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Debunking the Myth: Re-Engagement Campaigns Aren’t Always Fraud-Free, Know Why

Blog, Ad Fraud /

Imagine launching a re-engagement campaign with the confidence that you’re targeting existing, familiar users—an audience that’s supposed to be fraud-proof. It seems logical, doesn’t it? After all, why would fraudsters bother with users who are already in your database?  Unfortunately, this assumption couldn’t be more misleading. Re-engagement campaigns are not only impacted by fraud but are also increasingly targeted by sophisticated fraudulent techniques. Fraudsters see these campaigns as low-hanging fruit, exploiting weak attribution systems and leveraging the widespread myth that re-engagement is safer than acquisition of new customers. Re-engagement campaigns are undeniably valuable. They help brands reconnect with dormant users, boost retention, and drive long-term growth. But failing to recognize the lurking threat of mobile ad fraud can turn these campaigns into a costly trap. In this article, we’ll uncover the hidden risks, types of digital ad fraud affecting re-engagement efforts, and how brands can protect themselves. It’s time to rethink what you know about re-engagement campaigns and ad fraud.  Common Misconceptions About Fraud in Re-Engagement Campaigns  Belief that targeting existing users reduces the likelihood of fraud: Marketers often assume that fraud is less of a threat in re-engagement campaigns because the target audience consists of users already familiar with the brand. Perception that fraudulent activities are more prevalent in acquisition campaigns: While acquisition campaigns are a common target for fraud, re-engagement campaigns are equally at risk due to their high-value budgets and relaxed monitoring.  Types of Fraud in Re-Engagement Campaigns  – Organic Poaching  Organic poaching occurs when fraudsters manipulate attribution systems to take credit for users who would have naturally re-engaged with the brand. These are genuine users who, due to their liking for the brand, were likely to return on their own. Fraudsters intercept their activity by inserting click be, before the user’s click making it look organic. This artificially inflates the campaign’s performance metrics, and the attribution platform marks this as an organic activity.   – Acquisition Poaching  In acquisition poaching, fraudulent reengagement partners take advantage of attribution windows to falsely categorize newly acquired users as re-engaged ones. For instance, they may manipulate data to claim credit for a user who has just downloaded an app or made a first purchase, even though the individual was not part of the re-engagement audience. This not only wastes the re-engagement campaign budget but also blurs the distinction between acquisition and re-engagement efforts, leaving marketers with misleading insights.  – Event Spoofing  Event spoofing involves fraudsters simulating user actions after a re-engagement campaign, such as fake logins, purchases, or app interactions. These fabricated events create the illusion that the campaign successfully drove meaningful engagement. However, these activities lack any real user intent or value, resulting in wasted ad spend and unreliable performance data. Event spoofing is particularly harmful because it often goes undetected until a deeper analysis reveals discrepancies between reported metrics and actual user behavior.  Impact of Fraud on Re-Engagement Campaigns  Financial Losses and Wasted Ad Spend: Re-engagement campaigns are designed to maximize ROI by targeting users who are already familiar with the brand. However, when fraudsters interfere, ad budgets are wasted on fake actions that provide no real value. For example, event spoofing may create the illusion of reactivated users completing high-value actions, such as purchases or logins, while in reality, no such engagement has occurred. This not only drains resources but also diverts funds from genuine opportunities to re-engage actual users. Misleading Campaign Performance Data: Fraudulent activities in re-engagement campaigns can significantly distort performance metrics. Organic poaching and acquisition poaching, for instance, lead to inflated figures, making campaigns appear more successful than they truly are. When marketers rely on these skewed insights, they risk misallocating budgets, overestimating campaign effectiveness, and losing the ability to optimize future strategies effectively. Inefficiency in Targeting Actual Users: Fraud doesn’t just waste money; it also undermines the core objective of re-engagement campaigns—reconnecting with dormant users. Fraudulent actions skew targeting systems, making it harder to identify and reach genuine inactive users who could bring long-term value to the brand. Instead, marketers end up chasing fake interactions, missing out on real opportunities to reignite meaningful customer relationships. Why You Need to Invest in an Ad Traffic Validation Solution: Real Cases   Case 1: Abnormal Click to App Open Rate   In normal case, most users get reattributed immediately after opening the app.  In the above case, about 60% of the clicks made by users on retargeting ads did not result in the app being opened immediately and it is done after 06th Hour, which clearly indicates large amount of click spamming to capture users opening the app organically.  Case 2: Repetitive Orders from Same GAID   Repetitive orders are getting placed from same GAID on the same time frame and same store also, all order is on Cash on Delivery. Refer below sample for the same, there are 212 such orders placed. This is a clear case of spoofed events.   Takeaway  Re-engagement campaigns are important for marketers to reengage their past users and be present in their minds. However, to increase the potential of these retargeting campaigns, marketers must also address the hidden risks of fraud to increase the potential of the campaign and reach maximum users. By implementing robust ad fraud solution like Valid8 by mFilterIt, monitoring campaign data meticulously, and staying informed about the emerging fraud patterns can help to safeguard the re-engagement efforts and ensure that your ads reach the right audience.   Want to get a demo of how we do it? Contact our team today  

