Blog - mfilterit

How to Stop Brand Bidding by Affiliates? Can Standard Marketing Tools Track This?

“I have a bunch of shady affiliates bidding on our brand search keywords. Every time I ban them, they come back with a new account. I spend hours searching manually on incognito windows, geo-switching, digging URLs, and still miss half of them. Meanwhile, the CAC for our brand keywords keeps rising for no real reason, draining budget and even hijacking our organic traffic.” Many marketers find themselves stuck in this exhausting loop: ban one affiliate for bidding on your brand terms… only to see them resurface under a new account the next day. Despite hours spent checking different SERPs, tracing URLs, or monitoring CPC fluctuations, a significant portion of this activity still goes undetected. Frustrating, right? What makes it worse is the assumption that traditional SEO or analytics tools can catch brand bidding violations. They can’t. Affiliates rotate accounts, cloak redirects, and trigger ads only in specific regions; tactics that most visibility tools were never designed to detect. Let’s understand the problem and solution in detail. What is Brand Bidding in Affiliate Marketing? Why Affiliates Bid on Your Brand Search Keywords? Brand bidding is when someone runs paid search ads targeting your branded keywords (your company name, product names, or trademarked terms) to intercept users who were already looking for you. Affiliates bid on brand keywords for the same reason – to divert organic users to their links, stealing the attribution of a traffic source that was directly coming to your brand’s website. According to our 2025 analysis, we have found that 40-50% of affiliate traffic is generated using invalid patterns. (Source: FICCI EY Report 2026) Your brand terms cost less, are high-intent, and convert far better than generic keywords. This makes an easy shortcut technique for affiliates to boost their numbers without putting in real effort. Instead of driving genuine incremental traffic, they piggyback on the demand you’ve already created through your own marketing. In performance marketing programs, brand keyword violations are among the most common and costly forms of affiliate abuse often going undetected for weeks or even months. Here’s why it gets even more difficult to detect affiliate brand bidding: Affiliates rarely use one stable link. They create multiple domains, subdomains, sub-IDs, and tracking variations to stay undetected. They rotate multiple accounts quickly. Even if you ban one, another pops up immediately exhausting marketers trying to track these fake accounts. They trigger most ads only when you are not looking, like during night hours, in specific cities, and on certain devices, timing chosen to avoid manual detection. Affiliates scale brand bidding activities aggressively during high-demand periods (sales, launches, festive shopping windows) when the value of each conversion is higher to earn more payouts. The result? Rising CPCs and higher CAC. And unless you have visibility into every link and every identity behind the ads, the cycle continues. Get a deeper understanding of affiliate fraud. Explore our complete guide for marketers. Can Standard Marketing & Analytics Tools Track Affiliate Brand Bidding Violations? No, the standard marketing tools cannot detect brand bidding violations. They can provide signals based on data, but miss the kind of visibility required to ensure enforcement and affiliate compliance in search campaigns. What Traditional Tools Can Track What They Cannot Catch Which advertisers appear on search results Real-time brand bidding abuse Old ad copies and landing pages Hidden geo- or device-specific ads Keyword trends and impression data Affiliate IDs and masked redirects Competitor activity and estimated spend Rotating accounts behind the ads Long-term campaign patterns Proof needed for affiliate enforcement Overall search market trends Cloaking and hidden redirects Regular campaign activity Short burst campaigns during peak hours General competitor insights Repeat offenders using new identities What Traditional Marketing and Analytics Tools Can Detect? Show which domains or advertisers appear in your auction over time. Provide historical ad copies and landing-page snapshots when captured during routine crawls. Reveal keyword-level insights such as search share, impression trends, and estimated spend. Help you understand broad auction dynamics and track competitors running stable, long-term campaigns. These insights are useful for market visibility and strategy, but they only reflect a portion of what’s happening. What Traditional Marketing and Analytics Tools Cannot Detect? Affiliates don’t follow a stable pattern for brand bidding abuse. It is fast, fragmented, and intentionally designed to stay hidden. Here’s what they miss: Cannot monitor brand bidding violations in real time. Fail to capture ads targeted to specific geos, devices, or audiences that only some users see. Don’t identify affiliate sub-IDs, masked redirects, or rotating accounts behind the ads. Don’t capture thousands of tiny link variations or provide the forensic evidence (screenshots, redirect chains, timestamps) needed to enforce affiliate rules or deny payouts. Cannot detect cloaking in brand bidding, where a clean page is shown to you, but a redirect is shown to the user. They don’t track short-lived “burst campaigns” during nights, weekends, or peak sale hours. Fail to map patterns of affiliate brand bidding abuse, such as repeated offenders switching identities or redirect networks working in clusters. Why Marketers Need an Advanced Affiliate Monitoring Tool to Detect Brand Bidding? An advanced AI/ML-based affiliate monitoring tool is specifically built to offer visibility and transparency across all affiliate activities. Here’s what all provides: Continuously monitors brand keywords across multiple geo locations and devices. 24/7 coverage, not periodic scans. Detects hidden or time-specific ad triggers. It can catch short bursts and late-night campaigns. Captures every link and ad variation, even thousands of them. Including tracking parameters, sub-IDs, and UTM permutations. Identifies the source of each violation by mapping the publisher, sub-publisher, affiliate ID, or the redirect owner behind the ad. Generates enforceable evidence. Full screenshots, timestamps, and the redirect/log trails that serve as proof. Alerts you immediately when an unauthorized ad appears. Proactive notifications that allow fast action. Provides daily/weekly reports for pattern detection. Aggregate findings into actionable intelligence for program decisions and payout validation. Check out the affiliate monitoring audit checklist every brand needs for fraud-free growth. Foxtale’s 21% CPC Dropped: How mFilterIt Helped Them Combat Brand Bidding Foxtale, the fast-growing skincare brand, invested heavily in TOF and video campaigns to boost search volumes and drive high-intent users to their website. However, they noticed CPCs were rising on brand search terms by 25–30%, even though demand was strong. Search scalability was getting harder, and ROAS was dropping. The Challenge Ad networks and affiliates were secretly bidding on Foxtale’s brand terms. Manual checks barely caught a fraction of what was happening. High-intent traffic was being hijacked, increasing Foxtale’s acquisition costs. What Monitoring Revealed 3,436 unique links were found bidding on Foxtale’s branded keywords. Many ran only in specific locations or time windows. Daily evidence-based reports helped the team take action immediately. The Results Within weeks, Foxtale saw a 21% drop in CPC, improved ROAS, and clearer

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Types of Online Scams Brands Need to Watch Out For

