mFilterIt
Contact Us
mfilterit

Expert Opinion

E-Commerce Platforms

How Can Analytics Detect Counterfeits on E-Commerce Platforms?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Counterfeit is a serious issue for brands for many reasons; however, ‘bad reputation’ ranks at the top of the list. Why? A consumer places trust in the brand to receive products described and shown in the ecommerce stores. However, when the customer receives a duplicate or counterfeit product, the brand ‘trust’ is lost forever. Also, fraudulent product sellers target brands that have built their market reputation over time, and such consumer grievances create long-lasting bad publicity. Brands would try to recover their trust and the lost consumer base due to this issue; however, the customer would remain unsure of the brand/product and may not even engage even after rigorous marketing and advertising efforts. In 2020, counterfeit goods caused a loss of 26.3, 10.3, and 4.7 billion euros for the clothing, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics & personal care industries. Besides the loss of sales, counterfeit product sellers could engage in MAP violations, further damaging the brand’s reputation, creating legal issues, and hampering price perception. Knock-offs could also cause health issues, and customers often complain, blame, or sue the brand for their problems, which could further escalate legal problems. Given these facts, brands need a solution to detect counterfeit or fake product sellers across e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, BlinkIt, Snapdeal, etc., in real time. eCom Competitive Analytics offers data supported with snapshots of counterfeit products for countering and diminishing consumer problems. Let’s find out how. How Does mScanIt Resolve the Counterfeit Product Distress of the Brands? Tracing Online Seller Activities in Real-Time Reputable brands often enlist the approved sellers on their websites, make mentions on e-commerce platforms, take measures to avoid fakes in their packages, etc. For example, MuscleBlaze Whey Protein comes with authorized seller mentions on their product pages across Amazon, Healthkart, Healthgenie, and other supplement e-commerce stores. Their genuine products also consist of packaging with QR scans through their app, ensuring trust in the brand. However, many reputable e-commerce platforms don’t have a real-time monitoring system for detecting approved third and first-party sellers. mScanIt offers the capability of sighting all types of sellers across e-commerce platforms and gives a chance to brands to revoke unapproved or counterfeit sellers through deep-diving results. Tracking Reviews and Ratings The biggest solutions for detecting counterfeit or fake product sellers on e-commerce platforms are reviews and ratings. Monitoring mScanIt’s word clouds of your brand, which includes the commonly used words/phrases such as fake, duplicate, copy, etc., by users, can help to sight counterfeit or unauthorized sellers. A sudden upsurge in the negative sentiment intensity also becomes a reason to check out the reviews and ratings and the associated negative or neutral word clouds. mScanIt deciphers all forms of sentiment intensity and helps brands set alerts in case of sudden spikes so that the brand can take action in real time. Moreover, the solution detects all types of listings across e-commerce platforms for the said products so that brands can easily see the products sold by authorized and unauthorized e-commerce sellers. Reviewing MAP Violations Counterfeit product sellers often don’t worry about the lowest price of their product on e-commerce platforms, as they might not even deliver it. Also, if they deliver the product, it would be fake, likely costing less than the original manufacturer’s cost. As a result, they often engage in MAP violations. mScanIt offers relief to brands for tracking their MAP violations across e-commerce platforms. Upon deep-diving, brands can review screenshots of the products, e-commerce marketplaces, and types of products sold at an undervalued price. Keeping an Eye on Discounting Analysis As stated earlier, counterfeit product sellers often tend to sell products at lower than the market value. Their offers, discounts, cashback, and other promotions can cause MAP violations and require continuous monitoring. mScanIt’s discounting analysis tracks seller-wise discounts across e-commerce platforms and enables brands to review the highest discounting percentages. Discounting analysis through mScanIt is another solution for finding sellers exceeding the maximum promotional percentages and taking action against them. Simultaneously, the solutions help brands to know the maximum discount competitors are offering for similar product listings com platform-wise and get a summary of the average discount. Bottom Line Not resolving counterfeit product problems on e-commerce platforms is no longer an option for brands, as it has long-lasting and damaging repercussions. Brands need eCom Competitive Analytics, a.k.a. mScanIt, to fight the war against fake or duplicate products every day. Today, mScanIt has become a necessity for brands that want to keep their market reputation intact, enhance their sales/revenue, and track the online activity of sellers/re-sellers while managing their marketing efforts. Connect with us through direct messages, comments, or filling out the contact page form to learn the advantages of mScanIt for your brand. Subscribe to our blog to learn why counterfeits are an e-commerce and brand infringement issue and more.

How Can Analytics Detect Counterfeits on E-Commerce Platforms? Read More »

D2C Issues

How is Analytics Solving D2C Issues?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