Debunking the Myth: Re-Engagement Campaigns Aren’t Always Fraud-Free, Know Why Read More »

brand-bidding-blog

Brand Bidding Monitoring: Improve Campaigns & Reduce CPC by 21%

Blog, Brand Protection /

Marketers spend heavily on building a brand presence both organically and with paid search campaigns. However, despite creating a holistic approach with well-crafted ads, optimized landing pages and targeted brand keywords, their efforts are giving desired results, and they see a high a cost-per-click (CPC). One of the causes can be bidding on branded keywords by competitors or even worse your affiliates or ad networks. And the surprising fact is that this scenario is quite a common practice. A well-known skincare brand recently faced similar challenges when they saw their CPCs skyrocket due to their ad networks partners outbidding them on their own branded keywords, impacting their profitability and scalability. In this blog, we’ll dive deep into the consequences of affiliate brand bidding and offer key takeaways for performance marketing managers running search campaigns on branded keywords. The Problem: Rising CPCs and Decreasing ROAS When you’re running a branded search campaign, you expect to see a high return on investment. After all, these are the keywords that directly relate to your brand name, so the traffic is highly relevant. But in many cases, what you don’t expect is for ad networks and fraudulent affiliates to target your branded keywords, pushing up the cost of each click and impacting the efficiency of your campaigns. This was the case for a leading skincare brand that faced inflated CPCs due to their partnered ad networks bidding on their branded keywords. As ad networks began competing for these highly intended branded keywords, the price of their own brand keywords became highly competitive, resulting in a 25-30% increase in CPCs, especially during high-demand periods like sales events. This not only eroded the brand’s profitability but also made it more difficult to scale their search efforts. The Impact of Brand Bidding on Ad Campaigns When ad networks or affiliates bid on your branded keywords, they effectively raise the bid price, driving up the cost of your own ads. Here’s why these matters: -Increased CPCs: Higher CPCs can eat into your budget, especially during high-demand sales periods when competition intensifies. A rise of 25-30% can drastically reduce the number of clicks you can afford and negatively affect your ad spend -Decreased ROAS: With higher CPCs, your ROAS takes a hit. You’re paying more for each click but not seeing the same level of return, making your campaigns less profitable and harder to scale. -Loss of Control: As ad networks and affiliates continuously bid on branded terms, brands lose control over their own brand’s visibility in search results. Their ads become buried beneath competitors, decreasing the chances of appearing at the top of search results and gaining quality traffic. -Sustainability Issues: Without addressing brand bidding, you may face challenges in scaling your search efforts. The higher your CPCs are, the more you spend to maintain performance, limiting your ability to expand your campaigns or reach new audiences. The Solution: Brand Protection and Proactive Monitoring In the case of this skincare brand, the solution lay in leveraging a holistic brand safety solution for affiliate campaigns that could monitor and restrict unauthorized bids on branded keywords. By partnering with mFilterIt, they were able to implement a comprehensive strategy to reclaim control over their search campaigns. Here’s how the solution worked: -Real-Time Detection: The brand protection solution identified competitor bids on branded keywords in real time, enabling the brand to take immediate action before their ad spend was impacted further. -Detailed Reporting: Regular, detailed reports provided the brand with visibility into where and when competitors were bidding on their keywords, giving them the opportunity to restrict such bids and prevent escalating CPCs. -Proactive Action: Armed with real-time data, the brand was able to act swiftly, limiting unnecessary costs and optimizing their campaigns to ensure maximum ROI. Key Results and Benefits: -Cost Reduction: After implementing the brand protection solution, the brand saw a 21% reduction in CPCs within just a month. During a peak sales period, the brand was able to optimize its search campaign and reduce unnecessary ad spend. – Enhanced ROAS: With the cost of clicks under control, the brand saw an increase in their ROAS, regaining profitability and improving their overall performance metrics. – Significant Savings: The brand saved close to ₹40,000 per day by preventing competitors from bidding on their branded keywords. These savings could then be reallocated to other marketing efforts, contributing to more sustainable growth. Takeaways for Performance Marketing Managers Running Branded Search Campaigns – Monitor Brand Keyword Bidding Regularly: You need to stay vigilant and constantly monitor your branded keywords. If you’re not tracking who is bidding on your brand keywords, you could be unknowingly inflating your costs. Regular monitoring ensures that you remain in control of your search budget. – Take Immediate Action Against Unauthorized Bidding: As soon as you detect that competitors or affiliates/ad networks are bidding on your branded keywords, take immediate action to restrict them. A proactive approach can help you minimize additional spending and protect your brand’s search visibility. – Leverage Brand Protection Tools: A brand protection solution provides the real-time insights and detailed reports necessary to effectively manage brand keyword bidding. These tools can help you act quickly, prevent unnecessary costs, and optimize your campaigns for better efficiency. – Understand the Impact of Rising CPCs on Scalability: As CPCs rise, your ability to scale campaigns becomes limited. If your search campaigns become too expensive, you may find it difficult to maintain the same level of growth. By managing brand bidding, you can keep CPCs in check and scale your campaigns more effectively. – Prioritize Sustainable Growth: High CPCs are not only a short-term issue—they can affect your long-term campaign sustainability. Addressing brand bidding issues early on allows you to allocate resources effectively, ensuring that your campaigns remain profitable over time. Way Forward Brand bidding is a silent campaign killer, but it doesn’t have to drain your ad spend or ruin your ROAS. By understanding the impact of competitor bids on your branded keywords and implementing proactive brand protection

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Click Tracker

How Click Trackers Are Protecting Millions in Ad Budgets from Fraud?