Blog, Brand Protection / mFilterIt Experts

In its March 2026 Global Financial Fraud Threat Assessment, global fraud losses have climbed to a staggering $442 billion. You still believe your brand is untouched? Every second, somewhere on the internet, a brand is being impersonated. A customer is being deceived. And a business is losing more than just money; it’s losing trust. Imagine a fraudster impersonating your brand by using your logo, your colors, and your tone, keeping hawk’s eye on your customers. They camouflage themselves in your brand and your customers see the difference only when it is too late. The modern fraud ecosystem is growing more sophisticated. Fraudsters are sitting at every touchpoint including the ad your customers clicked on, the website they landed on, and the checkout they trusted. Every interaction is an opportunity. Fraudsters have known this for years. The question is, do brands know it too? In this blog, we unpack the many faces of brand fraud and how brands can fight with them. Breaking Down the Modern Fraud Ecosystem: Types of Online Scams Financial fraud does not exist in one corner of the room. It is part of a broader and growing digital fraud ecosystem that includes: Shopping Scams Where fraudulent websites and social media sellers deceive customers on account of goods that never arrive or are nothing like what was advertised. These spike dramatically during festive sales seasons, exploiting consumer urgency. Take this example. This fake website is a near-perfect clone of top ecommerce platform storefront – Big Billion Days banner, product categories, familiar layout and all. It’s a shopping scam designed to take customers’ money for orders that will never arrive. This is what modern fraud looks like not obviously fake, but deliberately convincing. And when customers realise they’ve been deceived, the reputational damage doesn’t fall on the fraudster. It falls on brands who become they prey of brand impersonation and create ruckus for both brands and customers. Carding Scams Under this, stolen credit and debit card details are systematically tested for validity and then sold or used for unauthorised transactions, often available publicly over social media channels. Job Scams Fraudsters take advantage of the vulnerability of job seekers by posing themselves as genuine recruiters to extract money or personal data from desperate job seekers. The stolen data travels to a secondary black market, compounding the harm way beyond the initial victim. This Telegram channel is a clear example of how scammers use messaging platforms to promote fake task-based earning opportunities. The group tricks users with an easy money tactic, manipulating them to post reviews, like content, or complete simple online tasks. These offers are designed to look easy and harmless, designed especially for students or people looking for part-time income. At first, scammers may even pay small amounts to build trust. Once users become active, they are often asked to deposit money, share personal details, or complete “premium tasks” that lead to financial loss. Such fraud groups rely on urgency, easy earnings, and social proof to attract victims. Read in detail about investment scams Subscription Scams Here, fraudsters sell fake or pirated subscriptions to OTT platforms and apps at discounted rates, making both the end customer and brand, its ultimate prey. This Telegram channel shows how cybercriminals use online groups to illegally sell digital accounts and subscription access at extremely low prices. These channels often circulate stolen credentials, hacked accounts, or unauthorized shared access for popular streaming and premium platforms. To appear trustworthy, such groups use large member counts and disclaimers like admins are not responsible for online scams. Innocent users who engage with these marketplaces risk privacy and financial fraud subsequently leading to customer distrust. Each of these scam types shares a common objective of exploiting the digital equity that brands have built for years, using it as a camouflage to deceive consumers who have no way of differentiating between fake and real. How Brands can Safeguard Themselves Against Such Online Scams? When the customer trust comes at stake, it becomes brand’s responsibility to tackle it. To combat this ecosystem effectively, brands need a multi-layered intelligence and enforcement framework that works across websites, social media, messaging platforms, marketplaces, and ad ecosystems in real time. Here’s what it covers- Continuous Detection Across Digital Channels Most fraudulent activity begin with one platform but do not remain there, instead fraudsters travel across platforms such as social media platforms, Telegram groups, WhatsApp chats, malicious websites, app stores, and sponsored advertising campaigns. A proactive detection mechanism can help brands: Identify clone sites, fake stores, and imitation landing pages Find scam campaigns that use official branding, logos, graphics, and campaign creatives Monitor messaging apps and social media for scamming groups and scam networks Identify fake applications, phishing domains, and fake sellers By doing this, it ensures there is less time for fraudsters to engage in their activities while limiting consumer contact. Brand Impersonation Detection Today, most online scams attempt to look credible. Traditional detection based on set rules has become increasingly ineffective. AI-powered systems with visual and behavioral detection capabilities can detect brand imitation even with different domains or altered usernames. This becomes important whenever an organization is experiencing traffic spikes from events like holiday sales, hiring, or product launches. Fast Takedown and Removal Processes: Merely detecting such threats is not enough. Brands need more enforceable approach that also takes down fraud entities in real time. An effective takedown must include – Domain suspension requests Fake social profile reporting Telegram and messaging-platform abuse reporting Counterfeiting The faster fraudulent assets are removed, the lower the financial and reputational impact on both consumers and brands. Conclusion These scams are becoming a serious challenge for brands trying to protect customer trust and their gateways are expanding with every new hotspot. But these threats can be stopped – without adding operational complexity. With the right fraud intelligence and brand protection solution seamlessly integrated into existing workflows, brands gain end-to-end visibility across the digital ecosystem, enabling them to detect threats early, accelerate takedowns, prevent revenue leakage, protect customer trust, and preserve brand reputation at scale. Instead of reacting after damage is done, businesses can proactively stay ahead of fraudsters while ensuring safer digital experiences for their customers across every touchpoint. Take control of your digital presence before scams impact your customers, reputation, and revenue. Connect with us to strengthen your brand protection strategy. Frequently Asked Questions What are the most common types of online scams? Shopping scams, job scams, carding scams, investment fraud, and subscription scams are among the most common online frauds targeting consumers and

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What Are Attention Metrics? Why Brands Need to See Beyond Viewability

