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ecommerce-intelligence

Price Not Visible on Keyword Search Results: How it Happens and What Can You Do About It?

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Have you ever come across products without price tags on e-commerce platforms? Well, it happens a lot and causes a lot of distress. Price tags on online shopping stores hold the capacity to captivate the attention of millions of potential buyers and increase online sales/revenue. When the price of a product is not shown, the consumer might choose other options or platforms, as the buying intention remains consistent. Moreover, listings without prices may diminish the search rank on the keyword search results of an e-commerce platform. Most online shopping stores offer products in stock, with prices and titles to entice buyers. The collaborative effort of the brand and the e-commerce marketplace enables higher revenue for both. The price of a product is not shown if some other seller has won the buy box, the product is out-of-stock, or the seller is facing disputes in the e-commerce marketplace. It could also happen due to a technical issue or enlisting a wrong option/variant of a product listing. Neither of these scenarios is good for a brand. What’s more? Products without price tags that rank high on keyword search results are wasting your marketing efforts, as they are stealing the position of your product variants that have price tags. Sure, they are generating brand awareness but they are diminishing the impact of potential revenue or sales from an e-commerce platform. Moreover, products without price tags on keyword searches of an online shopping store give an edge to your competition, as they have price tags and become more enticing for a consumer before making a final buying decision. So, what can you do about it? 3 Ways to Avoid Invisibility of Price Tags on E-Commerce Platforms The global e-commerce retail sales figure is bound to reach $7.4 trillion by 2025. Imagine the loss your business can face by not paying attention to products without price tags on e-commerce platforms. How to resolve this problem? Here are three ways: – Manage Stock Availability Did you know that 39% of U.S. retailers are very concerned about stockouts during the holiday season? The impact of out-of-stock is directly linked to global supply chain disruptions. In the past few years, our clients have discovered that stockouts also happen during the rest of the year. One of our FMCG customers was facing 65% unavailability of products until it started reviewing and analyzing availability at pin code, SKU, platform, category, and other levels. Post-analysis, the brand took measures to resolve the problem by informing the respective Key Account Managers and Category Managers of their e-commerce marketplaces. Their actions resulted in the higher engagement of product listings with the target audience and conversions/revenue. The stock unavailability diminished to less than 30% in nearly three months after taking action. However, the availability of products also resulted in the visibility of the price tags. So, whenever consumers look for specific items under multiple categories or sub-categories of the e-commerce marketplace, they can compare the brand product price to the competitors before making a final purchasing decision. – Optimize the Product Pages Most people will ignore products without price tags on keyword search results. Therefore, you should also ensure that search results of the digital shelf always have variants. How can you manage this? Is it impossible? Well, No! You could probably check the keywords working for your product listings and rank new product variants at the top of the digital shelf results by using them. However, it will take time to rank and will depend on the product page optimization results too. Use the top-performing keywords in the product listings currently in stock across multiple geo-locations. Our solution, e-commerce analytics tool, mScanIt, monitors the Share-of-Shelf of your brand vis-a-vis the competition. You can check the average page position of your listings using a keyword sub-type under the SOS dashboard. By doing so, you can achieve your goal of boosting the digital shelf rank of your e-commerce product listings on brand, competition, and generic keyword search results. The solution also defines your product page scores. So, you can easily monitor the score of the competitors and check the product page content working for them. Doing so would help to build strategies to optimize the product pages further. – Win the Buy Box – Strategically The buy box is the column that consists of the add-to-cart and buy-action buttons. It has become popular among the e-commerce marketplace sellers, as they are assigned based on the marketplace algorithms. However, winning the buy box is also dependent on stock availability. We believe that brands that have associations with the best marketplace sellers have a higher tendency to win the buy box. Simultaneously, keeping the brand reputation intact through seller-wise analysis and reporting unauthorized third-party sellers can become a stepping stone. Moreover, brands can divert the buyer’s attention to their authorized sellers and increase their market share. Isn’t this mind-boggling? Well, it isn’t. There is a whole market of counterfeit sellers on e-commerce platforms. According to a report, 74.8% of people around the globe became victims of online shopping scams through e-commerce marketplaces. Brands lost revenue, but their biggest concern is damage to brand reputation. So, stopping unauthorized 3P sellers can help avoid such repercussions and increase the chance of winning the buy box. Bottom Line Products without price tags on e-commerce search results can damage brands in multiple ways. On the other hand, ensuring price tag visibility can increase visibility, brand awareness, product discoverability, and conversions/sales. The best method for ensuring this is by avoiding stockouts, diminishing counterfeit seller activities on online shopping platforms, optimizing the product pages, and strategically winning the buy box. Connect with us to learn how monitoring products through mScanIt can help to achieve these goals. Get in touch to learn more about keyword search results.