Blog, Ad Fraud /

In the rapidly growing digital world, the need for proactive measures against invalid clicks is required for advertisers to ensure that every click gets measured and validated. Having Google-approved click trackers is a must if advertisers want to track campaigns. Click tracker assists in the detection of any fraudulent clicks from bots, click farms, or any other invalid source, which can further help optimize the campaign before it burns the budget and distorts campaign insight.  Why Click Trackers Are Essential Click trackers help advertisers in monitoring the performance of the ads accurately by tracking user behavior. This data involves conversions, click-through rates, time spent on the website and overall user journey. This helps the advertiser to measure the success of their advertisement and optimize it accordingly.    Since Google’s ad platform smoothly can be integrated with certified click tracker, advertisers can use these tracking methods without encountering compatibility or performance difficulties. So, by accurately tracking ad clicks and following actions, advertisers gain valuable insights into which keywords, ad formats, and targeting options drive conversions, ultimately leading to higher ROI and significance through data-driven decisions.   A Google-certified clicks tracker can assist advertisers in tracking clicks on their ads while remaining compliant with Google’s advertising standards. This contributes to Google policy compliance by preventing harmful or misleading tracking activities that may have an impact on user experience. This helps to limit the possibility of ad abuse and misreporting, which can cost advertisers money and skew performance metrics.  Addressing Click Fraud Advertisers could utilize click fraud detection tools to improve the transparency and efficacy of their ad campaigns, ensuring that their advertising budget is spent on genuine user engagements.  – Invalid Traffic Detection: Detection of fraudulent traffic in real time in Google Ads and Meta Ads plays a critical role in protecting advertiser ad budget getting wasted on invalid traffic. -Genuine vs. Bot Clicks: Genuine clicks often show unique patterns, high levels of engagement, and come from a variety of geolocations. In contrast, bot clicks frequently indicate quick, repeated patterns, limited involvement, and come from suspicious IP addresses. -Fake Clicks: Real traffic leads to higher conversion rates. Detecting and stopping fraudulent clicks from click spamming in real-time boosts traffic quality and conversions. -Click Farms: A large-scale click fraud campaign frequently produces invalid clicks. These types of activities, such as click farms, are frequently used to artificially increase ad click volumes, resulting in distorted and inflated metrics. How Click Trackers Benefit Brands and Ad Networks Advertisers should understand the need for having accurate and transparent click measures and validation tools which can protect their investment and ensure their marketing efforts reach genuine and targeted audiences.   The internet click campaign market has expanded from 6% to 16% in recent years, and it is expected that digital advertising spending will rise from $88 billion to $172 billion over the next five years. According to Statista, that figure will expand at a 14% annual rate.  – Real-Time Data Accuracy: Having a real-time data on user interaction helps in providing marketers with the latest insight into the campaign performance by analyzing the CTR, user behavior, and engagement metrics which provides precise evaluation of campaign effectiveness.   – Fraud Prevention: Detecting and eliminating invalid clicks, including those who bot or repeat actions by the same user, to mitigate click fraud. Additionally, verifying the origin of clicks to confirm as they align with targeted geographies  – Enhanced Campaign Optimization: Trackers can be used to monitor certain metrics that are relevant to your campaign’s objectives. Monitoring and validation are necessary throughout the funnel. By tracking which clicks lead to conversions, marketers may optimize their ROI.  The Role of Click Trackers in Ad Networks Click trackers are key for smooth operation and effective ad optimization. They play an important role in ensuring the integrity of campaigns while enhancing their effectiveness across various platforms.  So, by detecting these fraudulent activities bot traffic, and click spamming, click tracker help advertisers safeguard their ads from fraud, reducing ad budget loss and ensuring that the campaigns get genuine traffic.   Click Tracker makes sure the ads that are getting published are legitimate, brand-safe domains, maintaining the campaign’s credibility and also gaining user trust. They also support cross-platform performance measurement enhancing collaboration between the advertiser and the publisher This helps to strengthen the network, by protecting the ad spent, optimizing the campaign with the help of real-time tracking and improving revenue attribution, resulting in better outcomes for both the brand as well as the publisher.  Why mFilterIt Click Tracker Stands Out Click Tracker by mFilterIt, a Google-verified tool, is designed to provide full-funnel protection for brands and ad networks, ensuring transparency throughout the user journey from getting impressions to conversions. It provides effective  fraud detection by using advanced AI, ML, and heuristic analysis, and helps in delivering trustworthy clicks, safeguarding brand’s digital campaigns from invalid clicks and fraudulent activities.  The tool offers domain verification, bot filtering, and real-time tracking, ensuring the integrity of your ad campaigns while maintaining data accuracy. Marketers can gain actionable insights using click tracker tool for optimizing their strategies effectively, leading to better resource allocation and enhanced campaign performance.  By detecting and filtering invalid clicks across multiple platforms, the click tracker helps brands minimize waste of ad spend, delivering genuine engagement and genuine leads. Conclusion  By integrating Google-verified click trackers, advertisers not only meet industry requirements but also gain meaningful insights into user behaviour, allowing them to make data-driven decisions to improve campaigns and increase ROI.   As digital advertising grows at an exponential rate, the value of real-time data accuracy, fraud detection, and campaign optimization cannot be compromised. Employing a click tracker can help brands stand out because it provides strong protection against invalid clicks, guaranteeing that advertising investments get genuine engagement and results.    Ready to safeguard your ad campaigns and boost performance?Get in touch with us today to learn how our click tracker can help you detect fraud, optimize ROI, and make every click count.