Blog, Viewability / Shiraz Noor

Marketers have relied on viewability metrics for years to measure ad performance. Afterall, an ad seen means the ad is working, right? But with the auto-play video ads, endless scrolling, and shrinking attention spans, the ad being just ‘viewable’ or ‘seen’ is not enough. That’s the hard truth modern marketers are realizing nowadays. Viewability alone cannot tell whether users actually noticed, understood, or engaged with an ad, or was it getting completely ignored by the audience. That is why the industry has shifted its focus from traditional viewability to a more advanced ad metric, attention metrics, to evaluate ad performance. Attention measurement tools adoption grew 4x from 2022 to 2025. And looking forward, attention-based media buying is projected to grow 4–7x by 2026. (Source: Marketing LTB) In this blog, we’ll talk about: Why are viewability metrics falling short? What are attention metrics? How they differ from traditional viewability? How Valid8 by mFilterIt helps brands optimize campaigns for genuine attention, not just impressions. Keep reading further to know more. Why Is Viewability No Longer Enough? For years, viewability has been the go-to metric to validate ad delivery. According to the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) standard, an ad is considered “viewable” if 50% of its pixels are in view for at least one second (for display) or two seconds (for video). Let’s take an example, think about a banner ad placed in the middle of where the page scroll ends. As per the IAB standard, if it is 50% visible, it will be considered viewed. But in reality, your ad failed to get the attention of your viewers. Or a muted video ad that auto plays in PIP mode, technically viewed, but your user never saw it. This is where improvement was really needed from traditional viewability standards, which didn’t account for whether the user ever saw the ad at all. Moreover, according to the IAB, 47% of buy-side decision makers said they would focus more on attention metrics in 2024, up from just 36% in 2023. (Source: eMarketer) One key reason is that viewability is uniquely vulnerable to ad fraud. Attention signals expose what viewability hides. Viewability is a binary metric. It doesn’t reveal: Whether the user noticed the ad Whether it resonated Whether it drove engagement or action What are Attention Metrics? Attention metrics is a more advanced, holistic way to measure ad engagement. They go beyond visibility and ask: Did the ad actually capture the user’s attention? Rather than relying on a single data point, attention metrics pull together a wide array of proxy measurement signals – behavioral, device context, user intent. Here’s how each signal helps reveal true engagement: Time in View An ad seen for 1 second isn’t equal to one seen for 7 seconds. Example: If a user pauses scrolling and watches your ad for 8 seconds, it signals genuine interest, unlike someone who scrolls past instantly. Scroll Depth How far a user scrolls before encountering your ad can impact its effectiveness. Example: If your display ad is placed lower on a webpage but still gets noticed, it reflects active user engagement, not passive viewability. Position on Screen Ads placed at the top of the page are more likely to be seen but not necessarily remembered. Example: An ad shown at eye-level in the content zone is more likely to draw attention than one placed in the banner blind spot. Audio Status (Mute vs. Unmute) Muted ads play on PIP. Unmuted ads demand attention. Example: If a user unmutes a video, it’s a strong indicator they want to hear your message, far more valuable than just a view. Pause/Play Behavior This signal captures active intent to watch rather than passive exposure. Example: If someone pauses your video mid-way and resumes later, they’re engaged. That’s meaningful attention; viewability cannot track that. Skip Rate & Skip Point In skippable ads, when users skip matters more than if they skip. Example: If 80% of users skip at 3 seconds, your hook isn’t working. If most watch for 7-10+ seconds, you’ve captured their attention. Screen Orientation Device orientation changes reflect real-time distraction or focus. Example: A user flipping their phone from portrait to landscape to watch your video indicates commitment. Switching apps mid-ad signals lost attention. Click or Interaction Activity Clicking, swiping, or engaging with ad elements shows active intent. Example: Hovering over a CTA or clicking to expand a product carousel shows curiosity, an attention metric that impressions can’t quantify. Dual-Screen Behavior This detects whether users are actively watching your ad or multitasking on another screen or app. Example: If a user switches to another app mid-ad (like messaging or social media), it signals attention drop-off, even if the ad was technically in view. The Core Differences: Viewability vs Attention Metrics Challenges Brands Face Without Attention Metrics in Measuring Ad Performance Viewability metrics create blind spots across different ad formats, ultimately affecting how brands measure, optimize, and scale their ad campaigns. Here how: Display Ads Lack of Depth in User Engagement: Without attention metrics, brands can’t differentiate between a view and actual user interest or interaction. No Insight into On-Screen Placement Performance: Ads may be technically viewable but shown in low-engagement zones, leading to misjudged campaign effectiveness. Inability to Identify and Prioritize High-Intent Ad Impressions: Without behavioral data like time-in-view or interaction rates, valuable signals for retargeting and optimization are lost. Exposure to Display Ad Frauds like Ad Stacking: Without attention validation, fraudulent tactics such as ad stacking, where multiple ads are layered on top of one another, inflate viewability numbers while delivering zero real attention. Skippable Video Ads Misleading Viewability and Completion Metrics: Videos may be counted as viewed even when skipped early, hiding poor creative ad performance. No Visibility into Drop-Off Trends: Without skip point tracking, brands cannot identify where audience interest fades or how to refine the first few seconds. Missing Behavioral and Device-Level Signals: Important indicators like mute status or screen changes are untracked, leading to incomplete understanding of attention quality. Non-Skippable Video Ads Over-Reliance on Completion Rates: Assuming full attention just because the ad plays to the end overlooks passive or distracted viewing. No Data on Real-Time Interaction: Without signals like pause/play, mute/unmute, and dual screen observation, there’s no visibility into how users respond during the ad. Blind Spots in Device and Format Experience: Attention can vary significantly depending on screen size, orientation, and playback mode, but these factors remain unmeasured without deeper metrics. Why This Shift Towards Attention Metrics Matters for Marketers The transition from viewability to attention isn’t just a measurement metric upgrade, it’s a strategic necessity in 2025. Here’s why attention metrics matter: Context is King An ad watched with sound on, in a full-screen CTV environment, delivers exponentially more impact than one barely glanced at during a busy scroll. Attention metrics help decode where and how ads are most likely to land effectively.

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How Investment Scams Are Draining the Digital Economy and What Brands Must Do Now

Blog, Brand Protection / mFilterIt Experts

The internet promised democratised investing. Instead, it handed fraudsters a megaphone. In 2025, people lost $1.1 billion to investment scams on social media. That number doesn’t include what went unreported. (Source) Today’s scammer isn’t hiding in the shadows. They’re on Instagram, Telegram, and WhatsApp using your brand’s name, your logo, and your customers’ trust to run financial fraud at scale. And when victims realise, they have been cheated, they don’t blame the scammer. They blame you. This isn’t just a fraud problem. It’s a brand impersonation problem. The good news is brands can still tackle with right vigilance and catch scams before they reach customers. In this blog, you will discover – What is an investment scam and its modus operandi What are the types of scams happening around Checklist for brands to identify investment scams How brands can detect investment scams The way ahead for brands What is an Investment Scam and Its Modus Operandi At its core, an investment scam is a deception built on false promises. Fraudsters most of whom operate without any regulatory registration lure individuals with guarantees of extraordinary returns. They do not operate through authorised financial channels. Instead, they solicit investments by extracting personal bank details, UPI IDs, and informal payment methods, making it nearly impossible to trace through conventional means. The modus operandi behind major brand impersonation follows an alarming pattern: Step 1: Build a fake presence Scammers create fraudulent pages, channels, and handles across Instagram, Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp. These look credible complete with testimonials, market jargon, and often, the branding of legitimate financial institutions. Step 2: Reach victims at scale Using social media algorithms and unregulated financial groups, they push their content to thousands of potential victims simultaneously. A single Telegram channel can reach tens of thousands without any advertising spend. Step 3: Manufacture trust They engage with victims for days or weeks, sharing fake “proof” of returns, manipulated screenshots, and convincing success stories. By the time a victim invests, they believe thy are in safe hands. Step 4: Collect and vanish Payments are routed through personal UPI handles and bank accounts specifically opened for fraud. Once the money moves, it disappears into a web of mule accounts and the victim is left with no response, no returns, and no recourse. Investment Scams Warning Signs: Checklist for Marketers Following is the key checklist for brands to identify investment scam at an initial stage. Brands must look for – Social media handles impersonating your brand Domains mimicking your URL Ads running under your brand name that you didn’t place Fake customer support handles directing users to external payment links Scam groups or channels using your logo on WhatsApp or Telegram Guaranteed returns or “exclusive” investment opportunities linked to your brand Flash sales or limited-time offers on cloned websites How Brands can Detect Investment Scams? The scale of investment scams is expanding hence the solution must arm up too. For this, a solution that is holistic in nature must be brought in use – A three-step pipeline that works in the background with – Zero integration required Step 1- Discover: AI-powered scam detection across every platform Sentinel+’s automated data harvesters crawl public signals across the web and social platforms to surface individuals running investment fraud before victims lose money. Platforms covered: Google · Facebook · Telegram · WhatsApp · Instagram Step 2- Verify: Human-validated payment trail Trained analysts confirm that payment instruments bank accounts, UPI IDs, and VPA handles are genuinely linked to the flagged individuals. No false alarms reach your bank. Verified across: Bank accounts · UPI / VPA IDs · Human review layer Step 3- Act: Intelligence delivered directly to your bank Verified scammer profiles are packaged and shared with your bank. Accounts get blocked or flagged for action stopping the fraud before it scales further. Actions triggered: Account blocking · Fraud escalation · Direct bank handoff The Outcomes Scammers exposed: Fraud actors identified across platforms before they reach more victims Accounts blocked: Fraudulent payment rails shut down at the source Brand protected: Your customers stop losing money to scams using your name The Way Ahead: Action and Accountability Reactive brand protection is broken. By the time a complaint is filed, the fraudster has vanished — and your customer has already lost money. The answer is always-on surveillance, not faster damage control. Our brand protection solution deploys AI and ML-powered crawlers across Google, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram, detecting fake handles, fraudulent payment links, and scam channels the moment they appear. Flagged entities are instantly reported to the relevant financial institution, triggering account blocks before the fraud reaches scale. Human validation sits at the core of this process, confirming that linked bank accounts and UPI IDs are genuinely fraudulent before any action is taken. Speed without precision creates noise. The brands that earn lasting trust won’t be the ones who responded fastest. They’ll be the ones who made sure fraud never reached their customers in the first place. See how proactive scam detection works in real time Frequently Asked Questions What are the most common investment scams? The most common investment scams include fake stock trading groups, crypto investment fraud, guaranteed-return schemes, impersonation of financial brands, and scams promoted through Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, and fake websites. Fraudsters use fake testimonials, screenshots, and success stories to build trust before collecting money through personal bank accounts or UPI IDs and disappearing. What are the investment scams on WhatsApp? WhatsApp investment scams usually involve fraudsters creating fake investment groups or contacting users directly with promises of high returns through stocks, crypto, or trading opportunities. These scammers often impersonate financial institutions or experts, share fake profit proofs, and ask victims to transfer money through UPI or personal accounts. How do investment scams affect brands? Investment scams damage brands by misusing their name, logo, and reputation to deceive customers. When victims lose money, they often blame the brand being impersonated, leading to loss of trust, customer complaints, and reputational damage. What are the warning signs of an investment scam? Common warning signs include guaranteed returns, pressure to invest quickly, fake social media pages, unofficial payment methods like personal UPI IDs, and investment offers shared through Telegram or WhatsApp groups. How can brands detect and stop investment scams? Brands can detect investment scams using AI-powered monitoring tools that track fake websites, fraudulent social media

