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Loss of Availability

Out-of-Stock? Loss of Availability or Lost Opportunity?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Search engines like Google, Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo, Opera, etc., supplement the sale of products on e-commerce platforms. The leading inspiration for online shopping for 39% of global users is ‘search engines.’ Therefore, brands understand and put in heavy budgets in search engine advertising for sales of their products. As the e-commerce revenue has become dependent on the discoverability of the product listings on search engines, so does the need to optimize the product pages. Unfortunately, some of the out-of-stock product pages could also rank high on different forms of ads. The problem is often witnessed until the search engine revokes soft 404s, which are landing pages with out-of-stock products. The Out-of-Stock (OOS) product listings not only drain the advertising dollars of the brands but also derail the objective of ad placement in the first place. The consumer discovers the product listings, clicks to visit the landing page, and feels disappointed due to product unavailability. Such actions could increase the bounce rate of the e-commerce website and impact its SERP. Besides broken expectations, customers drift towards other brands ending up buying your competitor’s product, including add-ons. The lost sales, peaking bounce rate, and diversion to rivals are just a part of the problem. Although the problem might not be that huge for brand loyal audience, if the customer is in real need of that product, alternatives are always on the cards. This leads to customer’s loss of interest in the brand. Ensuring Availability and Happy Customers The good part about your listings is that your product pages match the SEO criteria of search engines. It is the same reason they are becoming more discoverable when customers search for brand, competitive, and generic keywords. It’s important to notice that Google, the maximum traffic provider to e-commerce platforms, has changed its guidelines for shopping ads. As per the new compliance metrics, the search results will be based on product data and not keywords. Therefore, it is more than necessary to optimize the product landing pages and also to ensure that the details on the ads should match the details on the product pages. Now that your products are listed higher on searches and ads, you also have the option of offering recommendations for similar products on the e-commerce platform. The next best step is to focus on managing the stock availability of your top-performing listings. For this, you would need to deep-dive into your products ‘stockouts vs. stock availability’ percentage across e-commerce platforms, especially during the holiday/festival season. Our solution, mScanIt, offers dashboards for your Product Page Benchmarking and Stock Availability. It measures these two aspects of your brand vis-a-vis the top competitors. Moreover, the data is collected on several parameters like availability at the category level, platform, pin code level, and a lot more. Using the Perfect Page Benchmarking dashboard, marketers can identify the best-performing product listings based on the product page title, description, bullet points, etc. Furthermore, you can manage stock availability using the platform, category, SKU, and many other filters. The exportable reports make sharing the ‘stockouts vs. stock availability’ percentage reports easier by using multiple filters with the e-commerce managers and managing stock availability. Conclusion When Out-of-Stock product listings appear on search engine ads, it causes larger implications for brands than just sales/revenue loss or waste of advertising dollars. The brand discoverability or awareness remains intact, but the customer interest in the product/brand might diminish significantly. Unavailability of stock often diverts the consumer’s interest in competitor’s products and toward new interests or products. Therefore, managing stockouts at pin code, category, platform, and other levels becomes crucial for brands. It enables them to capitalize on the lost opportunity of their competitors and hence, supplements the sale/revenue of the brand. Our eCommerce Competitive Analytics helps keep track of stock availability and stockouts across multiple degrees. Want to learn more about what mScanIt can offer to your brand? Get in touch to learn more about the Out of Stock.

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Counterfeiting

Negative Effects of Counterfeiting – Brands Must Know!