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Affiliate Programs

Fraud in Affiliate Programs. What Can Marketers Do?

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Affiliate marketing is going to stay in online marketing for a long time. But, along with its popularity in the digital marketing space, it has also been impacted by fraudulent affiliates who are willing to dig out money from advertisers. Fraud in affiliate marketing is evolving with time, and fraudsters are finding different ways to scam the merchants. But before we dive into the types of affiliate fraud, let’s start from the basics and understand all about the affiliate program and how it works. What is an Affiliate Program? In an affiliate program, there is an agreement between a business and an affiliate (business or influencer). An affiliate gets paid by the merchant when a visitor redirected from the affiliate link performs a certain action like visits, purchase, or to fill a form. This is usually done through web content, product integration, or social media. Benefits of an Affiliate Program One of the biggest benefits of the Affiliate Program is that it is a low-risk way to promote products. Apart from this, some other benefits of an affiliate program are: It is performance-based It helps to broaden the audience It boosts the reputation of the brand It is cost-effective It helps to rapidly scale the traffic How does an affiliate program work? In an affiliate program, there are three parties involved in the arrangement: The customer The affiliate site The advertiser site The affiliate program process starts with a contract between the online advertiser website and the affiliate website. According to this, the merchant will pay a commission to the affiliate for sending traffic to their website. Moreover, the agreement also includes the information related to the number of people the affiliate sends to the merchant site or the number of people performing some action like purchasing or filling a form. Affiliate marketing is an easy and effective way to sell products online and helps marketers to spread the word about their business or website. How is it different from an affiliate network? An affiliate network is a well-established platform that has access to a database of members. It enables the marketers and the companies to connect with influencers directly for promoting their products. Whereas an affiliate program is a platform where a marketer has complete control over the entire process. They can set up the rules and the commissions they are willing to pay the affiliates. Things to remember before working with affiliates Ensure to pick affiliates wisely: When choosing your affiliate partner, ensure to inquire and ask for important information. Some of the essential things to focus on are the industry they are part of, traffic estimates, and website URLs. Also, before going forward, ensure to explain the terms and conditions. Set your brand standards right: Ensure to provide the guidelines to the affiliates for representing your brand. Along with this, provide an overview of the brand’s demographics, ideal target audience, and shopping habits. Monitor the affiliate campaigns: Although it seems that the affiliates are trustworthy, it is important to keep a track of the promotions. The marketer must use tech tools to analyse the performance of the affiliate campaigns and promotions run by the affiliates. Keep a context check: Ensure to keep a check on where your ad is appearing. If your ad is appearing on controversial or offending content, it can directly impact the reputation of your brand. Check how you’re promoted: In addition to keeping a check on the placement of the ads, it is also important to check the context of the affiliate’s website content. Appearing on a website with poor and misleading content or a bad design can lead to further damage to the brand’s reputation. Beware of ad fraud: Ad fraud not only drains the advertising budget but also impacts the brand reputation. Due to various techniques of ad fraud, the ads may appear on shady and low-quality websites. It is essential to keep a check on unusual activities and take necessary actions. Fraud on Affiliate Bypassing Strict Checks The fraudsters have various techniques to take out money from the marketers. In affiliate marketing, cybercriminals bypass strict checks provided by the merchant site. One of the common ways to manipulate a marketer is through domain spoofing. The fraudsters replicate a URL of a legitimate publisher and gain the trust of the marketer. Some other methods of ad fraud in affiliates are cookie stuffing and account takeover. In some cases, the fraudsters also plant bots to generate fake clicks, conversions, and transactions. Keyword Bidding Another common way to dig out money from advertisers is by misusing the technique of keyword bidding. In performance marketing, anyone can bid on brand keywords. To flush out money from advertisers, affiliates bid on brand keywords and take back the user to the website. But instead of it being an organic user, it will be an inorganic user and the affiliate partner will be considered as the last attribution source. In addition to this, the advertiser will now pay more to the search engines to bid on their brand keywords as the demand for the keyword increases. In this way, the advertiser eventually has to pay a commission to the affiliate for an organic user that eventually would have reached the website and more money to the search engines for their brand keyword. Fake Social media groups Some fraudsters also use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to trick people into clicking on affiliate links by offering shiny offers and discounts. When the users click on that link, they are taken to a malware-affected website that can hack their system to extract personal information. In another case, the user might purchase from that fraudulent link and never receive the product. In both cases, the advertiser is directly impacted by the fraudsters. In the first case, they are losing potential customers and in the second case, the users lose trust in the brand which further impacts its brand reputation. Incorrect messaging to fool customers There are some cases where we have seen ads promoting