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CMOs Are Losing Millions To Ad Fraud. Here’s How mFilterIt Helps Solve It

Blog, Ad Fraud / Jyoti Kalra

Ad fraud is not just a basic bot traffic problem anymore. It’s an issue contaminating the entire marketing funnel silently. Here’s what the data says, and what leaders must do next. Imagine spending ₹100 on a digital campaign and losing ₹20–30 before a single real customer ever sees your ad. Not due to a bad creative. Not a flawed targeting strategy. But because the digital advertising ecosystem, the programmatic advertising pipelines, the affiliate networks, and the ad placements, are structurally misplaced. According to mFilterIt analysis of campaigns run in 2025, featured in the FICCI Media & Entertainment Report 2026, digital ad spend wastage is widespread, and leaders are only beginning to understand its scale. That is why the gap between awareness and action is a real crisis. And that’s what we are going to cover in this blog. Business costs of ad fraud that directly impact the business review Where invalid traffic is highest, broken down by channel and platform What full-funnel ad fraud detection and mitigation actually looks like in practice The Business Costs of Ad Fraud Impacting Business Performance When marketers think about bad ad campaign performance, they usually blame it on creative misses or wrong audiences. But media leakage operates invisibly, creating four distinct business harms: Wasted Media Spend: A significant portion of ad budgets is lost on invalid traffic, bot activity, and low-quality engagements that do not contribute to real business outcomes. Distorted Performance Analytics: Fraudulent and low-intent interactions contaminate campaign data, making optimization decisions unreliable and impacting overall marketing efficiency. Poor/Junk Lead Quality: Fake clicks and invalid conversions result in low-quality leads entering the funnel, increasing acquisition costs, and reducing sales effectiveness. Brand Trust Risk: Ads appearing alongside unsafe or fraudulent environments can damage brand reputation, weaken consumer trust, and negatively impact long-term brand perception. How Invalid Traffic Travels Across Platforms and Channels The data breaks this down in granular terms. Invalid traffic patterns vary significantly by platform, and some of the highest-risk channels are also among the most aggressively used by marketers to reach their target audiences. Affiliate Marketing Affiliates are paid based on results. But if 40–50% of conversions or leads are invalid, marketers end up paying for manipulated and fake results, instead of the real ones. Performance-linked pricing only works when the performance is real. Read more about how affiliates exploit lead gen campaigns here. Programmatic Advertising Global programmatic ad spend reached $642 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to nearly $800 billion by 2028. (Source: Start.io) Considering the growth, fraud is also widespread. With invalid traffic at impression level ranging between 30–45% as per mFilterIt’s analysis of digital brand campaigns, nearly half of what you’re buying could be going to bots, not buyers. In-App or Mobile Advertising In-app fraud no longer stops at fake installs. It extends into fabricated post-install actions such as sign-ups, lead submissions, purchases, and in-app events, polluting attribution, and CRM data before it even reaches the sales team. With nearly 30–35% invalid activity patterns, mobile advertising ecosystems are increasingly vulnerable to synthetic engagement at scale. CTV and OTT Advertising Connected TV and OTT platforms are where the budgets are shifting rapidly. But 15–20% frequency cap violations mean your ads are repeatedly hitting the same device, not reaching new audiences, just burning spend. Walled Gardens Platforms like Google and Meta are often assumed to be clean. They’re cleaner, but 9–18% invalid click patterns show that even here, not every click is a real person. Moreover, ad fraud gets even more complicated and sophisticated to identify as it moves down the funnel. Platforms like Google and Meta are often perceived as relatively cleaner ecosystems. While they do have stronger fraud controls, 9–18% invalid click patterns still indicate that not every engagement originates from a genuine user. To understand the impact of click fraud in performance campaigns, read this blog. What makes ad fraud increasingly difficult to detect is its evolution deeper into the funnel. As fraudulent activity progresses from clicks to installs, leads/purchases, and post-conversion events, the signals become more sophisticated, making detection, attribution validation, and quality assessment significantly more complex. How Ad Fraud Leaks Budget Across Every Stage of the Marketing Funnel Fraud doesn’t enter at just one stage. It impacts the entire funnel, from impressions to conversions. Here’s how: Upper Funnel: Reach Isn’t Always Real Made-for-Ad Sites (10–12% leakage): Ads appear on websites created only to serve ads, not real users. Made-for-Kids Placements (7–9% leakage): Your ads appear beside content where your actual audience doesn’t exist. CTV & OTT Frequency Capping Violations (15–20% leakage): The same user keeps seeing your ad repeatedly, wasting budget instead of expanding reach. Lower Funnel: Ad Fraud Gets More Expensive Low-Intent Traffic (20% inflated visits): Traffic numbers look strong, but many users never intended to engage or convert. Low-Intent Events (14% leakage): Fake or low-quality interactions distort campaign optimization signals. Ad-Driven Conversion Inflation (43% leakage): Bots and fraudulent actions inflate conversion numbers, creating a false sense of performance. Organic Traffic Poaching (22% leakage): Users who would have converted organically are wrongly attributed to affiliates. Therefore, the C-suite has a direct stake here. As the digital marketing budget grows, so does accountability across both the CMO and the CFO. Campaigns are increasingly expected to move beyond impressions toward measurable outcomes: engaged visits, site conversions, and real revenue signals. That expectation becomes impossible to meet if the underlying data is compromised. Hence, the need for a full funnel strategy and an ad fraud solution that uses advanced technologies to identify and prevent ad fraud proactively. How mFilterIt’s Ad Fraud Solution Helps Using the Full Funnel Strategy mFilterIt’s ad fraud solution helps solve the problem not just by auditing campaigns after the damage is done, but by detecting and blocking invalid traffic in real time, across every stage of the customer journey. Here’s how it works across three critical areas: Branding campaigns: Where your reach is being stolen For every branding campaign, the foundational question isn’t just ‘did people see the ad?’