How Click Trackers Are Protecting Millions in Ad Budgets from Fraud? Read More »

From the CEO 1

Reflections and Roadmap: A Year of Building Trust, Transparency, and Innovation

Blog, Leadership Voice /

As we approach the end of another remarkable year, I would like to reflect on our journey and the milestones we’ve achieved together. This year, our efforts to address critical challenges in the digital ecosystem have borne fruit, and the trust we’ve built in the industry has been our greatest reward.  Helping Brands Thrive with the “VOP” Framework At the heart of our mission lies our “VOP [Verify, Optimize, Protect]” framework—a cornerstone of our approach to empowering brands in the digital ecosystem. This framework has been instrumental in enabling brands to achieve true data visibility, optimize their strategies, and safeguard their digital assets, ultimately driving better business outcomes.  We have: Forged impactful partnerships with leading brands: Working closely with the largest car manufacturer, prominent FMCG companies, and the leading electronics brand, our brand and ad traffic validation (BAV) solutions have gone beyond protecting brand reputation and offering transparency to the brands to take effective decisions  Driven exceptional growth through our performance solutions: Our performance suite has enabled some of the largest telecom, eCommerce, and quick commerce providers to optimize their campaigns, conduct precise incrementality tests, and achieve unparalleled ROI—turning ambitious goals into tangible results.  Elevated eCommerce media optimization: The integration of our eCommerce media optimization suite with the Digital Shelf monitoring solution has introduced automated actions that transform campaign performance, ensuring seamless and measurable success.  Fortified the BFSI ecosystem: Our brand protection suite has actively dismantled threats by removing bad actors, thereby reinforcing the integrity and security of the BFSI sector.  Building Trust Through Collaboration Trust is the treasure in this digital age, and this year, we’ve taken significant steps to build it. By collaborating with brands, agencies, Big 4 firms, and trade bodies, we’ve worked to establish and uphold industry standards. Major OTT players have adopted our tagging capabilities to deliver measurable outcomes. These partnerships are essential for creating a future where transparency and innovation thrive.  Earning Recognition Through Meaningful Conversations This year, we focused on fostering meaningful connections with the media and industry stakeholders. We’re deeply honored that our insights on key issues in the digital ecosystem resonated with leading media outlets like Economic Times, The Hindu and Financial Express. These recognitions serve as humbling reminders of the importance and impact of our work, and we’re truly grateful for the trust placed in us.  Beyond media recognition, our leadership in fostering trust and transparency was acknowledged by esteemed industry bodies such as the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA). This validation is a testament to the consistent efforts and unwavering dedication of our team and the trust our clients and partners put on us for creating a secure and transparent digital environment.  Looking Ahead As I reflect on this incredible journey this year, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to our clients, partners, and everyone who has supported us along the way. Your trust, collaboration, and belief in our mission have been the cornerstone of our growth and success. Thank you for being an integral part of our story—we look forward to continuing this journey with you in 2025 and many more years to come.  As we enter a new year, our focus remains clear—to continue driving innovation, enhancing trust, and delivering measurable value to our clients. With the momentum we’ve gained, I’m confident that we’ll continue to make strides in shaping a secure, transparent future for digital.   Stay ahead, to know more contact us. 

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social media

Why You Need to Protect Your Brand on Social Media?