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Clickjacking

Why is Clickjacking a Concern for Mobile Network Operators?

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Carrier billing is one of the most preferred mediums of transactions for users looking for convenience in their online subscriptions. The Mobile Network Operator (MNO) directly adds the bill for subscription services to the monthly mobile bill. According to a source, mobile internet users would exceed 1.4 billion by 2025 with an expected growth of five times the current number of mobile data users. The DCB subscriptions would become three-fold the existing number of users by the end of this year. Unfortunately, fraudsters have found ways to make fraudulent subscriptions on the behalf of users. In case of DCB fraud, the cybercriminal makes commissions from advertisers by secretly subscribing to the services on behalf of the users. Clickjacking and masking iframes are the two major type of frauds that directly impact merchants, telcos, and customers. Clickjacking involves deliberately making users click a visible webpage with an invisible element in an iframe (hidden in the background). The user unknowingly subscribes to a service by clicking on the consent lodged in the background. Unfortunately, fraudsters constantly detect similar vulnerabilities of the carrier billing systems of the telcos and overpower consumers’ security. Combating fraud through iframe masking and click jacking requires a solution to identify every step of the DCB VAS architecture. It would require to integrate appropriate measures to ensure that the Value Added Service (VAS) subscription, don’t happen without informing the user. Carrier Billing Solution to Combat iframe Masking and Clickjacking Fraud mFilterIt’s ad fraud detection for DCB provider’s incorporates deterministic, heuristic, and probabilistic layers, which helps to combat iframe, clickjacking, and other frauds. The deterministic flow also involves detecting network fraud, source fraud, invalid user agent, etc. The solution also includes identification of behavior parameters like user agent spoofing, HTML API bypass, bots, etc. The solution keeps an eye on suspicious activities and safeguards users against unsolicited subscription frauds. Normally, users engaged in apps offering subscription services and payment methods, including DCB, include static pages, which become easy for hackers to bypass through a device-installed bot or malware. So the method against fraudulent DCB payments made by undetectable methods gets revoked by offering simple adaptive enforcements that don’t damage the customer experience. Moreover, our filters include methods to determine the type of risk faced by the user. It also offers multiple mechanisms for preventing unconsented subscription transactions through DCB. It also resolves OTP, USSD, and Captcha bypassing issues through a three-level approach to combat subscription fraud. Furthermore, our solution is customizable and complies with the government guidelines. It helps operators to revoke regulatory repercussions on the network through DCB transactions. Preventing unwanted charges in carrier bills is the telco’s responsibility and could impact the relationship between the MNO and its customer. So, telco brands need to take active measures to prevent fraudulent subscriptions. Conclusion One of the best methods to combat iframe masking and clickjacking fraud is mFilterIt’s anti-fraud solution for Direct Carrier Billing. The solution safeguards the user’s engagement with the telcos and keeps the faith between MNOs & consumers intact. The solution is being used by telcos globally to safeguard the interests of their merchants & customers. So that it fosters long-term relationships with their customers. The solution curtails fraudulent attempts through sophisticated methods. Schedule a demo to learn the impact and advantages of implementing an anti-fraud solution for DCB.

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Travel Meta Search Engines

Travel Meta Search Engines – How Fraudsters Are Ruining It?