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Affiliate Lead Fraud Exposed: How Fake Leads Hijack Performance Marketing

Blog, Ad Fraud / mFilterIt Experts

Welcome to the world of Pay Per Lead! A more trustworthy and monetized model. When impressions were being faked, clicks were being hijacked, and brands were receiving barely any conversions. Hence marketers, especially in tier-1 markets like the United States, decided to do what any rational person would do. They stopped paying for clicks and started paying for outcomes. Fill a form, generate a lead, get paid. Simple, accountable, fraud-proof. The moment payment moved to the lead event; some affiliates simply moved their operation there too. Suddenly, forms were being filled by scripts, credentials were being recycled, and conversion metrics were spiking in ways that looked extraordinary on a dashboard and meant absolutely nothing in a sales pipeline. The model designed to eliminate fraud became the next frontier for it. In this blog, we will discover – What is lead fraud and how affiliates exploit PPL campaigns What our latest analysis revealed on lead fraud Why your current measures are not enough to tackle lead fraud What a holistic ad traffic validation solution solves in lead gen campaign What is Lead Fraud and How Affiliates Exploit Lead Gen Campaigns Imagine opening a lemonade stand and suddenly getting 500 “customers” who ask for lemonade, write down their names, and then disappear before buying anything. Sounds exciting at first until you realize nobody actually wanted lemonade. That’s exactly what lead generation fraud looks like in digital marketing. In lead generation fraud, fake demand is created by fraudsters by filling up lead forms with credentials without having any real intent of buying any product/service. This means your brand who has partnered with affiliates are exploiting your marketing campaigns by filling out multiple fake leads and very subtly shifting the burden of non-conversion on sales team. Lead fraud happens in two ways – Fake Leads Completely made-up entries with false details, often created by bots. They look like leads but have no real user behind them. Punched Leads Manually filled leads using random or reused information to hit targets. They seem real but don’t convert when contacted. What is the Mechanic Behind Lead Fraud? Lead fraud is not just another move to pollute your campaigns; it is a very strategic one that is noticeable only when the commission is attributed to partners. Here’s how affiliate lead generation fraud typically works: Fake lead generation Affiliates submit fabricated or bot-generated leads using fake names, emails, and phone numbers, often sourced from data dumps or auto-filled by scripts, to hit volume targets and earn commissions. Incentivized traffic manipulation Real users are paid or incentivized (cash, gift cards) to fill out forms with no genuine purchase intent, inflating lead counts while producing zero conversion value for the advertiser. Lead recycling Old or previously sold leads are repackaged and resubmitted, sometimes with slightly altered details, to collect duplicate commissions from advertisers who lack deduplication checks. Cookie stuffing / attribution hijacking Affiliates drop tracking cookies on users’ browsers without their knowledge, falsely claiming credit for leads or conversions that originated organically or through other channels. Device/IP farming Using emulators, VPNs, rotating proxies, or device farms, affiliates simulate multiple unique users from a single operation, bypassing basic device fraud filters and generating large volumes of fraudulent leads at scale. Affiliate Lead Fraud Exposed: 44 Leads Tracked to One Cookie Upon analysing the lead generation campaign for a major USA brand that had partnered with affiliates to bring leads, we found severe lead punching use case – The numbers looked great until they didn’t. 342 leads from just 656 visits. A conversion rate that most marketers would celebrate. On paper, this campaign was firing on all cylinders. In reality, it was being quietly gamed. The Cracks Beneath the Surface When traffic quality signals were layered over the raw data, the same fingerprints kept showing up — literally. Every suspicious lead traced back to the same affiliate source, the same device, the same desktop environment, the same location, and near-identical browser signatures. Not similar. The same. That is not how real consumer behaviour works. The Day the Mask Slipped The clearest evidence of manipulation surfaced on 06-12-2025. A single cookie ID was used to submit 44 leads in one day. One device. One session fingerprint. Dozens of “different” users. No genuine audience behaves this way. But an affiliate with a script, a quota, and a commission on the line? Absolutely. The Graph Doesn’t Lie Conversion rates don’t naturally leap from baseline to 13%, then 21%, then 33% in a matter of days. Organic growth curves they don’t spike like a heart monitor. When they do, it almost always points to the same culprits, automated submissions, recycled user pools, or incentivised form-filling dressed up as real demand. The Real Cost of Fake Leads This is where the damage moves from a data problem to a business problem. Behind every inflated metric sits a real consequence sales teams burning hours chasing contacts who never existed, budgets being doubled down on channels that are actively cheating, and acquisition cost calculations built on a foundation of fiction. The campaign looked like a success. The business was paying for failure. What This Should Change Affiliate marketing remains one of the most powerful growth levers available — but only when the leads coming through it are real. The moment you measure performance purely by volume and conversion rate, you hand fraudulent affiliates exactly the playbook they need. The brands winning this battle are looking deeper: behavioural patterns, device consistency, cookie-level tracking, and source-by-source forensics. Because in a world where lead generation fraud is this sophisticated, the only defence is an equally sophisticated offence. Why Surface Level Analysis is not Enough to Detect Lead Fraud Lead exploitation is a broader ecosystem with affiliates disrupting the campaigns through sophisticated tactics. Surface level solution only covers the basic obvious signals like duplicate signals and repeated IP addresses but not something advanced, here’s why they aren’t enough – Fraud has moved from pattern to behaviour: Basic filters catch duplicate emails and repeat IPs, but sophisticated affiliate fraud rotates identities, devices, and locations specifically to avoid these checks. Fraudsters map your rules before they operate: Conversion thresholds, IP blacklists, and volume caps are not deterrents, they are a blueprint. Fraud operations stay comfortably within every limit your detection layer has published. Surface tools measure outputs, not intent: They confirm a lead arrived. They cannot see the 400-millisecond

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Affiliate Traffic is Not Always High Intent. What is Affiliate Fraud and How It Impacts Campaigns