Blog, Brand Protection /

Making a brand reputation for exceptional quality and high standards helps your firm stand out in today’s competitive industry. If your reputation or brand representation is harmed by social media, the brand will suffer more than just financial damages. You also risk missing out on significant possibilities to engage with new clients and build your business in the future. Online brand protection includes a range of practices that help the brand to stay aware of where and how their brand is used. In case of misuse of brand name or assets, with a proactive brand monitoring process brand can protect their brand integrity. In the digital space, brands are vulnerable on every platform, including social media platforms.   Let’s dive into this blog where we explain the types of brand threats on social media platforms and how to overcome them.   Why You Need to Protect Your Brand on Social Media   On social media, brand protection goes beyond just brand monitoring. It is essential for a brand to ensure that its assets are being used properly by affiliate partners and to identify any misuse of its brand name or logo. So, when your social media accounts and presence are abused, your brand becomes a tool for any risks with your customers via links claiming to be from the company, compromising your brand integrity. This happens because these social media profiles might imitate the brand, posing a direct danger to your business.   As a result, if your brand is abused on social media and used for phishing attacks, your products and services become less appealing to potential customers, and you lose their trust.   Risks Brands Face on Social Media   Brands available on social media face numerous risks, including fake accounts claiming to be brand assets or unauthorized use of trademarks. Negative publicity, phishing scams, and customer data breaches can harm reputation and trust. Additionally, regulatory non-compliance or inappropriate content can result in legal penalties.    -Detecting Brand Impersonation and Fake Account: Phishing attackers often create fake accounts using genuine brand names e which misleads the customers and damages brand trust. These accounts promote fake offers, scammy posts, counterfeit products, and phishing links leading to loss of money for the brand’s customers. Unaware of the phished assets, the customers are under the assumption that they have been duped by the brand. -Counterfeit Products: Scamsters tend to exploit social media platforms to market fake goods using a brand’s name which can destroy a brand’s reputation and result in loss or reduced revenue for the brand. -Data Leaks and Phishing: Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are often used in targeting phishing attacks under brands identity which directly compromise brand authenticity with other important data that can lead to a widespread effect on the brand and followers. -Monitoring Customer Feedback: Presenting wrong information or promoting misinformation campaigns or fake reviews impacts the brand’s face value and online authenticity. Having viral negative publicity can spread rapidly making real-time monitoring essential. Benefits of Brand Protection Suite for Social Media   Here’s how an effective Brand Protection Solution can protect your online presence, increase customer trust, and keep your brand’s reputation intact. Here are the main benefits:  -Real-Time Monitoring: Brand protection Tool help monitor social media platforms to detect unauthorized content, fake accounts as well as trademark violations. Having real-time alerts helps brands to act swiftly and mitigate potential threats or damage caused. -Automated Enforcement: Tools also tend to offer takedown services for counterfeit listings, impersonation accounts, and brand-infringing content. This helps in streamlining the process of maintaining brands’ online integrity. -Enhanced Customer Trust : By proactively protecting the brand, companies can foster a safer environment for their customers. Customers are more likely to trust brands that demonstrate a commitment to their online safety. -Safeguard brand image: Brand infringement tools will help identify and address negative sentiments and misinformation before they escalate. Sentinel+, a brand protection tool, provides comprehensive analytics into brand perception and suggests areas for improvement.    Key Features to Look for in Brand Protection Tools   When choosing a brand protection tool for your brand, prioritize features that provide extensive coverage, ease of use, and proactive threat detection. We have combined some key features that you must look out for when choosing a brand protection tool:   -Multi-Platform Coverage:  An ideal brand protection tool should be able to provide a holistic view of your brand’s presence covering multiple platforms including Websites, dark-web, marketplaces, listing platforms etc.   -User-Friendly Dashboard: Having a centralized dashboard helps significantly by tracking and managing incidents across different platforms.   -Ensures Compliance and Precise Reporting: Brand infringement tools offer detailed reports and ensure compliance with platform policies and legal regulations and add significant value. Tools like Sentinel+ by mFilterIt also have man-in-loop investigation which ensures the preciseness of the brand safety and infringement reports.    -Use of Open-source intelligence: OSINT or Open-source intelligence technology helps in tracking typo spotting, and detecting unauthorized usage of brand logos, slogans, and names. It also helps in analyzing marketplaces for news and social media posts or counterfeit products that are unauthentically available online with the brand name. This technology also helps in identifying fake social media profiles claiming to be your brand. Data from OSINT helps in making decisions such as taking down any social media profile or blacklisting it from all digital platforms.  Sentinel+ by mFilterIt provides a holistic protection across all platforms and enables brands to take proactive action against digital threats. Using open-source intelligence, the tool enables brands to keep a check on where their brand assets are used and takedown them in less than 48 hours. Real-time reporting helps the brand to make decisions against brand asset abuse and protects them to avoid any reputation or legal repercussions. Real Case: Learn how one of the leading real estate company in India protected their brand reputation with active brand monitoring  One of the biggest real-estate companies countered severe issues with trademark infringement on social networks and the web. The expansive digital

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ads

Click Validation: Ensuring Quality Engagement with Your Ads

Blog, Ad Fraud /

When running online ad campaigns, it’s not just about getting clicks—it’s about getting the right clicks. Many advertisers face the challenge of differentiating between genuine clicks and accidental or low-quality clicks. This is where mFilterIt’s click validation comes in. Click validation helps to ensure that the clicks on your ads are from real, engaged users who are genuinely interested in your product or service. How does click validation work, and why is it so important? Tracking   >>>  Analyzing  >>>  Improving -Tracking Click Behavior: The first step in click validating is tracking user interactions with your ads. Tools like pixels or tracking URLs allow you to monitor exactly what happens after someone clicks on your ad. Are they bouncing right away, or are they exploring your website further? If someone clicks on an ad and immediately leaves, it might suggest they were not genuinely interested. This kind of data is key to identifying poor-quality clicks. -Analyzing Engagement: Clicks don’t tell the whole story. By validating the quality of each click, you can assess how much time visitors spend on your site, what pages they visit, and if they complete any desired actions (like signing up or making a purchase). For example, if a user clicks on your ad but doesn’t interact with your site, it’s a sign they might not be a valuable lead. Click validation helps you focus on users who engage deeply with your platform and are more likely to convert. -Improving Ad Targeting: Click validation allows you to fine-tune your targeting strategy. By identifying which clicks are more likely to convert, basis geo, behaviour, scroll pattern, etc.., you can adjust your campaigns to reach users who show genuine intent. Over time, this leads to higher quality leads and a better return on investment (ROI). In conclusion, ad fraud solution isn’t just about tracking clicks—it’s about understanding the intent behind those clicks and optimizing your campaigns for better results. If a bot is just clicking your ads your campaign will never deliver conversions, since bots doesn’t buy or fulfil a successful lead. It’s the genuine user who counts, hence your campaign optimization should focus more on learning your user behaviour and adopting necessary findings to improvise campaign conversions. To start your click validation connect with mFilterIt.