The needs of consumers dynamically change time and again. D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) e-commerce has become a blessing in disguise for matching the needs of the growing number of online shoppers. According to a report, 85% of global customers shopped online in 2020, and Amazon was the favorite e-com store for most buyers. Besides Amazon, D2C brands use marketplaces like Flipkart, Big Basket, Etsy, eBay, etc., to diversify their customer portfolio and gather more buyer personas. DTC models offer the advantage of eliminating the middleman, direct connection with the customer base, and offering a lower cost of products to the buyers. Moreover, the brand handles the entire customer experience instead of the retailer or a third-party seller. Personalization, authenticity, smooth shopping experience, etc., make D2C e-commerce appealing to Gen Z and millennials; however, a large proportion of them still like to know about previous customer experiences through reviews & ratings. While deep-diving into R&R gives a perspective to DTC brands; measuring other analytics is also important to get a wider idea of the customer’s needs and decisions influencing the buying decisions. Problems Commonly Faced by D2C E-Commerce Brands Enhancing Customer Journey Orders can go through the roof, especially if D2C e-commerce runs an ad campaign on the online marketplace. Sponsored ads have been one of the biggest sources of higher conversion rates for most brands. However, a long line of customers may also resonate with the ads seen on social media handles and connect with brands advertising on Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc., and other marketplaces. The connectivity builds trust in the customers’ minds and makes the brand more approachable. However, customer journeys are made nowadays through unboxing or product videos, informative pictures, A+ content, detailed descriptions, titles, etc., which are part of the perfect page analysis. Brands can also derive buyer personas at pin code, product price, stock availability, recommendations, etc. Brands want to build a frictionless journey that enhances the conversion rate and diminishes the cart abandonment rate at all costs. Decoding Data-Based Decisions Customer buying journeys vary across e-commerce platforms. Therefore, analyzing data across online shopping stores has become a priority. Sellers or brands often try to decode the data through the analytics provided by the platform. They often evaluate factors like stock availability, the share of visibility, share-of-shelf, etc., at the deepest level, leaving out a vast majority of the potential customer base. Moreover, the data given by the e-commerce platform may not deliver actionable insights and doesn’t offer a comparative view on a real-time daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Generating actions through insights is left in the hands of the internal team recruited by the brand. Knowing the data is not optional because customers want to connect with the products they bring home. Therefore, enriching the data has become necessary, and brands lack the necessary solution for analyzing the information, which could probably enhance their loyal customer base. Grasping the Ongoing (Invisible) Trends Market and social media trends often influence e-commerce brands. While hygiene was a priority for nearly all brands during the COVID-19 scare, safe delivery was an approach used by others. D2C brands have been shaped to tune into the customer’s needs. For example, watch brands like Fasttrack, Armani, etc., have been focusing on a smartwatch. Meanwhile, smartphone brands like Realme have entered the smartwatch market, too, giving tough competition to their rivals. A while ago, consumers started purchasing cosmetics certified/approved by dermatologists (and it remains ongoing for some niche products). According to a source, people also demand cruelty-free & vegan products derived from caffeine, tea-tree oil, or argan oil. Did you know that established D2C e-commerce brands would drive vast sales compared to native brands? Identifying hidden trends in e-commerce through analytics is challenging; however, it can build roots and scale businesses. While the visibility of such trends remains debatable on social media, the forecasted or foreseeable demand across pin code, variant, and other levels remains unknown. Therefore, brands constantly face problems identifying their customer’s needs and managing availability accordingly. How Does eCom Competitive Analytics Cure Major D2C Problems? Enables Brands to Make Informed Decisions in Real-Time Reviewing analytics at pin code, location, variant, sub-category, platform, and other levels through eCom Competitive Analytics gives a bigger perspective to brands. The distillation of share-of-shelf, keywords search results, the share of visibility, etc., while comparing with competitor information gives more valuable information to brands and signifies their standing on the e-commerce marketplaces and among their rivals. Deciphering this data in real-time provides knowledge of the hidden demand, growth opportunities, favored/unfavored listings, etc. For example, if Brand A has a higher score in the product description, and the information is compared with the Q&A and R&R sections, your brand can reveal whether the customer problems are being addressed. Curates Information for Enhancing the Consumer Journey Wouldn’t you want to know the cost of products similar to your listings in real-time? eCom Competitive Analytics gives you this picture at platform, variant, category, sub-category, and other levels. Therefore, brands can find the factors that make their competitors more favorable than them. For example, if the perfect page analysis of your competitor is 100%, it means that it meets the average review, title, product description, and other criteria that influence buying decisions. Similarly, pricing comparison reveals the average cost of similar products, making rivals favorable and enabling brands to avoid MAP violations. Likewise, if a competitor uses your brand keyword, keyword search analytics would depict the picture and the share-of-shelf under discoverability. If your brand has a lower SOS, it could report the same to the e-commerce platform and resolve the issue. Identifies Problems Every Day Out-of-stock is visible on most seller dashboards, however, are competitors keeping stocks available for the same product isn’t. Moreover, you could view the stockouts of your competitors on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis through eCom Competitive Analytics. Downloading such reports can give an idea of the average sales, stock requirements, etc. But, eCom Competitive Analytics also shows the most commonly used words for a product listing across e-commerce platforms. It means you can come

How is Analytics Solving D2C Issues? Read More »

eCom Competitive Intelligence

How Can eCom Competitive Intelligence Help You to Create Great Product Descriptions?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

eCommerce platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, BlinkIt, etc., open doors to new brands, competitive pricing, product variants, etc. The factors influencing consumers buying decisions also extend to user-generated content such as Q&As, reviews & ratings, product descriptions, informative & comparative tables, videos & photos, delivery details, etc. According to a Statista report, 22% of online shoppers make buying decisions based on accurate and informative product descriptions. Similarly, other factors have a high or low effect on the buyers’ purchasing decisions. Most businesses create detailed descriptions of their listings on eCom marketplaces based on their product knowledge and could also involve SEO. However, do they review their content score? Do they analyze their perfect page summary? Do they know the detailed score of the distinct aspects on a product page of their competitors? Most likely, the marketers and business heads would answer No. Knowing the product page summary and the content score of your competition and reviewing the pages with the highest score can offer many details. For example, your brand could learn the SEO strategy, commonly optimized keywords, content structure, keyword placement, etc., of the competition. Such information can help your brand improve your listing pages and optimize the content. But, this is just one aspect of it. It can help review the A+, image, and video content, which will likely enhance discoverability on e-commerce marketplaces and increase click-through rate (CTR), likely boosting conversions. What is a Product Description and Why is it So Important? A product description explains “What is the product and its uses? Thats it! But stating more about the listing like a robot or using unfriendly words could make the description uninteresting and drive away users to easy-to-understand or similar relatable products. However, most marketers should realize that the title, price, image, and delivery visible on the product searches have already made the user interested in the product. Also, the informative table is self-explanatory when it comes to features. Still, the user is likely to view the description visible next to the product images or videos of the listing before scrolling down through the A+ content and then visiting the informative and comparative tables. Therefore, it is important to make the product description as compelling as the information on the product search result listings. The question is – How? How Can eCom Marketers Create Great Product Descriptions? We have already established that eCom Competitive Analytics offers insights into the competitors’ content strategies on e-commerce marketplaces. Such insights can help brands curate great product descriptions, as the solution can help recognize customer needs, competitor strengths, ongoing SEO practices, etc. Insights derived through eCom Competitive Intelligence can help in this matter in the following ways: Identify and Implement Informative Words: Most e-commerce marketplaces have approximately 200 words for product descriptions. The consumer is looking for information before checking out reviews & ratings, and Q&As. Knowing the highest content score for the description and checking out the competition with the top results could give a clear picture of the user-friendly information structure, including the product details. SEO-Friendliness: Ideally, brands with a 100% score in the description would likely have a 100% SEO score for their description too. Therefore, brands should identify them and review the keywords and their placement, enabling them to achieve such a result. Post-review brands would also come across keywords that could match the description of their listings. Inclusion of Benefits: Consumers might expect the benefits of a product under the description; however, the description score could reach 100%, even without it. Once again, it is subjective, just like Product Titles. Therefore, analyzing the practices of the competitors through eCom Competitive Intelligence can help you decide on whether the product description should describe the benefits. Before writing a product description based on these aspects, it is necessary to answer the following questions: Should the description: Include words used in brand images or videos. Consist of the keywords included in the title or secondary keywords? Address user queries in the Q&A and R&R sections through the description. Following this approach and competitor intelligence can enable marketers and brands to curate great and compelling product descriptions. The details could help the user decide the advantages of the listing over similar products, upsell recommendations or basket listings, curate loyalty towards the brands, etc. Final Words Product descriptions might seem the simplest form of explanation of the listing; however, it isn’t. Brands require eCom Competitive Analytics to understand more about them. The solution can highlight the score of your brands’ listings versus the competition and offer an understanding of its compelling nature, user-friendliness, keyword, etc., which would affect sales. Get in touch to learn the impact of perfect page analysis of your listings, connect with us through email, or leave us a comment.