Blog, Ad Fraud / mFilterIt Experts

Affiliates only get paid when a user takes a defined action, a lead, an install, or a purchase. So, the traffic must be intent-driven? But that’s not the case everytime. Why? Because affiliate fraud exists. And it’s more common and sophisticated than marketers realize. Fraudsters manipulate the payment models by generating fake traffic, fake leads, bot installs, duplicate accounts, organic hijacking, etc. The catch is they make all this look legitimate that makes ad fraud even more difficult to detect. Therefore, in this blog, we are going to break the myth about affiliate marketing most advertisers still believe in. Affiliate Traffic is Always High Intent. The answer is not always. Affiliate traffic you’re paying for may not be as genuine as it appears. Continue reading further to know how affiliate traffic fraud impacts campaign performance. What is Affiliate Fraud? Affiliate fraud is when fraudulent affiliate partners manipulate the system to generate fake actions like leads, installs, or conversions that appear genuine. The purpose is to earn commissions without delivering value. Effective affiliate fraud detection helps marketers identify and prevent such fraudulent activities before they impact campaign performance Many affiliates prioritise volume over quality. Hence, the vulnerability to ad fraud and manipulation of results. Here are some of the common affiliate fraud tactics they use Lead punching Fake or low-quality leads are submitted deliberately to trigger payouts. This is usually done using bots or fabricated data to fill in lead forms in bulk. Cookie stuffing Affiliates drop tracking cookies on a user’s browser through extension downloads, redirects, pop-ups, or hidden scripts. Users then get tagged with that cookie even though they never interact with affiliate’s content. Know more about cookie hijacking in detail here. Incentivized installs Users are paid to install an app, with zero genuine interest in it. This happens when fraudulent affiliates use reward-based platforms or unapproved promotions on various platforms to drive installs, leading to high uninstall rates and lower LTV. Referral and coupon fraud Fake or duplicate accounts are created just to claim referral rewards. Affiliates exploit loopholes in referral or promo systems using multiple identities, devices, or disposable emails to generate repeated payouts. Validation spoofing Fraudulent signals are engineered to pass quality checks. This happens when attackers manipulate device data, IPs, or behavioral patterns to make fake leads appear legitimate during verification. Bot-generated form fills Automated bots fill out forms at scale to manufacture leads. Bots mimic human behavior to submit large volumes of fake entries, inflating lead counts without real user intent. Organic traffic misattribution Affiliates manipulate last-click hijacking attribution to hijack organic traffic and conversions. They inject tracking links at the final stage of a user journey, overriding the original source and falsely claiming credit for the conversion. What Real Campaign Data Analysis by mFilterIt Reveals About Affiliate Fraud Across audited campaigns, up to 35% of affiliate traffic shows signs of bot involvement, inorganic behaviour, or misattributed organic actions. Case Overview 1: Lead punching by an automobile brand’s affiliate partner A major global automobile brand was running affiliate campaigns to drive specific conversion events. In this case, customers completing a “cash thank you” or “lease thank you” action after a vehicle transaction. The numbers looked fine from the outside. But when the campaign was audited, the findings were alarming. 70% of all invalid traffic traced back to a single affiliate partner. That one partner had a 74% invalid visit rate, and an 86% invalid event rate. In plain terms: nearly 9 out of every 10 conversion events attributed to that affiliate were fraudulent. The company had been paying for results that didn’t exist. Case Overview 2: Referral coupon fraud under the name of a global petroleum brand A global petroleum brand was running customer acquisition campaigns and spending well on them. But lead quality was still poor, and referral coupons were being flagged for suspicious activity. When the mFilterIt SDK was deployed to analyse install-level data, the truth came out. Of all the app installs that appeared to be clean and legitimate, 21% were actually referral coupon fraud. Automated bots or fake users were simply creating fake and duplicate accounts to claim referral incentives, with no intention of becoming actual customers. One geography alone accounted for 76% of that coupon fraud. The Impact: How Affiliate Fraud Damages Your Business Outcomes? When affiliate fraud goes undetected, the impact ripples across your entire marketing operation: Your sales pipeline fills with unqualified and fake leads that waste your team’s time. Your CPA and CPI benchmarks look artificially efficient, so you keep spending on the wrong sources. Your budget gravitates toward the channels “performing” best, which are often the most fraudulent. Channels that are actually working get defunded because they can’t compete with inflated affiliate numbers. How to Protect Marketing Budget from Affiliate Fraud with mFilterIt’s Affiliate Fraud Detection Solution? mFilterIt provides a full-funnel ad fraud detection solution that gives marketers visibility at every stage of the affiliate journey, not just at the click level, but all the way through installs, events, and conversions. It helps you: See where your traffic is actually coming from, identify underperforming or suspicious affiliate partners before they do more damage. Catch attribution manipulation, detect when genuine conversions are being falsely claimed by affiliates who had no real role in driving them. Spot incentivized users early, flag users who only took action to claim a reward, with zero intention of sticking around. Monitor referral and coupon activity in real time, identify patterns of abuse before they inflate your acquisition numbers. Validate traffic before it enters your funnel, filter out bots, fake devices, and spoofed signals at the pre-install stage itself. The result? You stop paying for performance that was never real and start making budget decisions based on data you can actually trust. For a deeper look at how affiliate fraud shows up across different campaign types and what to watch for at each stage, read our complete Affiliate Fraud Guide for Marketers. Conclusion Affiliate marketing isn’t the problem. Blind trust in it is. When you assume every action is genuine, fraudsters win. When you start auditing affiliate data correctly, you take control back and start seeing genuine results. Your affiliates should be working for your growth. Not against it. Find out what your affiliate partners are driving for you and how much of your affiliate spend is delivering real results. Connect with mFilterIt experts now. Frequently Asked Questions What is affiliate fraud and how does it work? Affiliate fraud is when fraudulent affiliates manipulate the payout system to earn commissions without delivering real users. They do this by generating fake leads, bot installs, duplicate accounts, or stealing credit for conversions

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What Is Frequency Capping? Why It Matters in Digital Advertising Campaigns?