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Programmatic Advertising

How Top Brands Are Winning with Programmatic Advertising

Blog, Programmatic /

In this competitive digital environment, brand messaging reaching the right audience at the right place has become imperative. To boost the brand’s success rate, programmatic advertising is the best way to ensure high accuracy and high turnover in depth. In 2023, programmatic advertisements accounted for 90% of the total ad spending. However, the big question is how brands and businesses are leveling it up to remain relevant in the market. Let’s discuss how programmatic advertising can be used the right way by implementing the right strategies.   Why Brands are Embracing Programmatic Advertising? Programmatic advertising has transformed the way brands interact with their target audiences by automating the buying and placement of ads with the help of powerful algorithms that provide precision, efficiency, and scalability.  to increase the success rate which is lacking in traditional advertising.   -Precise Targeting: Using precise targeting in programmatic ad marketers use data to identify target audiences. It allows brands to send modified messages based on demographics, activities, and even real-time intent.   -Real-Time Optimization: Programmatic campaigns help in delivering real-time analytics, allowing brands to monitor performance and adjust the campaign according to their need. This enables marketers to optimize ad creatives, placements, and budgets in real-time, resulting in better results.   -Scalability Across Platforms: Programmatic advertising connects people to a wide range of platforms, including social media and display networks, as well as connected TV and audio streaming services. This enables marketers to maintain the presence across several touchpoints without having any extra burden on managing individual channels separately.   -Cost Efficiency: Traditional processes of buying and placement of ads can be time-consuming as they require negotiations and manual adjustments. With programmatic systems marketers can process millions of transactions in milliseconds, enabling brands to swiftly launch and adjust campaigns to close potential opportunities. Challenges in Programmatic Advertising   Programmatic advertising is used in revolutionizing brand engagement with audiences, yet it brings its own set of challenges.   -Lack of Transparency: Programmatic advertising has enabled advertisers to reach large audiences, but it also poses significant gaps. Transparency of the ad campaigns is one of them. The advertisers are unaware of where their ads are showing. In some cases, this non-transparency can lead to ads appearing on low-quality, spammy websites that produce irrelevant traffic, hampering the brand reputation. The lack of transparency can impact on budget allocation because advertisers cannot judge campaign performance and ad placement.  -Viewability Issues: IAB has defined ad viewability as a standard metric to measure viewable impressions. According to it, an ad is considered viewable if the ad appears at least 50% on screen for more than one second. However, this parameter is not enough to ensure the ads are viewed by the right audience or in most cases even a human. Fraudsters deploy bot traffic to see the ads and even fraudulent publishers use tactics like ad stacking to generate impressions. The advertisers are under the impression that their ads are seen by the right audience, but in reality, they are not.   -Advertising Fraud & Bot Traffic: Ad fraud is one of the rising issues in programmatic advertising, with 37% of ad buyers concerned about abusive suppliers, bots, and invalid traffic. Over time, the fraudulent activities have become sophisticated and difficult to detect. KPIs like impressions and clicks can be easily met by fraudsters, resulting in skewed data and loss of budget  -Impact on Brand Safety: Apart from ad fraud, one of the other challenges that arise with non-transparency is placement of ads beside safe content. In many cases, the brand’s ads appear beside illicit or unsafe content which further impacts the brand’s reputation. Brands need to keep a check on their ad placements in addition to traffic validation.   Winning Strategies by Top Brands   Here are some strategies brands can implement to improve their programmatic campaign performance effectively.   -Ask for Transparency: Transparency should be the cornerstone for advertisers to ensure their optimization strategies are backed by clean data. By deploying an advanced ad fraud detection tool, advertisers can ensure they are getting genuine traffic on their ad campaigns. The right tool will help them with source-level transparency, helping them to understand where the traffic is coming from and take proactive action.   -Go beyond viewability metrics: While viewability is an important metric, it is important for advertisers to opt for a holistic approach. Advertisers should not just focus on “if the ad is visible or not” but also “who is seeing and interacting with the ad”. Using an ad fraud verification tool, advertisers can validate their ad traffic and also ensure quality traffic is engaging with the ads.   -Tackle Ad Fraud: Ad fraud remains a persisting challenge in the digital ecosystem and advertisers need the right guards to protect their ad spending. By deploying a real-time fraud detection solution, advertisers can identify evolving fraud techniques and implement preventative measures without major damage. By regularly auditing the data of their ad campaigns, advertisers can ensure where to invest more thereby improving the ROI and ensuring that their ads reach a genuine audience. -Prioritizing Brand Safety: For advertisers, protecting the brand image is the utmost priority. This includes ensuring that the ads are placed in an appropriate and brand-friendly environment. By continuously monitoring the ad placements using advanced brand monitoring tools, the advertisers can avoid associations with inappropriate and harmful content. A proactive approach to validate the ad placements can help the advertisers establish strict guidelines for partners and platforms where their ads are appearing. By prioritizing brand safety, brands maintain consumer trust, reinforce positive perceptions, and protect long-term relationships with their audiences.   A Real Case: How a global brand tackled low engagement on programmatic campaigns  A global brand in the energy sector faced low conversion rates and limited engagement despite significant investment in audio and display campaigns on platforms like DCM and DV360. The brand realized its ad delivery process was inefficient, leading to wasted resources and poor returns. They partnered with mFilterIt and deployed its

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Bot Detection

What Should Marketers Look for in a Bot Protection Tool?