How Can eCom Competitive Intelligence Help You to Create Great Product Descriptions? Read More »

Geotargeted Ads

Are Your Geotargeted Ads Reaching the Right Audience?

Leave a Comment / Ad Traffic Validation, Blog /

Whether you have an online business or an offline store, if you don’t get the targeted audience to connect with your brand, all efforts go in vain. Just imagine, you’re running a campaign to attract traffic from India, and people from South-East Asia are engaging with your ads. This will not only attract people from outside the targeted market but also result in the wastage of your advertising budget on irrelevant results. Imagine as a marketer what kind of a digital advertising disaster it is. With the ever-evolving digital ecosystem, the solution to reach the right type of audience at the right time is now a reality. Geo-targeted advertising helps marketers show up at places where their ideal audience is browsing. But just like every coin has a flip side, there is a second side to this. But before we go ahead, let’s understand the meaning of Geotargeted advertising. What is Geotargeted Advertising? This is a type of advertising where the location data is used to reach consumers. In geo-targeted ads, the messaging is appropriate to the location and behavior of the customer. With the help of this advertising, marketers can connect with user-appropriate content based on the information acquired from the consumers’ location. When consumers allow the location-tracking option in the apps on their phones, geotargeting advertising will help to show ads based on their actual location. This can be a very effective advertising method for QSR businesses. They can target their ads to customers who live in proximity and encourage them to visit. In conclusion, geo-targeted ads help advertisers plan and execute more targeted and relevant promotions, resulting in increased engagement. Every Shiny Thing is Not a Diamond Geotargeted ads sound like the best solution for every advertiser. It ensures to reach the targeted audience and give good engagement. What else is required? Sadly, there is a flip side to geotargeted advertising. Below are a few stats that explain better why geotargeting is not just all good things”. According to a data verification firm Location Sciences, approximately two-thirds (65%) of media spending on location-based ads goes down to waste because of misdirected targeting. Almost 29% of the media spending on geo-targeted ads resulted in delivering impressions outside the geotargeted area. Whereas 36% was wasted because of poor-quality location signals. 36% of the top GPS-enabled apps were found to display location fraud. The geo-targeted ads are less optimal because of the simple inaccuracies in the geodata. In the case of GPS, the location data is estimated based on the proximity of the public WIFI hotspots when a GPS signal is not present, or a user has not given consent to use location data. These inaccuracies can show a difference ranging between 1 km to 1,000 km. On the other hand, IP addresses are only accurate enough to identify a user in a state, city, or neighborhood. But it may not be efficient to locate a user within a range of meters or feet. The IP addresses are often dependent on the Internet Service Providers located in a neighborhood or are dependent on the type of connection like a cable modem or cellular connection. Fraud In Geotargeted Programmatic Ads Ad fraud in geotargeted programmatic media buying is a huge problem that costs billions of dollars. And it is estimated to get bigger with time as the ad spend increases in the digital ecosystem, especially in the media targeting local audiences. As compared to direct media buying, there are different levels of risk involved for marketers when using geotargeted programmatic media. In programmatic advertising, geotargeting refers to the targeting of users based on the approximation of their geolocation. This is usually analyzed by estimating their location according to the respective IP address. However, in the case of direct media buying the local media outlets put ads on the websites of local publishers. And in the case of direct media buying the audience is usually the people residing in the city, region, or designated market area. In geotargeted programmatic ads, the fraudsters commit ad fraud by making their bots appear from different geolocations through a variety of techniques. One of the common ways to manipulate the geodata is by using proxy IP addresses to appear in specific geolocations. Further, the advertisers running ads in programmatic will be tricked into paying for ads that are shown to bot traffic pretending to be in the geographies targeted. To make the activity look real, the fraudsters also activate activities like page views, clicks, downloads, and other parameters. This makes the engagement look believable and further gives encouraging but false reports of the campaign. Are Google Ads also targeted by fraudsters? Some advertisers often face the issue where their ads show in areas that haven’t been selected as geo-targeted areas. Does this mean that even on Google ads geotargeted fraud can happen? Maybe no. Just like everything, there are some exceptions. For instance, you have a local pastry shop in Paris so your geo-targeted area in Adwords is in Paris. However, when looking at the IP list in Adwords you notice that the clicks have come from all parts of the country and sometimes even outside. Some of the few possible reasons can be: Case 1: Mismatch in IP Address and User Location This is one of the common cases in geo-targeting that confuses. The IP addresses are assigned by the Internet Service Provider to analyze the user’s location. Google uses the location of the IP addresses and ISPs to decide where to show the ads. However, Google also admits that the IP locations may not be the same as the actual location of the user. According to research conducted by Search Engine Land, two errors manipulate the location data within Google. One is a false positive where it appears that the user is in Paris when they are not. Another is a false negative where the user might be in Paris, but according to the search engine, they are not. Case 2: Mobile Device Problem