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection /

In this article, we’ll discuss counterfeiting, its harmful effects, and ways brands can protect themselves and their products from it.  What is Counterfeiting? The theft of intellectual property is at the core of counterfeiting, a criminal offense. A trademark, for example, helps you recognize the products of companies of all sizes. In order to identify the source or origin of a specific product or service, trademarks may be used in several different ways. Counterfeit goods are items that are made using intellectual property that belongs to another company without the owner’s permission. In order to steal a company’s good name and goodwill, counterfeiters create or sell knockoffs of its intellectual property. Counterfeiting is considered a criminal offense because it involves false imitations (or forgeries) of well-known brands. By counterfeiting, both the reputation of a brand and the trust of its customers are damaged. Customers and companies alike suffer from the resulting lack of faith in well-known brands’ real products. Defining the problem Counterfeit goods aren’t just a short-term problem, but a growing global industry. A $30 billion trade problem in the 1980s has now become a $600 billion problem. This amount might soon surpass the GDP of most countries, according to an analysis. In the COVID era, eCommerce created the perfect market channel for counterfeit goods since it is easy to shut down websites that sell counterfeit products at the request of brands, but counterfeiters can set up another shop the following day. A recent study predicts that global eCommerce payment transactions will reach $7.5 trillion in 2026, up from $4.9 trillion in 2021, which represents a 55 percent increase. By the end of 2022, counterfeiting is expected to reach $2.3 trillion. Among the most heavily targeted industries by the company are consumer products, tobacco, aerospace components, electronics, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts, industrial components, fashion, food, and just about every other manufacturing industry. Why is counterfeiting illegal? Counterfeit items are illegal in most countries and can be punished by civil or criminal fines. In general, brand owners can sue counterfeiters for damages and seek injunctions (or court orders) to prevent counterfeiters from making and selling counterfeit items. In several countries, people and companies found guilty of selling counterfeit products may face penalties and prison sentences. Piracy: It is the act of downloading or copying another person’s work without paying for that right and without their consent. Patent Infringement: When someone uses or steals the intellectual property rights of another, that is patent infringement. Trade Secret Infringement: A trade secret can be infringed by a third party who profits from the use of a critical piece of knowledge. A trade secret theft usually occurs in conjunction with a patent violation. What effect does counterfeiting have on a brand? Due to counterfeiting, consumers are less likely to trust legitimate products promoted and sold under those brands’ names. If someone buys a counterfeit product believing it to be the authentic product and it turns out to be defective, the brand would be held responsible. In contrast, counterfeiting negatively impacts the retail industry by depriving legitimate businesses of sales opportunities. The slowing or stopping of production of authentic goods, has a negative impact on manufacturing, resulting in the loss of income or job opportunities for those employed. Internet marketplaces are among the most common methods of detecting suspected intellectual property infringements. It has the potential to damage your brand in several ways if left unchecked: It could lead to lost revenue. Infringing IP postings have diverted business away from marketplaces, resulting in lower sales. Relationships with partners are affected. Cheap counterfeit products cause unfair competition for your authorized distributors, which results in lower profits for you. This harms your brand reputation. Distorted user perception jeopardizes consumer health and safety. A brand safety solution can help brands address this serious issue by combating counterfeiting. We identify and eliminate digital infringements and counterfeiting to prevent revenue loss and brand abuse. The Next Steps Counterfeiting is not a victimless crime, but it does have a wide range of negative consequences. counterfeit items are commonly made with inferior materials and under less stringent manufacturing restrictions in order to keep production costs and sale prices low. In order to earn a good reputation in the eyes of customers, reputable manufacturers invest a lot of money in product development and research. It can be devastating for small firms and entrepreneurs when counterfeiters attempt to exploit the reputation of another company illegally. The increased costs customers pay as a result of unfair competition are directly related to lower salaries and fewer employment opportunities. Since counterfeiters circumvent the law in many ways, they don’t pay the fees and taxes that real producers and exporters pay. As a result, it poses major threats to the health and safety of civilians, the economy, and even national security. Connect with us to get the best solution to combat counterfeiting and know how to keep your brand safe in uncertain environments.

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Brand Safety

Brand Safety on Social Media: How Do You Do It?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection /

Digital marketers are increasingly concerned about brand safety in the wake of fake news and potentially offensive content. Innovations like social media platforms and programmatic advertising that has added efficiency and scale to digital marketing have also made it more difficult to control where your brand appears. Consumers are often in charge of social media environments, rather than publishers. Over the past few years, the use of social media has increased significantly. One in four consumers spends more than five hours a day on social media, according to a recent study. Facebook tops the popularity rankings, with 83% of respondents confirming they have an account, while YouTube is second. Yet video-based platforms such as TikTok, which recently reached one billion users globally, have emerged stronger from the pandemic. Despite this growth being great news for digital advertisers, there are substantial red flags. Content on these platforms includes text, audio, and video, often impacting brand safety concerns. Advertisers need trust, transparency, and confidence in their social media spending to be effective. Brand reputation is important Advertisers can reach young, vibrant users through platforms such as TikTok, who are highly engaged and have significant purchasing power. TikTok breaks down the traditional ‘bubbles’ of groups and friends, which allows brands to scale awareness fast and effectively, while streamers can attract large, loyal followings on platforms. Advertising on these emerging platforms, as well as on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter can be challenging. Research states that over half (55%) of UK customers are unlikely to purchase a product advertised next to unsafe content on social media, while 35% will form an unfavorable opinion of a brand whose ad appears next to content that does not match the brand’s image. The measurement from a holistic perspective Although there are opportunities for companies willing to explore these new frontiers, caution is clearly needed. Making these spaces safer for brands should be a priority for the entire industry, so an industry-wide solution will be extremely effective. Standardized safety frameworks, such as those proposed by Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and Conscious Advertising Network (CAN), aim to improve digital safety for both brands and consumers. Brand safety and suitability will be better defined through shared definitions for these newly developed platforms, so advertisers can pinpoint problems and develop solutions. The platforms themselves can be part of this conversation, and many are making strides forward by opening their platforms up to third-party measurement to safeguard brands. With third-party reporting, marketers can measure success across platforms fairly and with one source of truth. By analyzing viewability trends over the course of the campaign, marketers can determine when to refresh a creative. This is done by determining when users tend to lose interest and scroll away after seeing the same ad several times. Moreover, analyzing time-in-view data across a variety of platforms and ad formats and using quartile completion rate data on video ads can help advertisers determine where their call to action should appear, so their message is seen. From here, marketers could make better and more accurate decisions on where what format and what type of content to use for their ads. Moving towards the safety and suitability of brands On these fast-moving platforms, brand safety and suitability are the primary considerations. Brand safety and suitability can directly impact brand outcomes. According to a social study, nearly half of UK online shoppers (47%) feel more favorable toward brands whose in-feed social ads appear next to content that aligns with their brand image. This can only happen if the industry focuses on two things: brand safety and collaboration. Expanding brand safety coverage to social in-feed environments is a key focus, including developing capabilities around image and video classification, while developing a framework that applies across social networks. These two advancements will provide advertisers with the tools they need to navigate brand safety concerns, while appropriate placements will eliminate the need for overly cautious blocking. Rather than trying to police all content, brands should focus on placing their ads alongside content that complements their messaging and is relevant to their target audience by using machine learning solutions that can read complex text, audio, and video mixtures. Despite the sheer volume and complexity of video content, marketers should consider carefully their ad campaigns based on brand suitability and contextual tools when available. As platforms grow in popularity, marketers must be able to make their mark quickly and safely. Think about a Brand Safety Solution mFilterIt offers brand safety solution based on machine and human efforts to combat recurring online problems. It also provides brand suitability and infringement solutions. As a result, your brand will maintain its market reputation and credibility among the people who engage with it on social media. While social media advertising is a necessity of the hour, brand safety is of the utmost concern. A viewer wouldn’t associate an advertisement next to an unrelated topic, trend, news, etc. Engagement tracking on social media ads can also be used for sentiment analysis and responsiveness analysis. However, marketers and advertisers may have difficulty capturing these on programmatic ads. mFilterIt’s brand safety solution can ensure your digital assets are safe.