Blog, Ad Traffic Validation /

In today’s digital marketing landscape, bots impacting your campaigns, website analytics, and overall performance is becoming an enormous issue with all the organizations running any kind of advertising campaign. To put a stop on the ad fraud that is caused by bots, having bot detection tools is vital.  After all, how can you put a stop to bots if you can’t detect.   Unfortunately, many firms struggle to detect bot traffic, and the methods they employ are not all created equal. Choosing the right bot detection tool is essential for safeguarding your marketing efforts. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you select the best tool for your needs. What Is Invalid Traffic and How Does It Relate to Bots?  Bot fraud in digital advertising generally falls in the category of invalid traffic by the marketers no matter good or bad since the bots are not the target audience and cannot be converted into a protentional lead.   Types of Invalid Traffic:    -General Invalid Traffic (GIVT) : It is one of the simplest bots that can be detected easily, and a lot of good bots traffic comes under GIVT as they are not meant to fool the bot detection tool. But some fraudsters may also deploy GIVT as they are easy to make and work against some of their targets.   -Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) :  SIVT detection is the bots that one should look out for as these are more capable and are often designed to target to bypass cybersecurity and ad fraud prevention tool. For Example – sophisticated bots might imitate how a human would use a website so it would be difficult to identify between a human and bot. SIVT is common in ad fraud schemes. How Bots Impact Your Marketing Campaigns  Bots can have a negative impact on your digital marketing campaigns in several ways:  -Wasted ad spend: Bots can boost your impressions and clicks, resulting in ad spend burn. For example, if you bid on a brand term that costs $1 per click and a click bots on your ad 1000 times, you would have wasted $1000.  -Inaccurate reporting: These bots can alter your reporting data, making it nearly impossible to track the actual performance of your campaigns. For Example, if a bot is boosting your impressions by 50%, your CTR will appear to be much higher than it is.   -Damage to your brand: So, if your brands are revealed to internet bots, it might damage your brand reputation. For example, if a bot clicks on your ad for a product the customer is not interested in, the user will consider your ad spam.  How to Detect Bots?  Bots often use IP addresses that are associated with known botnets. Here some of the most common methods include  -IP address analysis: Bots often use IP addresses that are associated with known botnets so by analyzing the traffic by these IP addresses you can easily identify the bot traffic. -Behavioral analysis: Bots frequently engage in unusual behavior, such as rapidly clicking on adverts or viewing several pages in a short amount of time. So, by examining the behavior of your traffic, you may detect bot traffic. -Traditional Bot detection tools: They can only detect basic bot patterns and don’t have the capability to identify sophisticated bot patterns like click spamming or lead punching.  Limitations in traditional bot detection tools However, there are some limitations of using traditional bot detection tools.  Over time, bot patterns have become increasingly sophisticated, enabling them to mimic human behavior and carry out complex tasks such as completing sign-up forms or generating leads. Traditional bot detection tools often fall short in identifying these advanced bot activities due to their limited capabilities. Some key limitations include:  -Only Impression-level detection: Many tools rely on impression-level analysis, which may not be sufficient to identify advanced bots. This approach often overlooks nuanced behaviors that occur across multiple impressions or sessions.  -Limited to Pre-bid monitoring: Many fraud detectors focus on pre-bid detection because it is easier to conduct checks because they only need to consider two factors: geolocation and browser, and the success rate is only 2%.   Key Features to Look for in a Bot Detection Tool  -Utilization of the Latest Technology: One of the key features to look out for in a bot detection tool is whether it is using the latest technology to detect ad fraud. When looking for a bot detection tool, evaluate their technology. Many traditional ad fraud solution depend on outdated methods like 1×1 pixel tracking, offering limited visibility. In contrast, to identify sophisticated bot patterns the bot detection must use the latest technology. We use cutting-edge technologies like VAST and JavaScript to assess over 70 parameters of bot traffic for effective identification.  -Deeper and Comprehensive Checks: The bot detection tool will be able to provide deeper insights with a post-bid analysis. With a comprehensive full-funnel check the success rates are boosted by 30%-40%. This approach is reliable and eliminates blind spots in detecting bot activity or ad fraud.  -Omnichannel Coverage: An advanced ad validation solution provides robust protection across multiple platforms, including programmatic advertising, Connected TV (CTV), Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms, and Made for Advertising (MFA) websites. This comprehensive coverage effectively addresses all potential avenues for fraudulent activities.  -Real-Time Insights: The platform detects and assesses fraudulent behavior in real-time, allowing advertisers to take proactive measures to minimize losses and protect their advertising budget.  -100% Transparency: A critical feature of an advanced fraud detection tool is source-level transparency, this provision of detailed, source-level data enables advertisers to trace fraudulent activities back to their origins, ensuring accountability and enabling more targeted counter measures.  How mFilterIt help to detect sophisticated bots?   mFilterIt is known for its effective bot detection and ad fraud prevention capabilities. Ad fraud detection (Valid8) by mFilterIt offers real-time detection, granular insights, and comprehensive protection across the entire campaign lifecycle. By utilizing machine learning, behavioral, and heuristic checks, it ensures the detection of advanced-level bots leading to fraud-free campaigns, making it ideal for advertisers seeking

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Why Impression Validation Matters and Why MMP’s Solutions Fall Short?