Are Your Geotargeted Ads Reaching the Right Audience? Read More »

Quick Commerce

3 Major Quick Commerce Problems Resolved Through mScanIt

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

E-commerce paced up the sale of products largely due to convenience, and quick commerce is boosting these sales through faster deliveries. Earlier online shopping orders were delivered within a week. Then, Amazon introduced two-day, one-day, and same-day delivery, implementing the same approach for groceries or daily need products. Today, Dunzo, Instamart, Zepto, BlinkIt, and other brands have become pioneers in quick deliveries. Quick commerce refers to the delivery of online orders within 15-30 minutes. The fast-delivery concept was first implemented by Domino’s, and you can recall it if you ever received a free pizza due to a delay in delivery. Quick commerce has rapidly gained the attention of Gen Z and millennials who want to watch their favorite sport or movie at home. Both groups made unplanned orders in 2021, which enhanced the purchase of consumables within the year. According to the same source, the Q-Com industry had a revenue of $100 million in 2021, and 70% of the Indian Q-Com revenue came from Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai. During the pandemic, safe deliveries were the trend; however, Q-Commerce is bringing its fast-paced delivery concept into the limelight. Q-Commerce has become a substitute for phone-based orders from the nearest retailers and a swift mechanism for receiving frozen, pre-packaged, and fresh orders. Brands offering this service focus on order fulfillment, timely reachability, and swift packaging, which has raised the demand for Micro-Fulfillment Centers (MFCs). Similarly, brands like Buyk are building pipelines based on buyer personas. For example, ordering seasoning for cooking a meal. While the concept is growing in the minds of the buyers, brands face some major challenges in resolving the need to provide everyday need products. How Quick Commerce Works? The general concept of Q-Com is that the customer adds products to the basket, and places an order, which is received by the platform, packaged, collected by the delivery partner, and delivered to the customer’s doorstep. Essentially, Q-Commerce is a form of e-commerce; however, the brands have separate warehouses, commonly referred to as “dark stores,” and deliver within 30 minutes. But, initially, Grofers (now BlinkIt) began the concept of fast doorstep delivery by connecting with local retailers. Also, unlike e-com orders, which often include delivery charges unless a minimum order value is passed, many Q-Com brands offer cheaper cost products in small basket orders with no such fee. Moreover, customers have the option to make orders 24×7, which likely results in impulsive buying during overnight stays, all-night parties, etc. Challenges Faced by Q-Com Brands and mScanIt Solutions Keeping An Optimal Price Globally, 52% of online shoppers make purchase decisions because of the delivery speed, whereas 38% of consumers buy products due to free or discounted shipping. We have already covered that most Q-Com brands offer both of these advantages. Also, the price was the main reason that influenced the shopping decisions of 87% of the consumers in the U.S. So, it would be safe to assume that when delivery speed and fee are no longer concerns, it will remain the likely choice unless the desired product or its quantity remains unavailable. Under such a scenario, keeping an optimal price becomes a primary concern of the Q-Com brands, and keeping an eye on the competitors becomes necessary. mScanIt helps brands review the price differences across online shopping platforms, resolving one of the biggest issues. Managing Stock Availability Stockouts are one of the leading reasons for switching apps, brands, or variants. Also, consumer behavior is rapidly evolving due to Q-Commerce. The changing needs demand managing the growing stock availability and avoiding stockouts. With rapid orders and impulsive buying heightened, the need to manage stocks at pin code, zonal, platform, sub-category, sub-variant, and other levels becomes important. mScanIt meets these requirements by showing stock availability daily, weekly, and monthly, with real-time insights, while showing competitor availability across online marketplaces. The analytics deep-dive into stock availability and help brands avoid stockouts at distinct levels to meet the forecasted requirements. Safeguarding Brand Reputation Quick deliveries don’t mean that consumers would remain satisfied with their orders. Their reaction would have the same sentiment intensity, similar to a regular online shopping experience. However, they might appreciate swift doorstep reachability, which has become a likely factor in reviews and ratings. The demand for safeguarding brand/product/seller reputation has become crucial, and Q-Commerce enhances the chance of replying and resolving consumer issues in real time. Simultaneously, knowing the standing of competitor listings at all levels gives a brand a better perspective of areas of improvement, and mScanIt offers such issues as part of its dashboard. Final Words Q-Commerce brands are transforming consumer behavior, and the changing needs require a solution to manage all aspects that remain relevant across e-commerce platforms. However, price optimization, safeguarding brand reputation, and managing stock availability would take the lead for Q-Com sellers. Brands need a solution that can manage the factors impacting product listings, sales/revenue, content, advertisements, etc., and mScanIt offers deep-diving into all these aspects. For more information about the advantages of eCom Competitive Analytics for your brand, connect with us through email or leave us a comment.

3 Major Quick Commerce Problems Resolved Through mScanIt Read More »

Heavily-Losing-Money

Good Publishers Are Heavily Losing Money. Know Why?