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Copyright Infringements

Copyright Infringements in the Digital World: Beware!

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising /

It is easier than ever to start a business or brand using the Internet. On the downside, copying content or impersonating a brand is also easier than ever on the internet. It is projected that counterfeiting and piracy will cause the global economy to lose $4.2 trillion from 2017 to the end of 2022, according to a report. Despite the risk, many businesses are unaware of how copyright infringement occurs, whether they should be concerned, and how they can protect themselves. Determine your risk areas: A copyright infringement occurs when someone uses someone else’s intellectual property or copyrighted work without authorization. Examples include artwork, such as logos, designs, taglines, a song or video, and content on a website. We will however expand on that definition a little bit to cover a wider range of risks. A brand name, website URL, or product may also be subject to fraud. In order to build a customized plan to combat fraud, you should identify what areas of your business are most likely to be vulnerable to fraud. Domain Name Abuse This is simply a way to steal traffic and customers from your website. This can be done by using a different domain extension with the same or similar domain name, such as.net instead of .com, or by misspelling your website name. There is a high likelihood of this if you have a well-known brand name or increased traffic to your website. Counterfeiting It involves your website content being copied or imitations of your products being sold elsewhere. If your product is content or relatively easy to reproduce, counterfeiting is a possibility. Impersonation This is when someone creates fake accounts on social media or eCommerce platforms or a fake websites that mimics the brand for the purpose of attracting customers. Although this case may overlap with the two above, Impersonators will specifically target customers using your brand. They may sell your product from their website as if it is the brand’s official website or publish content on fake social media channels claiming to be the official ones. The best offense is the defense: The following are some free tools and methods you can use: Use free e-commerce protection: When you sell on major e-commerce websites like Amazon, eBay, or Alibaba, these companies provide tools for searching the web for suspected counterfeits. Leverage the power of social media: If your brand has a strong social media presence, your followers can help you identify infringements. Staying engaged and responsive to your followers on social media may lead to them reaching out to you for any suspicious cases. Understand the legal framework: Copyright owners can take legal action against anyone who infringes on their copyright. A copyright owner has the right to sue in a court with jurisdiction for civil remedies, including injunctions, damages, and accounts. Furthermore, no court below a metropolitan magistrate or a judicial magistrate of the first class has the authority to try any offense under the Copyright Act. Use detection tools: mFilterIt provides a complete solution for brand safety and brand infringement issues. By using open-source intelligence and keeping a detailed eye over digital space, mFilterIt’s Brand Protection solution ensures brand equity at the lowest possible cost. Our tailored solutions prevent revenue loss and brand abuse by identifying and eliminating digital infringements and counterfeiting. Our capabilities help brands stay on top of their online presence. Any brand deviations are reported in real-time by the powerful deep penetrating algorithms. To ensure brand integrity, our impregnable shields protect the web and app assets of a brand. A deep view of the digital ecosystem scans Apps, Webs & third-party Play Stores to identify counterfeit apps. Get in touch with us.