Blog, Ad Fraud /

Ad fraud has become the most talked about thing in the digital ecosystem in the last one decade. Over the years it has become sophisticated and led to huge losses for the advertisers. According to the last measured stats, the potential loss due to ad fraud in 2024 will be around $100 billion.   And if marketers who are running impression campaigns are thinking that ad fraud is not impacting their ad campaigns, take a look at your campaign data.   If you see unusual traffic from sources outside your targeted area, there is one red flag for you to check. And like this, there are many more.   Impression validation is as crucial as validation of other hard key performance metrics. It helps advertisers get transparency at the beginning stage of the ad campaign and help them stop it at the root before it impacts the entire campaign, especially metrics like installs and events (like subscription, or first transaction) where the cost is higher.   Let’s understand in detail how impression fraud validation is essential for app marketers and how MMP’s are hiding the actual impact of fraudulent impressions.   MMP’s are hiding the full picture from you   Mobile Measurement platforms or MMPs often play a significant role in app marketing. They help the advertisers track the last click attribution of their ad campaigns and track app performance. There are a few MMPs who also provide ad fraud detection tool bundled with their attribution services. However, ad verification by MMPs have their own limitations.   -Focus on Attribution, Not Validation: Their core services are limited to attribution and not validation. MMPs get paid on the number of attributions made and when they detect fraud on these attributed sources, it directly impacts their revenue creating a conflict of interest. Therefore, they detect only 10-12% of the fraud and the rest of the fraudulent traffic remains undetected.  -Limited Scope of Fraud detection: The MMP’s don’t have the capability of doing deeper checks. They can detect fraudulent traffic based on basic checks and they often miss sophisticated fraud techniques.   -Lack of Real-Time Fraud Insights: The attribution platforms cannot provide real-time fraud insights to advertisers. Their usual timeline for generating ad fraud reports is D+7, where if the fraud is detected by the 20th, the advertisers will receive the report by 28th of the month. This further delays the preventative measures which the advertiser could have taken against these fraudulent sources.   Why App Advertisers Need to Look for an Advanced Ad Fraud Solution?   In comparison to the fraud detection done by MMPs, mFilterIt’s Valid8 solution uses a more holistic approach against the sophisticated fraud techniques. Some of the differentiating factors which will help you realize the difference:   -Transparency on real % of fraud: When MMPs detect less % of ad fraud, the advertisers are not aware of the actual number of fraudulent traffic sources. This further impacts the efficiency of the ad campaigns, and the advertisers end up losing money twice. First, on the invalid traffic interacting with their ads before validation, and second when the actual number is not reported by MMPs. With mFilterIt, brands can transparency at the source-level and identify which traffic sources are skewing the metrics.  -Provides real-time analytics and blocking: Using mFilterIt’s ad fraud detection solution, the advertisers can get real-time analysis of the fraudulent traffic and block them in real-time. This helps advertisers to save money on both invalid traffic on ads and attribution cost for these traffic sources to MMPs.   -Give full funnel protection: Unlike the MMPs, our ad fraud verification tool protects the campaign holistically. Our full-funnel coverage not just validates traffic at impression-level, but also at the install and event level to reduce the impact of fraud. This ensures that cleaner traffic reaches the end-of-the-funnel, resulting in a better conversion rate.   A Real Case  Here is a real case of a brand which was running an install campaign. By partnering with mFilterIt the brand was able to identify the impact of invalid traffic at the impression level. Upon further analysis we found two specific reasons for invalid traffic – impression spamming and traffic coming from incorrect region. We identified the cause and started blocking invalid traffic which resulted in an increase in organic traffic at the install level.    Takeaway  Ad fraud is evolving, and it can easily bypass the basic checks by MMPs. For advanced fraud techniques, you need an advanced ad fraud detection tool in your tech stack. While looking for an ad fraud verification vendor for your app campaigns, don’t believe the surface level reports and checks. It is time to ask for transparency and ensure that your entire ad campaign is protected, thereby your ads are seen by a genuine audience resulting in better conversions.   To get details on how we do it, get in touch with our experts  

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Pixel Tracking Guide: How to Track Conversions Easily

Blog, Ad Traffic Validation /

Tracking conversions is essential for measuring the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, and one of the most reliable ways to do this is through a conversion pixel. A conversion pixel is a small piece of code embedded in your website or landing pages, which tracks specific actions users take, like making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter. This helps you evaluate your ads’ performance and refine future campaigns. How to track conversions using a pixel: 1. Install the Pixel: The first step is setting up a pixel on the platform you’re using, such as Meta Ads, Google Ads or mFilterIt Visit Pixel. These platforms typically provide easy-to-follow instructions for adding the pixel to your website. You’ll either add the pixel code directly to your site’s header or use a tag manager to simplify the process. 2. Define Your Conversion Goals: After adding the pixel, you need to define what actions you want to track as conversions. This could include activities like making a purchase, submitting a lead form, or completing a registration. Most platforms let you set up multiple conversion events to capture various types of user actions. 3. Test the Pixel: Once the pixel is installed, it’s important to test it to ensure it’s working correctly. Tools offered by platforms like Meta allow you to check if the pixel is firing as expected. If you find any problems, double-check your website’s code or try reinstalling the pixel. 4. Analyze and Optimize: When users complete the defined conversion actions, the pixel sends the data back to the platform, giving you valuable insights into your conversion rates. Use this information to see which ads or traffic sources are performing best and adjust your campaigns to optimize results. Tracking conversions with a pixel is a powerful way to evaluate return on investment (ROI), refine targeting strategies, and ultimately enhance the success of your marketing campaigns. Connect with us, to start your conversion tracking.

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