Leave a Comment / Ad Traffic Validation, Blog /

Ad fraud has been a parasite in the digital ecosystem which has been feeding on the money of advertisers over the years. However, in this digital advertising ad space, even the publishers are not safe from the radar of fraudsters. In the case of the publishers, they not just lose the scope of revenue but also the trust of their advertisers. A vast majority of digital publishers rely on the revenue that comes from providing a relevant audience to advertisers. And the more relevant audience a publisher can provide, the more the advertisers are willing to pay for their ad inventory. However, cybercriminals use different ad fraud techniques to fool advertisers and steal money from genuine publishers. Here we have covered the fraud techniques used and how they gravely impact the publishers. Ad Fraud Techniques Impacting Publishers Bot Traffic: According to recent research, it is noted that bot traffic contributes to nearly 50% of the overall web traffic among which the percentage of bad bot traffic stands at 65%. The bots are automated software that is programmed and plotted by fraudsters to steal ad money from advertisers. These bots are programmed to click on ads and view an ad or video which results in the deduction of money from advertising budgets. Bot traffic can impact the publishers in more than one way. Firstly, it will inflate the number of clicks and impressions but in the end, the advertiser will not get any genuine users. This will further impact the relationship and trust between the advertiser and the publisher. Secondly, sophisticated bots can steal content and data from genuine publishers and use it in their favor. Domain Spoofing: In this type of fraud technique, the fraudster masquerades a URL or domain and showcases it as a legitimate domain to misrepresent a low-quality inventory as high-quality. This method deceives the buyers into purchasing a low-quality inventory at a high cost. Domain spoofing is often used by fraudsters to mask unsafe websites and make money from their traffic. As the fraudsters mimic the domains of a premium publisher to fool the advertisers, they tarnish the reputation of the good publishers and decrease the value of their inventory quality. Ad Injection: In this technique, the ad injectors place fraudulent ads on a publisher’s content without the knowledge and permission of the publisher. This is often done by placing malware or other malicious applications on the publisher’s website. The injected ads replace the existing ads on a publisher’s website and cost a hefty revenue to the good publisher. Ad Placement Fraud: Ad placement fraud is a catch-all term that is used to define various ad fraud techniques that fraudsters use to manipulate the publisher’s ad inventory to generate revenue. The fraudsters plant invisible/hidden ads that take the form of ad stacking (displaying multiple ads one above another), pixel stuffing (where the ads are served on a 1×1 frame), or placement of ads outside the viewport area. The above ad fraud techniques are not just stealing the revenue of the publishers but also damaging their reputations. Let’s see how genuine publishers are getting impacted by the fraudsters. How Ad Fraud Is Harming Good Publishers? Stealing Their Revenue In programmatic advertising, fraudsters create many fake websites in the form of long-tail sites. They often use plagiarized content to make it appear legitimate in the programmatic ecosystem. These websites offer ad inventory at a low cost and attract advertisers to run ads on their sites. Whereas the premium publishers have to eventually lower their cost of ad inventory to compete with the sites whose existence is unknown to the human population. In another case, the fraudsters use ad fraud techniques like domain spoofing to manipulate the user to their fake site and steal the genuine publisher’s revenue. Diverts Genuine Traffic The fraudsters look for different ways to dupe the publishers. It does not just cost them a loss in revenue, but it also leads to the diversion of genuine traffic from legitimate publishers to fake websites. The fraudsters place malware that causes auto redirects or pop-up ads which divert the user to a different website. In most cases, these websites are fake and can jeopardize the safety of the user’s data. Impact on Brand Safety The trial of mishaps doesn’t end with just loss of revenue and genuine traffic. Due to the fraudulent practices, the biggest hit comes to the brand reputation of the publisher. The fraudsters not just place malware ads, but also dupe the publishers by copying their website URL or domain. After this, when a genuine user visits the spoofed website thinking it to be the legitimate website and upon clicking the ads, they are often redirected to a page containing unsafe content. How mFilterIt Helps Publishers Against Ad Fraud To protect genuine publishers from being exploited by fraudulent practices, the mPlaceIt tool provides a robust solution to identify websites dealing with abusive content. It also classifies genuine websites into different categories by focusing on the targeted content of the site, thereby defining its suitability for the advertisers. Our solution is a combination of the capabilities of AI, ML & a dynamic repository of ad traffic validation data points that determines the evolving trends of fraud. Conclusion Not just advertisers are losing money due to ad fraud, but genuine publishers have also been victims of this for the longest time. Some publishers not only lose their revenue but also face serious repercussions due to brand infringement attacks. To fight these ad fraud attacks, publishers need a holistic solution to ensure that their content and ad inventory are protected from bad actors. Alongside this, this can also help good publishers vet their inventory before sending it to the advertisers. To bring a level of safety to the digital advertising ecosystem, both the publishers and advertisers need a holistic solution like the Ad Traffic Validation suite by mFilterIt to detect and prevent ad fraud in real time and also protect their brand reputation. Get in touch to learn more about Ad fraud.

Good Publishers Are Heavily Losing Money. Know Why? Read More »

Brand Safety

How to Ensure Brand Safety on Social Media Platforms?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Brand Safety & Protection /