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Marketing

Why Marketing Without Security Is A Serious Threat?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising /

Ad Fraud is not a term anymore that needs an introduction for marketers. There is frequent news about how fraudsters are evolving and stealing billions of dollars from marketers every year. As marketers are getting creative with their digital marketing efforts, fraudsters are also upgrading their fraud techniques. And as the fraudsters attempt to enter the new paid media realms like connected TV (CTV), the marketers have to become more vigilant. Meanwhile, the fraud security professionals have focused majorly on identity and payment fraud, the fraudsters have spread their horizons to trick the security professionals. They have evolved over time and came up with other forms of fraud methods like: Ecommerce Fraud Credential Stuffing Web Recon Malvertising Seeing the current threats from cybercriminals, it has become essential for marketers to collaborate with a holistic ad fraud detection and prevention solution. If you’re still not convinced, below we have covered the impact of ad fraud on vulnerable marketing and what is the solution. Impact of Ad Fraud on Vulnerable Marketing Lost Revenue: When the bots attack the marketing campaigns, an advertiser’s ad budget takes a toll. The advertisers are under the impression that their ad campaigns are attracting a load of traffic. However, the reality is that the traffic generated by bots is a waste. Even after investing a huge ad budget, the marketers neither get genuine traffic nor they are able to improve their ROI. Skewed Analytics: The success of an ad campaign is analyzed based on various metrics like site visits, clicks, and installs. However, when attacked by bots, these campaign data become skewed and give irrelevant data generated by bots from the campaign performance. This may further mislead the marketing teams into thinking their campaigns are performing well when in reality they are not. Poor Customer Experience: The brands attacked by the fraudsters do not just end up losing revenue, they have to deal with other problems related to the consumers. When the user clicks on a fraudulent ad, they have to incur problems like forced redirects or unauthorized malware installation. And, as a result, the consumer blames the brand for the inconvenience instead of considering it a fraudulent attack. Damage to Customer Trust: When a fraudster attacks a website or app, the consumer’s data is at risk. For instance, due to credential stuffing, the safety of the consumer’s account is compromised. The fraudsters hack their account to steal gift certificates and credit cards saved with the account. Furthermore, the brands lose time and money to invalid traffic while the genuine customers drift away upon feeling cheated. Holistic Way to Combat Ad Fraud Full-Funnel Model: For a marketing team, fraud detection must mean more than just eliminating fraud from ad campaigns. They must focus on other aspects like improved ROI and conversion rate along with cleaner traffic. To ensure this, the marketing team must focus on a full-funnel fraud detection model. This will help to eliminate the impact of sophisticated bots across the funnel. Real-Time Data Update: The marketing team must ensure to get real-time updates to take immediate action against ad fraud. With real-time ad fraud detection, marketers can optimize their ad campaigns before any serious loss. Due to real-time fraud detection, marketers can take an informed decision against fraudulent sources and protect their ad campaigns from the impact of fraud. Log-Level Data Analysis: To reduce false positives and take accurate measures against the sources of ad fraud, the marketers must have log-level data. By analyzing the log-level fraud data, the marketers can get an insight into the fraud sources, techniques, and how it is impacting their ad campaign. With the help of this detailed summary of fraud, marketers can take an informed decision for taking preventative actions. How mFilterIt can protect your marketing spends? To prevent wastage of ad spends on invalid traffic, our Ad Traffic Validation suite does deep checks to detect fraud at every stage of the sales funnel. Furthermore, our solution is equipped with features like real-time reporting and log-level fraud data. This helps the marketers to get a better understanding of how ad fraud has impacted their ad campaigns. Alongside this, we also ensure to do a transaction-level fraud analysis to detect fraudulent sources and blacklist them in real-time. Conclusion Ad fraud prevention is not a choice anymore for the marketing teams. No matter how much effort is given to optimize the ad campaigns, if the fraudsters manage to seep through the process, they can rip off all the ad spends. Thus, the marketing efforts must combine with a holistic ad fraud detection & prevention solution to ensure that the traffic coming on campaigns is – Clean Traffic AKA Real Humans. To ensure that your ad campaigns stay protected from ad fraud, get in touch with our ad fraud experts today!