Blog, Ad Fraud / mFilterIt Experts

You see the same ad once. Fine. Twice? Still okay. But by the increasing number of times in a day, it stops being memorable and starts becoming annoying. Now flip the perspective. As an advertiser, you’re paying for each of those impressions, assuming you’re reaching new users. But what if you’re not? What if your campaign is just circling around the same audience again and again? This is exactly what happens when frequency capping fails. To understand this in detail, let’s dive deep and know what frequency capping is and how to prevent breaches effectively. What is Frequency Capping? Frequency capping simply controls how often the same person should see your ad within a given time period. The idea is straightforward, instead of showing the same ad to one user ten times, the system distributes those impressions across multiple users. This ensures that campaigns expand their reach, avoid overexposure, and maintain efficiency. When implemented correctly, frequency capping helps maintain a balance between visibility and user experience. It prevents fatigue, protects brand perception, and ensures that budgets are used to reach more potential customers, not just the same ones repeatedly. However, this balance only exists when the cap is actually followed during ad delivery which is where things often start to break down. Campaigns today run across multiple exchanges, devices, and tracking systems. A single user may interact with ads through different browsers, apps, or devices, each generating separate identifiers. What appears to be “one user” in reality becomes multiple fragmented identities within the ecosystem. What Frequency Capping Violations Look Like in Real Campaigns Frequency capping breaches may not always stand out in summary reports, but they become very clear when you look closely at delivery data. In a campaign analysis, a frequency cap of 3 impressions per device was clearly defined. The expectation was simple once a device reached this limit, further ad delivery should stop. However, the actual delivery pattern showed a clear breach. A single device recorded 2,112 impressions during the campaign period. This is far beyond the defined cap and highlights a direct failure in enforcement. What makes this more concerning is not just the number, but the pattern. The same device continued to receive ads repeatedly, indicating that the system was not stopping delivery even after the cap was exceeded. Instead of controlling exposure, the campaign allowed unrestricted ad repetition at the device level. This clearly shows that when we expand beyond a single device, the pattern becomes more widespread. Multiple device IDs showed unusually high impression counts: Several devices crossed 1,000+ impressions. Others also stayed between 800 and 1,600 impressions. This shows that the issue was not isolated; it was happening across multiple devices. At this point, the campaign stops behaving like a reach-driven campaign. Instead of distributing impressions across a larger audience, it begins to concentrate delivery on a smaller group of users. According to the analysis, the first device ad request of 2,112 times was shown at 2:00 pm in the afternoon. Likewise in other devices, the ad request showed multiple times that were distributed in different time periods. This analysis highlights three key signs of frequency capping breaches here: A small number of devices generating a disproportionately high share of impressions Repeated delivery far exceeding the defined frequency cap Growing impressions without a meaningful increase in reach Why This Matters More Than It Seems At first glance, frequency capping violations may not appear critical. Campaigns continue to deliver impressions, and performance metrics may seem stable. However, the real impact becomes clear when you look at how those impressions are distributed. When the same users are repeatedly exposed to ads, it starts affecting the campaign in multiple ways: Reduced effective reach – instead of reaching new users, the campaign stays limited to a smaller audience Budget inefficiency – spend is wasted on repeated impressions that add little incremental value Lower engagement rates – users become less responsive when they see the same ad too often Over time, these effects build up and quietly reduce overall ad campaign performance, even when the campaign appears active on the surface. How mFilterIt Helps Control Frequency Capping Violations Once frequency capping violations are identified, the next step is not just detection but control. Identifying frequency capping violations is only half the job. The real value lies in controlling them at the moment of delivery. mFilterIt goes beyond just reporting the issue it actively ensures that frequency caps are followed, so campaigns don’t fall into repetitive delivery patterns. In the above campaign, once excessive ad repetition was detected at the device level, mFilterIt stepped in to restrict impressions beyond the defined cap in real time. This immediately reduced overexposure and allowed impressions to be redistributed more effectively across users. As a result, the campaign shifted from repeated targeting of a few devices to a more balanced and reach-driven delivery model. Controlled ad exposure with no frequency overshoot Campaigns stay aligned with defined frequency limits, ensuring that users are not exposed to ads beyond the intended threshold Minimized repetition and reduced impression wastage By limiting repeated delivery to the same devices, campaigns avoid spending on impressions that do not add incremental value Stronger reach through better distribution Impressions are spread across a broader audience, helping campaigns move beyond a limited user pool and improve overall reach Improved user engagement with balanced exposure When users are not overexposed to the same ad, they are more likely to stay responsive, leading to better interaction and brand recall More efficient and performance-driven campaigns With better control over ad frequency and delivery patterns, advertisers can optimize campaigns more effectively and drive stronger campaign performance By combining real-time control with continuous monitoring, mFilterIt ensures that frequency capping is not just a campaign setting but a mechanism that actually works. Conclusion Frequency capping is not just about setting limits it’s about making sure those limits are actually followed. When enforcement fails, campaigns lose reach, waste budget, and see a drop in overall ad campaign performance. To avoid this, advertisers need more than just setup they need continuous monitoring and control over ad delivery. With mFilterIt’s ad fraud solution, you can ensure clean delivery, controlled ad frequency, and better reach quality by filtering out invalid traffic and enforcing caps in real time. Get in touch with mFilterIt’s experts to take control of your campaign delivery and drive better performance. Frequently Asked Questions What is frequency capping in digital advertising? Frequency capping is a setting that limits how many times the same user sees an ad within a

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Traffic Quality vs Invalid Traffic Volume: What Really Drives Campaign Performance?

Blog, Ad Fraud / mFilterIt Experts

Every brand’s marketing program runs on one principle – more visits amount to more leads. While Google and META highly influence users’ journey but not all that stands true. The journey is simple but equally prone to the complexities of digital advertising ecosystem. This shifts the real question from how many visits your campaigns generate to where those visits are coming from or if they are leading to any conversions? We saw this firsthand while working with one of the USA’s leading aggregator players. For them, deeper validation of their campaign traffic was the turning point. When they looked closer at where their visits were actually coming from, the picture changed entirely. Irrelevant, low-quality sources were quietly eating into their budget and polluting their campaign data, making it nearly impossible to measure what was truly working. So, they made a call: blacklist the bad sources. Clean the data. And rebuild on a foundation they could actually trust. In this blog, we break down exactly how that played out: Sources that pollute Google and Meta campaigns and their impact How blacklisting changed the game The measurable impact of defending against fraudulent traffic Key takeaways for marketers Conclusion Source-Level Fraud in Google and META Campaigns We did a thorough analysis of the brand’s campaigns running on Google and META and here’s what we found – From META, brand received the highest Invalid Traffic (IVT) of 28.51%. From Google, brand got 8.15% IVT from various fraudulent sources. The difference in invalid traffic across platforms clearly shows that not every traffic source delivers the same quality of users. A campaign may generate high traffic numbers, but that does not always mean the visits are genuine or valuable. In some cases, a large portion of traffic can come from fraudulent or low-quality sources that never convert into real customers. For Google campaigns, the IVT percentage may appear lower compared to other platforms, but the advertising costs on these walled gardens are significantly higher. This means that even a small percentage of invalid traffic can result in substantial budget wastage and reduced campaign efficiency. To understand this better, let’s look at the major sources contributing to IVT and the direct impact they have on marketing campaigns – VPN/ Proxy Fraud: Traffic routed through VPNs or proxy networks to disguise real user identity and location. Impact: Bypasses geo-targeting and fraud filters, making fake traffic appear legitimate. Geo Fraud: Traffic coming from the geographies that were never a target at the first place. Impact: Creates a false sense of campaign success in priority markets. Behavior Fraud: Bots or automated scripts designed to mimic real user actions like fake clicks, scrolling, session duration. Impact: Inflates engagement metrics while delivering zero real intent. Device Repetition: Repeated interactions from the same device or a controlled pool of devices also called device farms. Impact: Indicates click farms or emulator-driven traffic, skewing user-level data. Pop-Under Traffic: Ads triggered in hidden or background windows without active user intent. Impact: Generates low-quality visits that look like traffic but don’t convert meaningfully. mFilterIt’s Solution: How Blacklisting Changed the Game for Leading Aggregator mFilterIt transformed campaign performance by shifting the focus from traffic volume to traffic authenticity. Through our ad fraud detection tool, brands attained real-time traffic validation and source-level analysis, identifying and blocking fraudulent or low-quality sources before they impact campaign outcomes. This enables brands to take precise actions like blacklisting, ensuring that only genuine users move through the funnel. Here’s how it changed the game – IVT Dropped by 42% in META Campaigns What began at 38% dropped down to 22% in just three months, a major 42% reduction in IVT. This was not a one-time correction; it indicates a consistent, ongoing improvement driven by focused campaign optimization. As deeper traffic validation was done and low-quality sources were identified, the system was able to filter out fraudulent sources such as geo-masking and repeated device activity. Over time, this led to cleaner inputs, better targeting decisions, and more reliable performance signals. The continuous decline also indicates that optimization efforts didn’t just remove existing fraud but actively prevented its recurrence. IVT Dropped by 8.4% in Google Performance Max Campaign Below graph highlights reduction of IVT in Google performance max campaigns by 8.4%. Invalid traffic dropped from 15.84% in September to 14.51% in November—a noticeable improvement over a short period. In Performance Max campaigns, even a single percentage point reduction matters because these campaigns operate at scale and involve higher media spends. So, while the IVT reduction is 8.4%, the real impact goes beyond that number. Less wasted spend on invalid traffic means more budget is directed toward. Campaign Performance Over Time: The Impact of Traffic Quality Optimization Once the blacklisting began, the campaign showed progress in terms of traffic quality in both Google and META campaigns. Let’s see what each denotes – Performance Improvement in META Campaigns This table highlights how campaign performance evolved over a five-month period, Initially, when all traffic sources were allowed to run freely during August, the campaign delivered 1,753 clicks and 101 conversions, resulting in a conversion rate of 5.76%. While costs were moderate, performance was held back by poor traffic quality. As shown in the image below, the conversion rate significantly improves post blacklisting. Moving into September 2025, there’s an interesting shift. Although costs increased by 23.5%, the conversion rate improved to 6.31%. This suggests that cleaning up low-quality traffic sources (likely via blacklisting or filtering) began to pay off. Even with higher spend, the campaign became more efficient because the traffic quality improved. By October 2025, performance stabilizes. Costs remain nearly flat (+0.5%), but the conversion rate climbs further to 6.64%. This indicates that earlier optimizations are holding strong, and the campaign is now reaching a more relevant audience consistently. In November, the conversion rate jumped to 7.36%. The upward trend in conversion rate from 5.76% to 7.36%; is significant. It reflects a clear improvement in traffic quality and campaign efficiency, not just increased spend or scale. Performance Improvement in Google Campaigns The data highlights a clear turning point in campaign performance before and after blacklisting was implemented. In August, the campaign struggled with high cost per conversion (519) and a low conversion rate (0.48%), indicating inefficient spend driven by poor traffic quality. The campaign improved once blacklisting was brought in action as reflected in conversion rates. Post-implementation, starting September, performance improved significantly. Cost per conversion dropped sharply from 137 in September to as low as 67 by early November while conversion rates increased from 0.48% to 2.07%. This reflects the direct impact of filtering out low-quality and fraudulent traffic, allowing the campaign to focus on more relevant users. Overall, the trend demonstrates how traffic