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After 2 long years, the travel industry is taking shape again. And this time it has come up with a hot trend. Travel metasearch engines have been in existence for quite some time. However, due to the rush among travelers in the post-pandemic era, it has become more relevant in the current times. With its core features like price comparison, it is a hotshot among travelers. And not just for travelers, these platforms offer plenty of advantages to hotels and OTAs (Online travel agencies). However, even these platforms are not safe from the cyber traps set by fraudsters. Know in detail about the travel metasearch engines and how fraud happens on these platforms. What are travel metasearch engines? A travel metasearch engine is a platform that serves as a price comparison website. The customers can compare hotel and flight prices in real-time. These platforms work like an aggregators taking data from different sources across the internet like the OTA’s (online travel agents) or directly from the hotels. However, the travel metasearch platforms are not booking channels. They just serve as a search engine platform for various travel booking channels. What is their revenue model? The revenue model of travel metasearch engines is the same as the digital advertising platforms. Their revenue comes from metrics like CPC (Cost per click), CPI (cost per impression), CPA (cost per acquisition), and hybrid ads (a combination of CPA and CPC). Is Meta Search a passing trend or future of travel? The pandemic has brought a massive change in the behavior’s of the travelers. Along with the safety and hygiene, they are looking for more flexible deals and transparency in the price when planning a vacation. To address these changes, the metasearch platforms have become more relevant with the current times. Apart from being a one-stop platform to show the best and budget-friendly deals, it is helpful across travel means and hotels. The metasearch platforms address the core problems of travel portals. After the break of 2 years, the hotels and OTA’s want to be discovered and visible to potential travelers. To fulfill this gap, metasearch offers both discoverability and visibility on its platforms. They also add important information like ratings and reviews for the travelers to make an informed decision. And with travelers taking more informed decisions and newer hotels & OTAs emerging, these metasearch platforms are here to stay for a long time. However, there is a catch. The meta-search platforms also come under the radar of cybercriminals. Fraud in Metasearch Platforms The metasearch platforms charge a cost per click or a commission from the advertisers. This offers a golden opportunity for fraudsters to exploit the system leading to the wastage of advertisers’ ad budgets and the manipulation of their data. How Does Fraud Happen in Travel Metasearch Platforms? Bot Traffic: The fraudsters program bots to engage with the links of the advertisers on the meta-search platforms. These bots generate fake clicks and inflate the click rate on the advertiser’s website. On one hand, the advertiser receives a high number of clicks, but the conversion numbers remain low. In addition to this, the advertiser has to pay for every click to the metasearch platforms. VPN Proxy: Apart from generating bot traffic, the fraudsters also use VPNs to fake locations and IP addresses. This technique makes it difficult for the advertiser to differentiate between a genuine click and a bot-generated click and they end up with manipulated data. Competitor Clicks:  In some cases, some travel websites also send bot traffic to their competitor’s listing to manipulate their data. They program the bots to generate fake clicks for the website and keep them under the impression that they are getting genuine traffic. Impact of Fraud Compromised Data: Fraudsters program bots to engage with the links listed on the metasearch engines. These bots generate fake clicks which makes the advertiser believe that they are getting traffic. However, despite the high number of clicks, the travel platforms do not see any improvement in conversions. Influx in CTR: Due to the impression generated by bots, the CTR is impacted directly and misleads the advertiser. They are under the impression that they are getting genuine traffic. Whereas the reality is that they are only getting invalid traffic. How can we make a difference? We use the capabilities of AI, ML, and data science to detect bot patterns in the traffic coming from the meta-search platforms. With a deep analysis of the data, we identify the fraudulent IP addresses and blacklist them. This ensures that they will not impact the traffic of the advertiser in the future. Final Words Travel is all set to see massive growth after a halt of two years. And while it is an opportunity for hotels and OTAs to gear up and bring more traffic to their website, someone is watching their every move. Fraudsters are not just stealing money from ads, but they are also on a spree to manipulate the growth of advertisers listing themselves on metasearch platforms. To ensure that your money is not wasted on invalid and non-converting traffic, get in touch with an ad fraud detection & prevention solution provider like mFilterIt and weed out fraud from your campaign data. Get in touch with our experts today!