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brand-safety

What’s the Deal with Brand Safety in Advertising?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection /

Brand safety is the process of protecting a brand’s image and reputation from the negative or damaging influence of questionable or inappropriate content when advertising online. It is important to have a deeper understanding of the subject to ensure the business’s success. For many companies, programmatic media has already become a part of their digital campaigns. In order to implement this strategy safely and efficiently, brand safety and brand suitability are two of the most commonly used branding concepts. By using these approaches, companies can stay protected in the digital environment and get the best results. Many organizations are currently at risk of disappearance if they do not invest in these concepts. Thus, it is necessary to understand what they mean and how they can be effectively used to guarantee the protection of a brand’s name in the online world. In this way, you will be able to avoid the main effects of unwanted online advertising. The purpose of this article is to explore the importance of brand safety in advertising and the steps to be taken to make it positive. Assured reputation In this context, the term safety refers to the reputation of the company and its safety. That is, to avoid being associated with crimes, adult content, fraud, hate speech, division, and fake news, among other controversial factors. Modern advertising is largely programmatic and brand safety is emerging in this context. Based on segmentation studies, the software decides where to advertise. It is necessary to have protection measures in place to ensure that these systems do not place the brand in inappropriate contexts. Associated with the concept is the idea of brand suitability, which is referring to what environments a company really belongs in. This means places where prospects go and are associated with a positive image that is valued by prospects. Since it is so easy to create ads and spread them across the internet, we can understand how brand safety is important as well. This is a hard-earned process that will directly contribute to the long-term success of your company. Your ads are an extension of your brand, and your users will judge you by what they see. What is the importance of brand safety in advertising? Even though advertising is mostly automated, you should protect your brand at all costs by ensuring positive interactions with your customers. The constant and extreme scrutiny social media offers are like a two-edged sword: mistakes in PR will make you vulnerable, but good advertising will also reach a wider audience. The risk can be mitigated by ensuring brand safety, understanding its strategies and tools, and establishing a detailed implementation plan to protect your reputation. What are some common issues that could threaten your brand’s safety? Here are a few brand safety problems that could harm your brand’s reputation. Take note of these while using programmatic advertising: Poor placement of ads The placement of your ad will have a significant impact on how people perceive it. If you place your ads on non-reputable websites or platforms, it can reflect badly on your business. Additionally, if ads appear next to provocative content, a negative association may be created between your brand and the content. Click-through rates and conversions can also be affected by the poor placement of ads. Customers are less likely to trust a company associated with shady sites or objectionable content. Fake news There is a lot of fake news circulating on the internet in the current political climate. It could damage your business’s reputation if your ad is displayed on a website spreading fake news. The users who see your ad next to fake news may think that your brand is associated with this information. Consequently, sales may suffer. Extremism Advertisements on websites or platforms that promote extremist views can damage your business’s reputation. Users may assume your company shares the same views if your ad appears next to extremist content. Additionally, placing ads on your site could lead them to believe you’re funding extremist content. Those people will distance themselves from your brand, which means you’ll lose prospects and actual customers. Ensuring your digital assets are safe at any point in time should be the brand’s responsibility. There are a few reasons for this: Ensures success in your digital marketing campaigns Implementing brand safety measures will make your digital marketing campaigns more successful. This is because your ads are more likely to appear in front of consumers who are interested or engaged in your product/service. Protecting your brand will prevent you from spending money on ads that will never be seen by your target audience. When your digital ad appears alongside offensive content, it will turn potential customers away from your brand. As more people avoid your ad, you’ll see a lower return on investment (ROI) for your digital marketing campaigns. It helps you reach the right audience According to a survey, about two-thirds (66%) of all companies, and 71% of companies with revenues greater than $10 billion, cite digital advertising as a primary value. Programmatic ads that are placed in a secure environment are more likely to engage your target audience. A user will be more likely to see your ad if they aren’t offended by the content surrounding it. Creates a positive first impression Your ad is often the first interaction your brand has with potential customers. It’s important to ensure that you’re making a good first impression. If your ad appears on a website promoting extremism or other vices, it will negatively reflect on your brand. Your ad will likely be remembered for all the wrong reasons and will make users less likely to do business with you in the future. Making a good first impression in business is key to attracting new customers and retaining them. Remember that potential clients will feel more comfortable doing business with you if your first impression is positive. Prioritize brand safety in advertising A digital advertising campaign is a great way to reach potential customers and promote your

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genuine-users

You’re Losing Genuine Users. Know Why?

