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How to boost product discoverability with keyword recommendation

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Most shoppers know what they want, approximately 43% of shoppers go straight to the search bar Whenever we want to buy anything online whether it is a grocery item, a gadget, or a pair of shoes, we would invariably type in the words that describe what we are looking for. It could be ‘black running shoes’ or ‘basmati rice,’ or ‘best smartphone under 50k’ and so on. Typically, what customers look for is the type of products and often not a specific product from a particular brand. In the eCommerce setting, the search results will show a brand’s product in response to a query containing such organic keywords only when the brand has integrated the right approaches toward SEO keywords along with key elements that makes products more discoverable. What is Product Discoverability? In the e-commerce landscape, large aggregator marketplaces have such extensive options for each type of product that the customers can’t look at each offering that matches the search. Even if you sell a white shirt and the customer is looking for the same on Amazon, they might not see your product. That is why brands need to understand the customers, and their intent to purchase a product, and then present the product closest to what the customers seem to be looking for. Smart product discoverability tactics enable brands to display the products likely to be the best matches for the customer’s search. When customers can see the right products faster and get better offers, chances are that sales conversions will be higher. Role of Keywords in Product Discoverability 1. SEO Optimization Product discoverability is critical for digital commerce players. Whenever customers search online for your type of products, they should be able to see the brand. This is what we can achieve through SEO optimization. The first thing that a brand needs to do is to use the right keyword. A keyword analysis is key to identifying the relevant keywords that the audience is most likely to use for searching the products. These tools would analyze search volumes, competition, and various other factors that can improve the search rank of the keywords that you use. Companies also need to analyze the keywords that competitors are using. When a competitor’s products are ranking high, you can analyze and find out what keywords are working best, and use similar keywords in your product listings. However, it must be kept in mind that the content used in your product description should appear genuine and contextual, and you must not stuff keywords for the sake of it. Usage of long-tail keywords (phrases that are more specific than generic) in product descriptions, titles, or tags, enables greater product discoverability to the real-time audience. Product titles are a vital aspect of this strategy and they must always be optimized through high-ranking keywords. Regular, real-time performance analysis of keywords would boost the share of the shelf in the digital commerce ecosystem, and the brand would be able to scale search rank in a way that reduces the need to spend more on keyword bidding. Most shoppers know what they want, according to a survey by Catalyst Digital  43% of shoppers go straight to the search bar which makes keywords more important for product discovery. Further, several obstacles in product discoverability can be overcome by smart SEO strategies. For instance, the search ranking of product pages is affected by the content, imagery, and information that is provided on the page. By using good quality images, text that is easy to understand, relevant, and authentic and the addition of further details about the product can lead to superior discoverability. 2. Expand The Reach of Products Expanding the reach of the product implies that it is made available to a larger audience through multiple channels. You can optimize product listings on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Flipkart etc by improving titles, and tags, and adding images and videos that can better display the products. Another key channel to expand its reach is social media. Most digital commerce brands use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to engage audiences across different regions and boost sales opportunities. Running advertising campaigns featuring sponsored keywords on Google Ads is likely to help find more customers looking for products in the category that you offer. Such campaigns should also integrate discounts and promotions as consumers relish great deals that save money and deliver value. Such promotions also help in generating buzz and increase brand visibility. One of the most impactful options to expand product reach is to optimize the product listings for mobile viewers. Mobile commerce through smartphone apps is already big and enables users to find products. 3. Monitor the Brand’s Organic and Sponsored Discoverability Once the brand’s organic and sponsored discoverability is boosted, it is also important to monitor the same and continually analyze the performance for improvement areas and greater outcomes of the keyword bidding activities online. It is important to regularly revise and monitor keyword performance and keep replacing low-performing keywords with other relevant options. Using advanced AI-powered digital commerce intelligence tools with keyword recommendations to monitor search rankings, keyword performance, and discoverability with a comprehensive dashboard can exponentially boost discoverability. 4. Monitor keyword-based digital Share of Shelf performance Digital share of shelf performance monitoring requires constant tracking of the product/brand visibility in the SERP. Setting up tracking through an advanced digital tool that would help in tracking search volumes, and analysis of snippets, images, and videos to help in the identification of best-performing content is essential. At the same time, one needs to monitor the share of the shelf for the competitors and as mentioned earlier, analyze their keywords and content strategies. 5. Track and analyze discoverability trends vis-à-vis competition across e-commerce marketplaces It might be challenging to track and analyze the discoverability of your products on eCommerce marketplaces, especially in comparison to the competition, but through a smart and strategic approach, it is doable. What you need is to clearly define the metrics that have to be tracked. Whether

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Omnichannel Commerce – Gateway to The Open Internet Sales

