Google has commented on a recent ComScore report that Google’s paid click rates have dropped 12% year over year and 7% from last December. Tim Armstrong, the company’s president of North America advertising & commerce said that the decline was “intentional” and will bring a “long term benefit” for the company.

Mirroring a clarification published by Comscore, Armstrong explained that “recent quality initiatives” have reduced the number of unintentional clicks and increased revenues per click. "Conversions actually go up for advertisers, which is positive, but there are less clicks overall," he was quoted by Marketwatch.

The short term does not look so great, as the company saw its stock price drop more than 15% since the publication of Comscore’s report. Google’s stock closed Monday trading at $413.62, down $19.73 or about 4.6% for the day. The stock gained back $9.35 or 2.3% in after-hour trading.  

Google shares are down about 44% from their all time high of $747.24, which  was hit in November of last year.