Leave a Comment / Ad Traffic Validation, Blog /

Imagine you’re running an ad campaign to generate leads for your clothing brand. You have also partnered with an ad fraud detection solution to detect and eliminate invalid traffic. However, one of your legitimate consumers raises a concern. Their card was blocked while making the transaction. Who could be responsible for this? You can blame the fraud detection vendor as they might have flagged a genuine consumer assuming it to be a fraudulent source. While ad fraud prevention is an essential element to eliminate fraudulent sources from ad campaigns, there must be a holistic way to differentiate between a genuine user and a bot without compromising the security of the ad campaigns. This mistake not only costs the brand their revenue, but also the trust of a legitimate user. Know how brands are impacted by this and what you must look for in an ad fraud detection vendor to avoid the case of false positives. What is a false positive? A false positive happens when a legitimate transaction is flagged as suspicious resulting in declining of payment or blocking of a genuine account. As a result, a request from a genuine customer is identified as a fraudulent source. This error happens when a non-fraudulent transaction is flagged by a fraud detection system resulting in the decline of the transaction. Why do false positives take place? The fraud detection systems are programmed to detect fraud patterns in a campaign. However, sometimes the system fails to accurately differentiate between a legitimate and a fraudulent request. As a result, the brand has to bear the collateral damage of false positives. To reduce the consequences of false positives, organizations have experimented with different approaches to try and differentiate between a legitimate and fraudulent user. Based on a checklist This list includes the details like IP addresses, email addresses, and Device IDs that have been identified and marked as either “safe” or “unsafe”. For example, if an IP address is flagged for being a source of malicious or fraudulent activity, then it will be “blacklisted”. Unfortunately, these lists are no longer viable to detect fast-evolving fraud. These lists require continuous refreshing as they get outdated in a short span of time. And these manually designed lists are often imprecise, corrupted, or at the worst expired. As a result, these reputation lists often lead to an increase in the number of false positives. Based on Rules The rules engines are software that is programmed to take actions based on specific criteria. For example, if a business has made a rule check to analyze the billing country and IP country. In this case, any mismatch will be an indication of a malicious account. These rules can be effective in some cases, but it has many limitations. The rules are highly reactive, and the results are based on past experiences. Furthermore, the rules are hard to manage especially in the case of large-scale data. As a result, the false positive number goes up. Based on Rule-based Machine Learning In this process, a training dataset is processed with the help of AI and ML. In this case, all the possible outcomes are programmed with the correct answers to train the algorithm. With the help of supervised machine learning, the brands can detect certain patterns and insights from a set of data. This is further used to make predictions about future outcomes. This is a strong tool for fraud detection, but it has its own limitations. For example, in SML the algorithms require a certain command to perform their tasks. This limits the ability to detect new and unknown fraud attacks. And as the fraudsters adapt to new techniques at a faster pace, it is impossible for an SML-based solution to keep pace. Why do brands need to act against false positives? Friction in users: Due to false positives, a genuine customer becomes the biggest victim. The most common case is when a customer attempts to pay to make a purchase, but for some unknown reason, the payment gets declined. A decline of a payment for an interested user can turn into a case of inconvenience and they drop out to purchase from a different brand or platform. Reputational damage: According to a report, 38% of online shoppers abandon their purchases when asked for an additional security check. They consider switching to a different brand when they experience poor service. Legitimate customers consider multiple layers of security and payment declines as an insult and often don’t take it in a positive light. Due to the inconvenience, sometimes they also end up spreading negative word-of-mouth which is a nightmare for the brands and tarnishes their brand reputation. Loss in revenue: Due to false-positive cases, not just the genuine consumers get impacted but also the brands. The brands lose the real customers and the potential revenue from genuine sales. In this case, the credit card companies have to bear the cost as they don’t get their fees. Questions to Ask your Ad Fraud Vendor to Reduce False Positives Do they analyze the entire lifecycle to ensure comprehensive protection? Do they look at all the possible types of fraud attacks? Do they identify and take preventive actions for new & emerging threats? Do they differentiate between legitimate and fraudulent activity in real-time? How mFilterIt ensure to reduce false positives? When detecting fraudulent sources in the ad campaigns, we expect an average of 4-5% false-positive cases. However, to ensure that the brand doesn’t have to lose genuine customers to protect its ad campaigns from fraudsters, our ad traffic validation suite ensures to focus on various parameters like: Deeper Fraud checks​ Evaluation for every data set to make a decision on​ Prioritization for sources that will convert ​ Able to detect sophisticated BOTS and emerging threats Analysis based on Behavioural and Deterministic data Conclusion A true ad fraud detection and prevention solution must be effective enough to help the brand in different parameters. A successful fraud detection will happen for a brand when it enhances the customer experience and nurtures them while keeping