Protecting the brand assets on social media platforms is as important as taking care of the offline assets. Brand safety is avoiding media placements that would negatively impact the brand’s reputation. Brands can suffer serious consequences like negative publicity and trolls if brand safety isn’t ensured. Usually, the parent’s phone is accessed by children resulting in their exposure to all kinds of content on social media apps. In 2018, a CNN news article stated that 50% of parents of children between the 10-12 age group and 32% of parents with 7-9-year-old children stated that their kids began using social media in the first six months. Moreover, 17% of parents stated that they didn’t have parental control over social media apps. Imagine if a kid is using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., coming across an adult ad (e.g., Durex condom ad) next to a cartoon/game/trend/news while surfing through a parent’s phone. Such ads can cause distress, and emotional disturbances. Due to the highest human engagement, social media profiles enact as a two-way communication medium between the viewer and the brand. Brands use these to optimize SEO, reach potential customers/partners/investors, and share content/news/trends updates. So, a compromised brand safety hampers the organization’s social media goals. Placement of the ads next to relevant content and context is equally vital. For example, a hamburger ad next to a fitness hashtag/news/trend would certainly turn away eyes instead of engaging with it because of “irrelevancy.” Moreover, a brand doesn’t build a reputation on social media overnight. Instead, it rigorously publishes online ads, content, and stock trends to create the buzz. A bad reputation also offers a chance to competitors to scale up their business. A large section (nearly 80%) of industry leaders also believe that brands placing ads next to unsuitable contexts compromises the ROAS. Ways to Ensure Brand Safety on Social Media: Watch Out for Influencers and UGC UGC or user-generated content is important for enhancing organic visibility, especially on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. However, brands providing control to the audience also lose control over brand reputation. Monitoring real-time responses are crucial for engagements and filtering out bad actors. For example, if someone is deliberately dragging the brand down, you need to act before it gets blown out of proportion. Perform a Sentiment Analysis Sentiment analysis obtains consumer perception about brand/product/service through data/information. Social media platforms are the best place for acquiring such data, besides reviews and ratings, blog interactions, and forums. Users on social media often engage with brand advertisements. Captivating users’ emotions on the ads help to understand the market perspective and build strategies. Social media video and text ads often create engagements through comments, likes, and shares. Unresponsiveness to negative sentiments will only further damage the brand’s reputation. mFilterIt uses a solution that can scan the open web including some of the walled gardens and assimilate the sentiments around a brand. The capability includes scanning for brands with their logos, and their names even when they are not hashtagged by the audience in general. These sentiments can further be sub-categorized and classified into positive, negative & neutral. Having a finger on the pulse has become imperative for the brand in the digital ecosystem. Timely knowledge is powerful and can be used appropriately to maintain an edge in the digital space. Contextual Targeting is Key: Contextual targeting enhances the ad relevancy of programmatic campaigns. Moreover, social media is constantly engaging users through comments, likes, and shares. So, it is impertinent for brands to use contextual targeting for reaching out to targeted audiences using phrases, trends, or hashtags associated with the ads. Open-source intelligence used by mFilterIt can help to make human-like comprehension and understand small linguistic variations. Instead of categorizing into positive and negative sentiments, brands can use these features for precise contextual and emotional matchmaking while boosting brand safety. In 2017, a BBC report revealed that mature content with falsified characters from Peppa Pig, Disney’s Frozen, and the Minions franchise were used by YouTube creators. In response, the platform owner created ‘problematic content’ guidelines. Thus, creating content problems related to child safety. Contextual targeting can help brands avoid misplacements against such videos if a similar scenario arises. Brand safety concerns are increasing with TikTok, as a report published in March 2021 suggested that 25% of US users of the app were between the age of 10 and 19. TikTok is the second, most popular app after Facebook. In 2019, it became a part of the negative press after rising concerns about brand safety and privacy policies. Since then, TikTok has constantly been working around brand safety solution providers to avoid bad publicity and offer safer environments to advertisers. Marketers and advertisers can enhance brand safety on TikTok ads through relevancy. They can select audience inclusions, demographics, interest & behavior, and device details. Using contextual targeting with these details will surely boost engagements through relevant placements and result in better ROAS. Consider a Brand Safety Solution Programmatic campaigns make it harder for marketers and advertisers to track brand safety, as the placements are automated. Ideally, you should monitor such campaigns in real-time. Unfortunately, the possibility of this happening and taking action against bad actors is challenging, especially while trying to achieve other marketing goals. So, utilizing a brand safety solution that complies with the GARM guidelines is necessary. mFilterIt offers machine and human efforts-based brand safety solutions to counter the recurring online issues. Moreover, it also comprises brand suitability and infringement solutions. So, your brand can maintain market reputation and credibility among the engagers on social platforms. We are not bragging (well, maybe a little, and it’s justified), but the solution is beneficial for avoiding incent & APK activity, unconsented cashback & referrals, wrongful YouTube placements, keyword bidding, and infringements. Conclusion Ad placements on social media are the need of the hour but ensuring brand safety is the topmost concern. No viewer would associate with an advertisement placed next to an unrelated topic, trends, news, etc. Moreover, social media is constantly subjected to the highest amount of hate speech, bad

How to Ensure Brand Safety on Social Media Platforms? Read More »