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Merchant Risk Monitoring in the Evolving Digital Payments Scenario

Blog, Brand Protection / mFilterIt Experts

Digital payments in India, led by Unified Payments Interface, are growing at an exceptional pace. Transaction values continue to rise year after year, reflecting how deeply digital payments are now part of everyday life. The graph below highlights this momentum, with transaction volumes growing YoY and an expected 300% increase in both transaction volume and rupee value by FY30 vs FY25. Emerging Trends: UPI payments are the key driver of this growth – with its ecosystem of participating Banks (~700), merchant ecosystem (~65 million) and serving nearly half a billion customers. UPI in terms of Volumes is expected to grow contribute ~85% in terms of rupee value of all digital payments by FY30. Add to this the 40 authorised TPAPs, the ecosystem is bound to flourish and is also insulated from external threats (eg. GPay, visa, mastercard shutting down in Russia); given that this is completely Made in India tech stack. A key component of UPI Payments is the Merchant Eco System – currently contributing ~30% of current value to ~63% in terms of Rupee value. Debit and Credit Cards comprising POS and Digital spends, expected to grow at a CAGR of 25%, with spends primarily coming from credit cards and increase penetration of UPI linked credit cards. The spends growth will be primarily driven by digital spends which is expected to be around 72-75% (FY30) from the current 63%. – this represents a a perceptible shift away from the traditional Brick and Mortar Merchant. Prepaid / Fastag & SI transactions is expected to see a steady growth with primary spends being digital in nature. Emergence of Fintechs, TPAPs, Payment Banks, Telcos once dominated primarily by banks and technology firms, the sector now attracts players from diverse fields such as retail, telecommunications, FinTech, and e-commerce, enabling cross-sector innovation and new market entrants. The above trends is a paradigm shift vis a vis what we have seen till a few years ago and brings with it, its own perils such as cybercrime and fraud risks. Cybercrime has evolved to such and extent that FY25 has seen a 24% spike in cybercrimes reported on the NCRP portal, with the rupee value of reported fraud loss being INR 22,495 crores. This is the reported numbers and the overall non reported instances could be approximated to be 1x in terms of rupee value. Given that this is majorly digital, the merchant eco-system plays a key role in the same; payment instruments like VPAs, underlying merchant accounts etc are used extensively as collections accounts to receive the proceeds of such crime or act as an intermediary in the laundering of such proceeds. Hence it is that much more imperative that there is a lot more focus on the kind of merchant who are being on boarded; given the digital nature of merchant spends and the ease at which the merchant can evolve post onboarding, a Life Cycle based Risk Management Approach is the need of the hour. Every merchant you onboard is a vote of confidence in your platform. But every transaction they process is also a new surface for risk. Hence, what starts at onboarding shouldn’t stop there; it needs continuous attention. In this blog, we will discover- How one-time checks are not enough in merchant onboarding How rapid growth in digital payments is increasing risk And how end-to-end merchant evaluation can make a real difference How One Time Risk Checks are not Enough in Merchant Onboarding? There is a traditional belief that all merchant risks can be tackled before onboarding and once the onboarding is completed, no merchant risks can travel, making the following, the key checkpoints of merchant onboarding – Verify business details Review website Approve and go live But as the digital payment ecosystem is growing more complex, merchant risk monitoring does not stop at onboarding. Assuming that merchants will remain compliant after initial checks is often unreliable. In reality, risks can emerge at any stage post-onboarding, such as – Change in website content Sale of restricted / banned / high-risk products Manipulate redirects or hidden flows Drift away from declared business categories All of this happens after onboarding, when visibility is often limited. How Scaling Digital Payments Elevates Risk in Merchant Onboarding While digital adoption is speeding up, it also brings in new risks that don’t just appear at the start, they continue throughout the merchant journey. More merchants mean: More variation in quality and intent More edge cases that manual checks miss Higher probability of fraudulent or non-compliant entities slipping through However, stopping the merchant ecosystem from evolving is not the solution- “Continuous Monitoring”, is. Why Onboarding Checks Alone aren’t Enough & How Continuous Monitoring Fills the Gap? Here’s how comprehensive and continuous merchant risk monitoring strengthens payment getaways, enabling them to fill the gaps created by just focusing on merchant onboarding – (also include business outcome) Onboarding-only monitoring limitations How holistic monitoring helps One-time snapshot of the merchant Continuous tracking of merchant behavior Misses post-onboarding risks Detects emerging risks in real time Relies on static documents Validates ongoing digital presence and activity No visibility into changes in offerings Flags deviations in products/services Cannot track compliance drift Monitors policy compliance risk continuously Misses malware or suspicious activity later Scans regularly for threats and anomalies Reactive issue resolution Enables proactive risk prevention Higher risk of regulatory/reputation impact Strengthens against compliance risk and brand protection End-to-End Merchant Evaluation: A New Outlook to The Merchant Life Cycle. Merchant onboarding now demands confidence that cannot be achieved without holistic evaluation of merchant lifecycle, one that goes beyond onboarding and keeps validating risk at every stage. That’s where mFilterIt’s approach and product offerings steps I; not only focussing on onboarding but also monitors and evaluates risk which may evolve at a later stage. Business & Operational Analysis We help you truly understand who you’re onboarding by looking beyond basic details-analyzing the business, verifying promoters, and checking location authenticity. Outcome: You onboard genuine, trustworthy merchants from the start. Pre-screening & Identity Verification We validate merchants using multiple signals like contact details, device, IP, and KYC documents to catch inconsistencies early. Outcome: Lower chances of fraud and stronger defence against compliance risk from day one. Website Risk Analysis (and beyond) We continuously monitor the merchant’s digital presence-checking website content, offerings, compliance, and any suspicious activity. Outcome: Early detection of risks and better control even after onboarding. Overall impact: You move from one-time checks to continuous visibility—helping you build a safer

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