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eCom-Banner-Ads

Untold Stories from eCom Banner Ads

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Display advertising through online banner ads is one of the most effective ways of capturing the attention of online shoppers and increasing sales. Banners intrigue buyers because of their messaging, visibility of top products, promotions, etc. Brands spend valuable resources to create the perfect banner for reaching the target audience and ensuring a higher than ongoing click-through rate (which remains uncertain until the end of the advertising campaign). Brands include the best colors, product variants, price quotes, promotions, etc., in their banners. Most eCommerce marketplaces have banner placements on the category, sub-category, home, and other promo pages. Higher visibility of a brand’s product variants correlates with higher brand awareness, which will likely also impact the Share-of-Visibility of the brand. Capturing the brands with the highest visibility through banner ads on an eCommerce marketplace helps to know the brands bidding the highest on a specific page. Furthermore, evaluating the banners visible after searching a brand, competitor, and generic keyword helps brands to find outputs on search analytics. For example, comparing your brand’s sponsored banner ads vis-à-vis a competition based on specific keyword search results shows if your competitor is bidding higher or lower than you on the keyword. It also displays the difference in visibility percentages based on the sponsored banner ads. Tell Tales from E-Commerce Banner Ads What’s New Hot or Trending? Brands frequently launch new products under specific categories. According to our experts, monitoring the sponsored display ads of your competition helps to come across your competitors’ most trending hot, or new products. It also helps to know the new aspects they are focusing on. Continuously monitoring the competition banner ads also detects the frequency of their launch and builds a forecast of their next launch on an e-commerce marketplace. You can manage the ongoing keyword bidding and banner placement strategies to achieve an edge over the competition. For example, an oral care brand with a mouth-freshness toothpaste variant is focused in the health category section of an e-commerce marketplace. After two weeks, it launches a whitening toothpaste variant in the same category. The same brand keeps the same frequency of its new product launches in the same marketplace category. You can easily predict the estimated launch date of the new product, i.e., it would also be around the same period (two weeks). By evaluating the banner ads of the competitor, you can find the types of product variants focused on a category, qualities featured in the ads for a specific sub-category, prices, promotions, seasonal offers, etc. For example, the brand uses dazzling white’ as part of its banner ads for most of its whitening toothpaste. How are Competitors Targeting their Niche Audience? Evaluating the eCommerce banner ads of your competitors shows the focused target audience on specific platforms and categories. Most brands have ambassadors for multiple product variants. Reviewing the display ads in a category shows whether a brand focuses on millennials, kids, or other audiences. Moreover, it displays the themes that the competitors focus on to increase brand visibility and product click-through rates from their target audience. Monitoring the banner ad campaigns of the competitors also shows the change in discount percentages or offers. Mapping promotional aspects in a brand helps to detect themes like deals, offers, discounts, etc., at an in-depth level and better understand the competitor’s approach towards its target audience. For example, if one of your competitors continuously uses ‘combo’ for most of its display ads on a platform, you can detect the commonly used product variants. You can also see the Share-of-Visibility of their banner ads on multiple e-commerce pages focusing on ‘combo’ promotions. Upon further deep-diving, you can check if their banner displays mention SKUs and prices, which would tell the benefits they are offering to lure their target audience. Through this new information, you can easily detect that the marketers of a competitive brand are focusing on price and SKUs and use it to your advantage. What Are Your Competitors Relying Upon? For the past few years, we mapped the banner communication of brands on e-commerce marketplaces. We found that they entice consumers through cashback, gifts, day/occasional specific deals, limited-time offers, vouchers, as well as a mix of two or more promotions. Upon mapping the sponsored banner ads of the competitors, we found new insights based on location, platform, and other aspects. Analyzing the banner ads of the competitors helps to find their focused form of promotion in a given time frame. The information helps brands find areas for retargeting the banner campaigns, new keywords, and an untapped target audience. Wrapping Up Monitoring the banner ads of competitors gives insights into the banner communication at the platform, category, sub-category, and other levels. Brands can use the information to know the aspects focused on by their competitors, reach an untapped market, enhance Share-of-Visibility on the e-commerce platform, etc. Besides this, brands can detect forecasts of product launch dates and their competitors’ most commonly used themes on e-commerce platforms. Banners of a brand give inputs on marketing and communication, which help scale the business. 2o, and let’s build new stories for your online shoppers.

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Gaming Advertisers

Gaming Advertisers vs Fraudsters: Who Will Make It to the Finish Line?