MAP-Violations

Why Do MAP Violations Threaten eCom Brands?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Product listings on eCommerce marketplaces don’t often have prices varying from the original cost. According to a Statista report, 32% of eCom brands from North America and Europe said they wouldn’t introduce dynamic pricing on eCom stores. MAP or Minimum Advertised Price is the lowest cost at which sellers and re-sellers can sell products on eCom marketplaces like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc. Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers create a MAP agreement policy before selling products online. Setting up such a policy upholds the brand’s reputation and ensures retailer margins. Unfortunately, brands constantly face MAP violations through eCom sellers and re-sellers, disrupting this ecosystem and introducing unwanted sellers into the sales funnel. The problem with the brand’s product available at lower than the MAP also drastically spoils the brand’s reputation in the eyes of the consumers. Moreover, such customers often receive counterfeit or duplicate products, further damaging the brand’s credibility and disrupting the existing customer base. Sellers/re-sellers violating the MAP policy often receive negative product reviews and ratings on eCom marketplaces. The problematic areas are mostly addressed towards brands and offer competitors an opportunity to scale their business by offering good quality products. The Bond and Difference Between MSRP and MAP While MAP is the Minimum Advertised Price for selling products that target the retailers, MSRP stands for the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price and caters to the maximum chargeable limit of a product towards a customer. Retailers can diminish the MSRP for clearing stocks or during festive seasons to increase sales and revenue; however, the same is not true for MAP. Moreover, retailers can face legal actions for violating the MAP agreement policy for breach of contract. Maintaining a product price between the MSRP and MAP enables retailers and brands to continuously incur profit margins while maintaining the brand’s messaging set through the price. After reviewing the product price, it informs the buyer that the brand is not willing to go below a point for selling its products and targets individuals who have a keen interest in its offerings. This ideology is even applied when consumers use discounts, promotions, offers, etc. Key Highlights Between MSRP and MAP MSRP can diminish up to the limit of MAP MAP majorly targets retailers, whereas MSRP aims at customers. Setting price between MAP and MSRP gives clear pricing messaging to the buyers. Discounts, offers, promotions, etc., undertake the MSRP and MAP ideologies. The Fastest Method for Monitoring MAP Violations in Real-Time Reducing such instances from sellers and re-sellers is necessary for eCom brands, given the repercussions of MAP violations. Having first-hand knowledge of the online issues arising from this concern requires continuously monitoring eCom websites and apps. eCom Competitive Analytics, commonly known as mScanIt, uses the latest technology to cite screenshots of MAP violations on eCom marketplaces like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc. The solution sends real-time notifications to brands for instances of MAP violations and allows revoking pricing disruption while maintaining brand credibility. Moreover, mScanIt, powered by mFilterIt, also highlights counterfeit product listings found in online shopping stores. How to Reduce Unending MAP Violations? Revoking MAP violations through continuous monitoring is a necessity of the hour; however, brands can also use the following tips for reducing them on eCom marketplaces: Cultivate an Environment of Trust Rewarding retailers diligently following MAP agreement policy is crucial to flagging off MAP violators. The problems of nearing the stock expiration date, low demand, D2C competitors, etc., is common for all e-commerce sellers; however, some manage to follow through with the agreement and achieve their profit margins. Brands can reward such retailers with higher margins, relaxing rules during occasions like Ramadan, Navaratri, Easter, etc., sales, or making them stars in internal communities. Motivating rewards through such rewards can significantly encourage other eCom sellers and re-sellers to take a similar approach. Build Better Communication Channels The recent changes in laws, rules, or guidelines may not reach a common retailer or garner interest unless the brand notifies them about them. The MAP agreement policy might remain intact; however, new opportunities for optimally increasing revenues for brands and retailers may continuously arise. Therefore, brands should take initiatives to communicate useful information that may offer dual advantages continuously. Such an activity would harness better communication channels and resolve common problems faced by retailers due to the ongoing MAP agreement policy. As a result, brands could witness lower MAP violations and higher sales on eCom marketplaces. Harness Goodwill Through Retailers Another method of diminishing MAP violations across eCom marketplaces is by harnessing the goodwill of the retailers. It means that brands should make efforts diligently to reward retailers for achieving high-profit margins while following the MAP agreement policy. By highlighting retailers within internal channels and patting their backs, brands get a chance to achieve the retailer’s goodwill. Moreover, it enhances the chance of good word-of-mouth communication among the peers of the retailers. As a result, brands can expand their goodwill community of retailers in the long run. Enforce Specialists for Revoking MAP Violations Building retailer goodwill, creating better communication channels, and cultivating an environment of trust can prove useful but may not grab the attention of all retailers. Therefore, monitoring MAP violations and enforcing a team of specialists for revoking ongoing & upcoming instances becomes necessary. eCom Competitive Analytics, a.k.a., mScanIt, proves a useful solution backed by a team of data scientists for achieving this goal. It incorporates the parameters designated by the brands and uses them to track deviations across eCom marketplaces. Besides the set KPI deviation alerts, brands also get a fighting chance to deal with retailers through the real-time insights curated through technology. Another advantage of using an automated system for tracking MAP violations is that the brand learns about the competitor prices of similar products across platforms. Navigating into deep-diving helps in enhancing pricing intelligence. Final Words Stopping MAP violations across eCom stores safeguards brand reputation and maintains retailers’ profit margins. However, tacking this problem manually is not humanly possible due to the growing number of counterfeit or duplicate product sellers. As a

Why Do MAP Violations Threaten eCom Brands? Read More »

Bot-Traffic

5 Clear Signs to Detect Bot Traffic in Your Digital Ad Campaigns

Leave a Comment / Blog, Ad Traffic Validation /

Advertisers spend millions of dollars every year on digital ads to ensure that they reach the right audience and expand their reach. They get the traffic, and they are happy that their ads are reaching the desired audience. But is this traffic coming from a genuine audience? This question was never thought of until the word “Bot Traffic” came into existence. In the past few years, bot activity has taken a surge and advertisers are unknowingly spending money on views that are coming from Bots instead of real users. Not just the money, irrelevant traffic coming from bots is impacting the effectiveness of the digital campaigns and the advertisers are in a shock. In this blog, we are covering the impacts of bot traffic and how one can detect bots in their ad campaigns. Read along, What is bot traffic? According to recent statistics, 50% of the web traffic constitutes bot traffic. These bots are used for good and bad purposes. While the good bots help the internet to run smoothly, the bad bots are malicious bots that mimic human traffic. In recent times, there has been a rapid rise in bot traffic. These bots do not just compromise the ad campaign data, they can also commit grievous cyber-attacks to steal data and commit DDoS attacks. The bot traffic heavily impacts the advertisers running “pay per click” or “pay per impression” campaigns by disrupting the analytics data and draining their advertising budget. Bot Traffic Drains Not Just Advertising Budget The foremost thing that advertisers have to deal with is the draining of ad budget on bot traffic. Instead, this wasted ad budget can be used to target real humans. But that’s not the only aspect of concern. Apart from money, the advertisers also end up with skewed data due to bot traffic. Some of the consequences of a manipulated data are: 1. Automation Leads to Targeting Wrong Audience Major advertisers use automation to target a large amount of user behavior data and allocate advertising spend on ads without any manual intervention. However, if the targeted audience data is generated by bots instead of genuine customers, then due to automation the ads end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. 2. Heated traffic Due to bot activity, some pages can witness a sudden peak in website traffic boosted by bots. Some posts may seem to work better on social media due to high impressions and engagements. Seeing the high traffic, advertisers fall into the trap and invests more money in the ad campaigns instead of investing time and money on campaigns that can attract a real audience. 3. Wrong Chargebacks In case of a credit card fraud where bot activity is involved, the businesses have to incur the cost of chargebacks. However, this money goes to the fraudster instead of the legitimate owner of the credit card. Moreover, this cost is not considered in the revenue figures when analyzing the campaign’s effectiveness. Ways to Identify Bot Traffic 1. Unusual Spike in Traffic If you see an unusual spike in your ad traffic, this is a clear sign of bot activity in your ad campaign. Below is an example of an unusual flow of traffic due to bots. 2. High Impressions An impression is a metric that measures the number of times an advertisement is displayed on a user’s screen. When running a CPM campaign, if you see a spike in impressions at a consistent rate then it can be assumed as a bot activity. Below is an example of a case of an IP bot pattern where repetitive impressions are served to a specific IP at a specific hour during the day. 3. Click To Conversion rate is low If you witness a spike in the number of clicks in your ad campaign, and the number of conversions is not relative then it is a case of bot fraud. As the bots cannot convert, they just visit the website and leave. This results in high traffic whereas the conversion rate remains low. 4. Traffic from Unusual Location If you are receiving traffic from a location outside your targeted area, it could be a sign of bot traffic. For example, if you’re targeting an audience from Chicago and you’re receiving traffic from California, Iowa, and even France then it might be the bot interacting with your ads. Below is an example of the geo fraud committed by bots. 5. Analyse Suspicious IP Addresses If your campaign is getting heavy traffic in a short period from a single IP, it is a clear sign of bot activity. The best way to protect your ad campaigns from IP bot attacks is to block them. Why your brand needs an ad-fraud expert to combat bot traffic? The above-mentioned ways can help you track basic bot activities. However, over time some sophisticated bots have also emerged which are hard to trace without an expert eye. To protect your ad campaigns from sophisticated bots, it is important to partner with an ad fraud detection and prevention solution provider like mFilterIt to ensure full-funnel coverage from fraud. Along with detecting the usual bot patterns, our Ad traffic validation suite ensures that your ad campaigns are not impacted by a new bot. Every day there is a new bot emerging, thus whenever we detect a new ‘bot’ in an ad campaign of an X customer, our first step is to identify that bot in the campaigns of other customers and flag them on every customer’s ad campaign. So, if you’re still thinking about acting against bot traffic, do it now. Save your ad spends to go in the drain on irrelevant traffic and focus on investing it to attract real customers. If not now, then when?

