goal event. Put here a rule that is not among the four ready names. The quality lead in the help-text example is not the form. It is a goal after the conversation. It is better not to mix it with SPAM: otherwise the report stops telling “we talked and took it to work” from “we talked and threw it out”.

Thirty seconds attaches to this table only if the lead is a call. A conversation longer than the threshold gives the “target call” goal no matter which of the five statuses you upload later. A short conversation does not give that goal, and a CRM status does not lengthen it.

The second batch of the same example

Still a teaching example.

Friday: a person with no interest in the price left untargeted fields and wrote plainly that they are filling the form for a bonus. One lead meets two items on Direct’s list. Neither makes the conversion invalid. The CRM gets one SPAM, not two. A double status is not in the list of types: the type is one.

Saturday: the same number called, the conversation is 20 seconds. The target call is not met. Yesterday’s SPAM is already set. The new call does not become a second spam by itself and does not become a quality lead: a quality lead, in the help-text example, is passed after the conversation as a separate goal, and the conversation missed the threshold.

Sunday: another person repeated the conversion in a new visit and opened Thank-you again. The filter stays quiet. If sales confirm the order, the status is IN_PROGRESS, and after payment PAID. A repeat visit does not forbid payment and does not require SPAM. “Real” in this review is not “the first visit”. It is the status you are ready to defend after the conversation.

The week’s summary for a manager is therefore three lines, not one. How many leads Direct does not have to treat as invalid. How many calls are longer than 30 seconds. How many SPAM uploads and how many separate quality-lead goals. The first line is not subtracted from spend. The second does not equal the third. The third does not return clicks.

Live bounces with no lead do not enter the SPAM summary: there is no status to set, and the filter leaves those clicks anyway. Their place is the conversation about the offer, next to the boundary “a real user with no interest”. Mixing them with a fake form asks SPAM to do a job for which there is no order.

A sales script only needs a card of four questions, and they have to be answered in this order, or the status is set before Direct’s classification.

First: does the lead fall into the five cases that are not an invalid conversion? If yes, the comment says so. Antifraud will not pick that comment up.

Second: is the person live and do they not need the offer? Then the click stays. SPAM fits only if an order was created and you are ready to call it spam. Without an order there is nothing to attach the status to.

Third: is it a call, and is it longer than 30 seconds? Yes — the “target call” goal is already Metrica’s arithmetic. Quality is decided afterwards, as a separate goal, as in the help-text example. No — there is no target call, and a short beep does not replace SPAM.

Fourth: which of the five identifiers goes into the upload? One. Do not put SPAM on top of PAID “just in case” in the same type: in the help text an order has one of the listed types. If payment went through and the conversation was empty, that is a rule dispute, not a double mark from the list. Choose the type you will defend and pass it. Metrica will not assemble a second truth from two simultaneous types on this description.

So “real” in the report means: it did not fall into Direct’s five cases, or it did and you still run it as an order; the call, if there is one, is longer than 30 seconds; a quality goal left after the conversation; spam was named SPAM by your upload. “Fake” means a status you set, not the invalid-traffic control. Until those words are separated, the report will argue with itself.