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dcb-fraud

DCB Fraud: A Distress for All

Leave a Comment / Blog, Direct Carrier Billing /

Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) is a subscription model offered by carrier providers. The charge of the availed subscriptions is added to the monthly mobile bill or deducted from the available balance, and generally transactions are made using a single click. According to a source, the DCB market is expected to grow by 9% between 2018 and 2022. Offering convenience through this model has substantially increased purchases & eliminates the need to fill in card details and account sign-ups. The user is already using the existing carrier number. The estimate number of smartphone users in India would reach 1132.9 million by 2025. India’s Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPU) reached $3.9 by March 2021. Cybercriminals have been infiltrating mobile devices through general trojans, ransomware, password trojans, and others , with an average 93.93% of devices affected by general trojan malware. The Biggest Challenge of Operators Fraudsters use baits like malware/bots, Potentially Harmful Apps (PHAs), copycat apps, pirated content for downloading, etc., to acquire device access of unassuming device owners. Their two most crooked methods for DCB VAS frauds are iFrame and device farms. The bots/malware installed on the user device can even bypass USSD, CAPTCHA, and OTP & cause DCB fraud. DCB fraud means the carrier user is wrongly charged for subscriptions they have not made. Customers often disregard the charges, as they are minuscule, and rectifying them would take a toll of their time, with the added burden of talking with customer care, which often has long queues. End-user often becomes a victim of fraudulent charges. The mobile users who are victims of the unprovided/un-availed services blame the carrier providers for it. The operator must also answer to the telecom regulatory authority and face heavy fines or stop the services entirely. The lost faith in the carrier provider redirects revenue to competitors. Creates Complications for the Merchants Merchants suffer a loss of revenue if they become a victim of DCB fraud. They become as much liable as the MNOs, and in some instances, even more. Merchants often use marketing/advertising to increase their VAS subscribers. Unfortunately, fraudsters have found loopholes in their traffic generation methods. The actions of the cybercriminals lead to large-scale claims accumulated through defrauded customers, which evidently leads to fines, service cuts by the regulators & telcos, or suspensions. Regulators may adopt new methods for enhancing their payment security, which could diminish the VAS subscriptions, as consumers constantly face frictions and might even increase abandoned carts. Solution Against DCB Fraud mFilterIt’s DCB fraud solution offers a solution that helps brands across the globe to separate real users from bots/malware through our AI, ML, and data science. The solution validates the incoming traffic in real-time and safeguards brands at every step of the journey. It is an integrated fraud management solution for aggregators and operators. DCB fraud solution uses deterministic, heuristic, behavioral, and probabilistic parameters for classifying frauds. It eliminates frauds by risk scoring and real-time blocking. The live dashboard and real-time alerts optimize customer value management, enhance LTV, drive ROI, and diminish DCB fraud complaints. A Few Other Tips Don’t click on unnecessary URLs or visit suspicious pages/untrusted sources. Analyze the loss of partnership, revenue, and brand value caused by DCB fraud and take measures to overcome them by implementing mFilterIt’s anti-fraud solution for DCB. Take advice from our core founder and management team on the best practices or methods of implementing our solution and eliminating ad fraud. Conclusion The safety of the consumers also falls on the carrier provider in case of DCB frauds. Brands also lose trust, revenue, and customers if they cannot trust the carrier provider. The need to eliminate and restore the faith of the customer is now. This scenario is possible through DCB anti-fraud solution and implemented by global brands that want to keep their market reputation and sustain their market share. Moreover, the solution helps to detect and eliminate threats of real-time bot/malwares. Connect with us to learn more about the advantages of eliminating frauds in the DCB VAS ecosystem.

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What Aspects Does Sentiment Analysis of eCommerce Platforms Reveal?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Customers on eCommerce platforms often check out reviews and ratings of products before making the final buying decision. In India, 48% of consumers make fashion purchases regularly after going through reviews and ratings. Monitoring reviews and ratings have become important for understanding customer sentiment towards the brand, product, seller, etc., across eCommerce platforms. Detecting and categorizing customer reviews as positive, neutral, and negative using mScanIt’s Sentiment Analysis enables to detect product aspect working ‘for & against’ the brand. mScanIt’s sentiment analysis dashboard defines sentiment intensity; segregates the most popular aspects like quality, product, price, etc., under comment themes; helps to find the most/least popular aspect/theme of a brand, etc. Diving deep into these aspects helps to keep track of consumer reviews across multiple eCommerce platforms, the most popular aspects/themes driving the sentiment intensity, pain points of the consumers, etc. mScanIt’s Sentiment Analysis also reveals key aspects of eCommerce platforms, which are useful for brands in multiple ways. A sentiment analysis is done by using What Can Brands Derive through mScanIt’s Sentiment Analysis? The Intensity of Buyer Reviews consumer reviews. Based on the consumer sentiments, a brand can understand the most popular aspect of its products on eCommerce platforms or can detect which aspects are meeting or not meeting to the buyer demands. A comparative view of the same vis-a-vis its competition enables a brand to learn the brand’s standing against its competition. For example, your brand could have a high (700+) positive reviews for ‘price,’ whereas your top competitor only has 200+ reviews on it. So, the consumers appreciate the price of the product and it is probably the leading factor driving your eCommerce sales/revenue under a category. On the other hand, your top competitor could have 500+ reviews on ‘quality’ whereas, you hardly reach 100 reviews on this aspect. Using this knowledge, you can evaluate your own Product Display Page (PDP) against your competition. It could show that the competitor is focusing more on ‘quality-based’ features and is using them in the advertising/marketing campaigns as well as the PDPs. P.S.: mScanIt can also be useful in analyzing PDPs, share-of-shelf, and banner ads. Probable Intent to Purchase According to research, the product purchasing decision of 91% of online shoppers rely on reviews from other customers. Therefore, listings on eCommerce platforms with higher positive reviews can increase add-to-cart actions and conversions. Furthermore, constantly checking sentiment analysis reveals the average sentiment score within a time frame. Therefore, brands can make sales forecasts and strategize accordingly. It’s one of the ways through which brands can understand the best performing ecommerce platform and optimize on their marketing spends. Moreover, the qualities/themes of the sentiment analysis dashboard would offer knowledge about the factors that might likely influence the customer’s intent to purchase. Points of Engagement with the Customers Reviewing mScanIt’s Sentiment Analysis dashboard gives information about the pain points of customers as well as the top-performing qualities of a product. It reveals the emotional triggers that can become responsible for trolling on eCommerce marketplaces under the review and rating section. Brands can use the emotional triggers generated from the ‘for and against’ reviews and ratings in their responses to improve the positive sentiment intensity and diminish the negative sentiment scores. The same information can be relayed to the marketing and customer support team to strategize and enable growth while addressing customer problems and enhancing the customer’s relationship with the brand. Reaching out to the customers at the right time by setting alerts of hyper sentiment intensities can help a brand to avoid trolls under the review and rating section as well as increase the brand’s ‘delightful’ customer base. Gain Insights About New Markets Customers on eCommerce platforms often reveal their pain points, compare the USPs of previously purchased products with recently purchased items, share the change in brand experiences, etc. Monitoring sentiment analysis reveals new buyer personas, untapped markets, trends, etc., which enable brands to build strategies for reaching out to the un-targeted customer base, increase their revenue, and plan marketing/advertising strategies for eCommerce platforms accordingly. Besides managing their sentiment analysis, brands get a chance to monitor competitors’ analysis tool using mScanIt, which expands all these horizons at a massive scale. Conclusion Monitoring sentiment analysis offers insights into customer behavior, such as the probable intent to purchase, points of engagement, responsiveness towards the product listing, etc. Keeping an eye on the sentiment analysis of eCommerce platforms can enable brands to customize their marketing and advertising strategies towards their buyer needs and even resolve problems whenever the negative sentiment intensity spikes up. Schedule a demo with us to learn methods to scale your business using mScanIt’s Sentiment Analysis.