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You developed a game and now you’re willing to go to the next level. To bring new visitors, you decide to invest a huge amount in advertising your game. You get new users and finally, all efforts make sense. However, something doesn’t feel right. Your installs are high, but the conversions are low. Shady users are interacting with your game and your genuine users are leaving. The question is, “Why did this happen?” Your digital ads are under attack by fraudsters. You are unaware of their intentions, and they are just hiding behind the screen to counter your next move. The above scenario is one of the basic cases that a game advertiser has to face. In the pandemic era when the whole world was inside their home, mobile games gave them a chance to escape. In the past 2 years, the number of gamers has increased to 420 million online gamers and approximately 400 gaming companies have come into existence during this phase. One of the reasons for this growth is high disposable income and an increase in the number of smartphones and tablets. With this sudden spike in gamers, advertisement spending in the gaming industry has also increased. In 2021, the advertising spending was estimated at $46.7 billion and is expected to increase up to $130.9 million by 2025 worldwide. It is said that “wherever the money flows, the fraudster’s radar follows it”. And seeing the rapid increase in the gaming industry, the fraudsters are going to sit ideal. In this blog, we are giving an insight into the various ways fraudsters attack digital ads and steal digital ad spend in the gaming industry. Games that Fraudsters Love to Play 1. Steal The Credentials (Account Take Over) Account takeover attacks leave a deep impact on the brand and the consumer’s trust. In this type of fraud attack, the fraudsters obtain personal information like the username, password, or email address to illegally log in to a victim’s account. As the gaming industry continues to grow and every day a new user is joining, ATO attacks have become quite common in this arena. Once the fraudster gets access to the user’s account, they can attempt multiple malicious activities for their profit. Posing as a real customer, the fraudster can get easy access to the account details, withdraw the coins or unique loyalty benefits, make an online purchase, or leverage the stolen account data to hack other accounts of the user on different platforms. 2. Guess who I am? (Fake Accounts) In the gaming industry, it is expensive to acquire new customers and even costlier to convince a customer to make their first in-app purchase. Thus, the gaming brand needs to ensure that the purchases are legitimate. If not, the brand will bear huge losses from the chargebacks. The most vulnerable mobile apps are the ones that allow the player to play for free but have features like in-app purchases. In the case of these apps, the fraudster creates a new account and uses stolen credit cards to purchase digital items, go to the next level, or load the account with gaming currency. Once they have made the account a golden asset, they sell it on a trading site. When the credit card owner calls the bank on account of fraudulent charges, the gaming brand ends up paying for the chargebacks. Not only does the gaming brand lose its money, but its brand reputation is also at stake. 3. Win, Win, or Lose? (Referral & Promo Abuse) Referrals and promotions are run by gaming marketers to engage new customers and retain the existing ones. However, when the fraudsters seep into the sales funnel, they use different fraudulent techniques to abuse the referrals and promos. The Cybercriminals either misuse the promo codes or abuse referral programs by becoming both the referrer and referee. When the cybercriminals abuse the referral programs and the end customer becomes the victim, they lose trust in the brand. They feel that they have been cheated by the gaming brand. And in this chaos, the fraudster wins, and the advertiser loses both money and consumer trust. 4. Tippity Tippity Tap (Click Fraud) Beyond hacking the user accounts and stealing the referral benefits, the easiest way for fraudsters to extract money is through click fraud. Gaming advertisers invest huge budgets to bring new gamers to their platforms. However, these digital ads are under the constant radar of fraudsters, and they find different ways to steal the advertiser’s money. When a user installs a malicious app on their phone, the fraudsters get access to the user’s device and can track their activity. Furthermore, when a user downloads the advertiser’s gaming app, the fraudster fires a fake click in the background. This fake click is attributed as the last click source by the MMPs and the fraudsters get the credit for an organic install. Due to this, the advertisers end up wasting their ad spending on installs generated by fraudsters. What do you need to protect your gaming app? The smarter the advertisers get; the fraudsters ensure to stay one step ahead. They use advanced and sophisticated methods to hide their tracks and keep the advertisers in the dark. To tackle these attacks, advertisers need a solution that can detect the anomalies in an ad campaign and take real-time action to prevent the consequences. mFilterIt’s ad fraud solution ensures to elimination of fraudulent traffic with the capabilities of AI, ML, and Data Science. To reduce the impact of fake users and click spamming, we run various algorithms checks and blacklist the fraudulent IPs and traffic coming from bots or concentrated devices. Kill The Fraudsters, Reach Your Target It’s time that you have the right weapon to attack the fraudsters. To ensure it is not a game over for you, keep a real-time check on the fraudster’s movement. This will help you to prevent the consequences of fraudulent activities and save your ad spending from wastage. And the biggest outcome will be that you will be able to reach

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Loss of Availability

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

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

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Counterfeiting

Negative Effects of Counterfeiting – Brands Must Know!

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

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Brand Safety

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

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

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Copyright Infringements

Copyright Infringements in the Digital World: Beware!

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

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