5 Clear Signs to Detect Bot Traffic in Your Digital Ad Campaigns Read More »

Competitive-Analytics

How Can eCom Brands Drive Sales Through Competitive Analytics?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics /

Knowing a consumer’s journey on ecommerce platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, Flipkart, etc., is essential for brands, as it deciphers buyer personas of various product listings under enlisted categories. Simultaneously, it also helps brands connect with their consumers or potential target audiences’ needs and problems while enabling brands to avoid instances that can harm the brand’s reputation. According to Statista, the factors influencing customers’ shopping behavior in the U.S. include competitive pricing, free shipping, product options, reviews, etc. Brands only know their product listings on ecom platforms, but marketplaces hardly give intel about the consumer requirements. Also, brands can only view their progress on the ecom marketplace and require a team of experts to carefully monitor the competition to find areas of improvement, growth opportunities, etc. In addition to this, brands have a chance to discover new trends, competitor practices, and more. Therefore, having such information can undoubtedly impact the sales volume of ecom brands. So, such data is the need of the hour, and eCom Competitive Analytics can offer actionable insights with an in-depth report of each factor influencing sales/revenue/conversion. Let’s find out how this happens? But before we go ahead with this, let’s discuss what is eCom Competitive Analytics? Definition of eCom Competitive Analytics eCom Competitive Analytics evaluates a brand/products ranking versus the competition across the online marketplace using filters. It is also known as mScanIt and is one of the most widely used solutions for measuring share-of-shelf, stock availability, reviews & ratings, keyword-wise performance, etc. For example, knowing that consumers favor Brand A over Brand B, and using phrases like love, enjoyed it, quality, etc., as part of sentiment analysis would likely make the former intake certain practices of the latter. Simultaneously, the negative reviews would highlight features like sellers, broken products, etc., and give a chance to Brand A to resolve the issue. Methods to Boost Sales Using eCom Competitive Analytics Managing Stock Availability: Stockouts are a nightmare for brands. It diverts the potential buyer’s attention toward competition and increases disinterest in the brand, especially during lightning deals or flash sales. Knowing the stock availability across pin codes, cities, or locations and viewing stock availability on a single dashboard can resolve this problem drastically. Moreover, brands can review the data to learn about out-of-stock issues arising with specific retailers and take measures like increasing production or substitution to resolve the problem. Product Page Optimization: Creating SEO-friendly content while managing the character or word limit of the title, product description, page content, etc., is a challenging task. Simultaneously, it requires continuously evaluating the score of such aspects and comparing them with the competition to find areas for improvement, the scope of scale, and reasons for a high score. Optimizing the content on ecom marketplaces helps brands boost their discoverability, visibility, search ranking, etc., resulting in conversions. Pricing Intelligence: Competitive pricing drive 70% of the ecom consumers’ product purchasing decision. Reviewing competitor prices of similar products provides insights on pricing strategies, competing with the top brand, monitoring the scope of increasing price, etc. Moreover, mScanIt’s pricing intelligence also defines the average price per SKU, along with platform & variant-based cost, which gives a more explicit knowledge of creating futuristic prices. Pricing analytics help create promotions, offers, discounts, and offers, which significantly help attract a new customer base. Customer Sentiments: Reviews & ratings encourage 25% of online shoppers to buy from a particular retailer. Knowing the customer’s sentiments through R&R and social media handles can help sight seller/product issues, features/qualities appreciated by the buyers/influencers, understand the brand’s overall reputation, determine consumer needs, etc. Knowing the customer sentiments could help to boost sales by 18-20%. Similarly, other essential metrics can manage issues across ecom stores, enhance the consumer journey, and boost the revenue/sale/conversion. mScanIt is a one-stop shop for ecom brands. It intakes the capacity to monitor ecom metrics, evaluate media & search metrics, and deliver actionable insights for achieving these goals. Final Words In today’s world of quick, social, communication and e-commerce, having a resourceful solution that can measure a brand’s product performance and competitors has become the need of the hour. eCom Competitive Analytics or mScanIt helps brands across continents to measure different scales for boosting discoverability, availability, performance, etc., which impact the sales-driven ecom marketplaces. For more information about the advantages of mScanIt for your organization, connect with us by leaving a comment or contacting us.

How Can eCom Brands Drive Sales Through Competitive Analytics? Read More »

Scroll to Top