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search-ads

Your Search Ads Are Under Attack. Know Why?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Advertising /

Akash is excited to plan his trip to Bali and starts searching for the best deals on the internet. He searches and finds an exciting deal of “Get INR 1000 instant cashback on your first hotel booking”. The deal sounded like a golden opportunity, and he instantly clicked on the ad. It was a renowned travel booking site which made him book his hotel in a hurry without any suspicion. However, he neither received the cashback nor the booking confirmation from the website even after 48 hours. In the end, he ends up being frustrated and is under the impression that he has been fooled by the brand. But in reality, the brand is clueless about this incident. In this case, Akash has been a victim of the search-ad phishing scam. This is one of the few instances which has recently been in the news in terms of cybercrime. Most of these instances often go overlooked due to a lack of awareness and prevention methods. The search ad scams not only result in the wastage of ad spends but also impact the reputation of the brand. Before knowing the impact, know in detail about search-ad phishing. What is Search-Ad Phishing? Also known as Google ad phishing, this is a type of cyberthreat in which the fraudsters hide the malicious links within the sponsored search engine results to fool people into clicking it. It is like phishing emails impersonating your brand just in the case of a search ad. When a person clicks on a search ad link, it redirects either to a fake website impersonating your brand, a spoofed social media account, or a fake phone number. Generally, the fraudsters trick the customers into searching for a website or customer care numbers of retail stores, financial institutions, insurance companies, cloud services, or utility companies. Ways Cybercriminals commit Search-ad Phishing Hacking Devices: The fraudster uses these techniques to trick users into sharing their personal information. Otherwise, they direct the users to an app or website to drop malware and hack their system to steal money or harvest personal information. Creating Fake Offers: The fraudsters also create fake company websites that claim to offer products at low prices for your brand’s products or services. When the customers fall for this bait, the fraudsters can use their personal information or sell counterfeit products using the name of the brand. Impact of Search-Ad Phishing on Brand Consumer Lose Trust: When the user interacts with a spoofed search ad, they are either taken to an impersonated website of a legitimate brand. The user is unaware of this and when they lose their money due to fraudulent practices, they think they have been defrauded by the brand. This eventually leads to consumers losing trust in the brand. Compromised Data: Due to the spoofed search ads, the data from the ad campaigns are highly compromised. This results in the wastage of ad spends and the advertiser unknowingly continues to invest in these tampered ad campaigns without any improvement in ROI. Conclusion Marketers often overlook the impact on brand safety when taking prevention measures from cybercriminals. Along with detecting fraud in ad campaigns, it is essential to act against brand infringement attacks by fraudsters. When the fraudsters attack your brand image, the consumers are impacted first and eventually lose trust in the brand. To protect your brand’s ad spends and brand safety altogether, it is important to partner with advanced ad protection and brand safety solution provider. mFilterIt’s ad traffic validation suite and brand safety suite ensure that your search ad campaigns are protected from invalid traffic and brand infringement attacks. With the right set of capabilities and expert help, protect your brand from the trap of fraudsters.

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