How Marketers can Protect Companies from Fraud

    Marketers

    An increase in mobile devices usage will attract higher ad spend and at the same time, will increase the chances of  ad frauds.

    Advertisers will have to shell out $87 billion to combat mobile advertising fraud, up from $34 billion in 2018, says a TrafficGuard report. Marketers can take measures to protect investments and transparent channels that are less likely to fall prey to ad fraud. They can follow a couple of guidelines to ensure they are profitable and into protected partnerships.

    Be careful about partnerships

    Marketers need to be cautious when it comes to partner and affiliate marketing represent as these are potential areas where frauds take place. Affiliate campaigns are paid on verified purchases; hence there is a lower chance of fraud as compared to other channels that like impressions and clicks.

    However, this does not eliminate the chances of facing ad fraud. Marketers need to get ahead of the challenge and implement adequate safeguards within their partner efforts to ensure they don’t meet any scam.

    Read more: Battling Against Ad Fraud

    Proactive fraud protection is necessary

    Marketers can implement fraud prevention tools to protect fraud. They can apply industry blacklists or block IPs of spammers. Integrate partner program with the company’s on-site attribution stack to ensure only the right parties get the credit for a conversion.

    In case of a fraudulent transaction, link the validations and payments process together to ensure the company does not approve or pay improper transactions.

    Be careful of the data

    Marketers need to ensure regular monitoring of incoming information along with reliable data flows with partners to see if there are any vulnerabilities within the program. Discrepancies in data do not mean there has been a fraud in the partner ecosystem; however, it would help marketers understand if an investigation is required.

    For example, unusually low publisher conversion rates could indicate click fraud within CPC campaigns. Similarly, exceptionally high publisher conversion rates could mean a creative fraud that involves modifying ad units to promise appealing but unauthorized deals.

    The marketing and advertising space will never be free from fraud. Marketers need to prioritize naturally transparent channels like partner marketing and set those efforts up for continued clarity and success.

    Read more: Google joins the BIMI initiative to curb email fraud