Unqualified leads and how they relate to traffic quality

An unqualified lead is not the same thing as an invalid click. Direct does not treat as invalid traffic repeat conversions in different visits, a repeat opening of the thank-you page, a contact entered incorrectly, off-target field values, or a form filled in for a reward. A person can submit the form honestly and still not be your customer. Click fraud does not close this case.

There is a link to traffic quality, and it is not a direct one. A poor channel can bring both bots and living people with no interest. Direct's list does not propose subtracting the second group from invalid traffic. Below is how to sort a lead by what the help can actually show.

What Direct does not subtract

The list above is a boundary of the ad account, not a sales-team score. Invalid clicks and click fraud describe another layer: impressions and clicks the platform may mark invalid. Off-target fields are not in that layer. Who clicks ads and why does not explain why a living person ordered the wrong service. Whether Yandex refunds click fraud is not tied to a lead that is "not ours": that lead is not on the invalid-traffic list.

The practical conclusion follows. If a manager marked a lead unqualified, that is not yet an argument for a click-fraud complaint and not a reason to expect a refund. First separate a living person with no interest from a repeat submission that moves a counter.

When a repeat moves a metric

OAT-016 Skewing in the OWASP catalog is repeated clicks on links, page requests, or form submissions whose purpose is to change some metric. The metric may be visible to people (a counter, a survey, a review, a dynamic price) or hidden (usage statistics, business indicators). For malicious inflation of spend the catalog points to another event, OAT-003, not to this one. Names such as click fraud and survey skewing on that page are event names in the catalog, not a Direct report and not a quiz measurement.

Off-target completion and metric skewing diverge by intent. In the first case the form was filled in about something other than your offer. In the second the repeat exists to move a number. Both can look like junk leads in a CRM, and in Direct neither becomes invalid traffic from the list above by itself.

What Metrica and the CRM show

An order from the CRM is tied to the closest visit in time of a person found by ClientId, phones, or email. Without a tie, the order is visible only in the "Visitors and clients" report and does not enter the other reports. Goals tied to the statuses of such an order are not passed to Direct when the visits belong to that ad source. The help treats ClientId as more reliable for the tie than a phone or an email, and it does not publish a percentage of successful matches. A lead with no tie will not reach Direct optimization, even if it looks qualified in the CRM.

The "Classify leads" section says not every form fill or on-site order leads to payment. Data on the "good" leads is passed so you can see which sales channels are effective. The help suggests using goals for confirmed actions and deal statuses in Direct optimization: redeemed orders, signed contracts, payment after a lead. It does not set a single formula for "lead quality."

In the list of goal types, "Click on a phone number" and "Calls" are separate. The first watches a press on a number on the site. The second watches call categories passed into Metrica. "Form submission" is a separate type next to them. Conversion is the ratio of goal visits to all visits. In one goal visit the same goal can be reached several times. A tap on a number is not a conversation, and several form submissions in a visit are not several people.

How to sort a batch of unqualified leads

1. Mark whether the lead falls under Direct's list: off-target fields, a wrong contact, a form filled for a reward, a repeat in another visit, a repeat of the thank-you page. These cases are not called invalid traffic.

2. Separately mark a repeat used to move a counter, a survey, or a review. That is a different event, and the OWASP catalog does not file spend inflation under it.

3. Check the order's tie to a visit by ClientId, phone, or email. Without a tie the order stays in "Visitors and clients" and does not go to Direct as a goal for the ad source.

4. Send confirmed statuses into optimization: payment, a contract, a redemption. A form submission by itself is not a sale in this help.

5. Do not add a tap on a number, a call, and a form submission into one conversion. Those are different goal types, and several reaches in a visit are not several people.