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Gone are the days when customers were solely reliant on shop visits or logging into their desktops to do online shopping. Today’s customers are making purchases while in bed (43%), at work (23%), during their commute or even from the bathroom (20%), and almost at any hour of the day from their smartphones. Therefore, it is clear that for any retail brand especially in the eCommerce domain, growth lies in building an omnichannel eCommerce presence. What is Omnichannel eCommerce? Omnichannel retail is an integrated sales approach that puts customers first. Unlike the conventional practice of using marketing tactics to draw customers to a specific website, omnichannel retail integrates websites, smartphone apps, social commerce, eCommerce marketplaces, and even physical retail outlets to reach customers wherever they are whenever they need the type of products and services that the brands offer. In omnichannel retail, the different platforms don’t operate in silos, but everything gets seamlessly integrated to optimize the customer experience. Thus, building an effective omnichannel presence requires the elimination of the boundaries between different sales channels and allows customers to make the purchase through whichever touchpoint they are on. Why should brands go for Omnichannel eCommerce? It helps brands reach new customer segments – Customer preferences are rapidly changing and today, different categories of online shoppers have emerged. Despite the fluidity, there are a lot of customers who relish sticking to their preferred mode of shopping only. For instance, the millennials and Gen Z use smartphone apps to make purchases, and shopping through social media platforms like Instagram and even WhatsApp is gaining popularity among Gen Z. There are some who love to shop on eCommerce platforms as they offer massive varieties and price options, whereas others prefer brand websites as they are more concerned about the genuineness of the product than anything else. With the Omnichannel approach, brands can get all customers. Seamless Purchase – Omnichannel retail significantly reduces the risk of cart abandonment which was common in the era when shopping was done only through websites. Customers may add a product to the cart on a website and might want to purchase it hours later through the web app while commuting back home. Omnichannel retail helps convert such variable scenarios seamlessly. The customers get a hassle-free and consistent experience despite switching mediums. It also boosts customer loyalty. Better sales – The convenience of shopping through omnichannel eCommerce is helping brands acquire more customers at a faster clip from multiple sales channels. The customer being able to make a purchase when and where they see it opens up new revenue streams. Live commerce, social commerce, and eCommerce retail stores or brand online store are all new shopping avenues leading to more sales and enhancing brand visibility. This speed and convenience for the customers are also helping the brands and retailers increase cart size. Thus, there is a great boost to the sales. Future of Omnichannel eCommerce The era of Social Commerce – India is right at the cusp of a social commerce boom. Tier 2, Tier 3, and beyond shoppers are the biggest adopters, and recommendation-based, suggestion-based purchases are major drivers for brands in these areas that house nearly 70% of India’s population. It is estimated that the social commerce market size is going to grow from $8,258.8 million in 2022 to over $143,583 million by 2028. Brands in the fashion, beauty, and personal care domains are getting a lot of growth through the social commerce space, and even electronics and gadgets are witnessing a rise in shopping volumes. With the constant increase in smartphone penetration and better internet speeds, this space is unmissable for any retail business today. Live commerce Live commerce, as the term indicates is a sales channel wherein live streams are held, and customers can purchase products in real time. It is different from teleshopping because as a customer you are not watching pre-recorded content and are not bugged to make a call. You can simply watch a live stream on a social media platform, eCommerce, or live-commerce platforms, engage with the brands, enjoy the entertainment, and click on ‘buy now’ to complete seamless purchases, just the way you do on an eCommerce marketplace app. It is a new shopping avenue that is being explored by large and small brands alike. A RedSeer report estimates that live-commerce sales will grow up to $5 billion in India by 2025. Brands don’t see Live commerce as just a sales channel, but also an excellent medium of customer engagement and influencer marketing. You may see a great product in a live stream, and even if you don’t buy it then and there, you might research and purchase it later through other eCommerce options. SUGAR Cosmetics has already participated in such sessions on Myntra and Nykaa and got encouraging results. Going forward, the fashion segment is expected to achieve 60-70% live commerce growth, Beauty and personal care and other segments would make up for the remaining 30-40%. Visibility generation through such activities includes the launch of Hero MotoCorp’s Hero Xtreme 160R Stealth 2.0 bike and the session had a viewership of over 2.6 lakh. Several other Indian brands are also leveraging Live commerce sessions on eCommerce platforms. Role of social media Influencers in social and live commerce Social media influencers play a critical role in this arena. Influencers are people trusted by shoppers from all over the country, especially the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. When they are integrated into live commerce or social commerce campaigns, users get a personalized and familiar experience which boosts chances of conversion. The influencers are content creators with whom regular social media users engage on a one-to-one basis. Most of them conduct meetups, and live-streams to build engagement and trust among the audience. Thus, when these influencers recommend a product, those followers who are actively looking for such products are most likely to seriously consider the recommendations and make purchases. Influencer marketing is also highly instrumental in driving awareness. For instance, Amazon unveiled its live

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Ad Fraud: The Digital Advertising Industry’s Biggest Battle Yet to Win

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That’s the estimated amount of money advertisers are expected to lose this year because of ad fraud. While ad platforms are getting better at detecting such fraud, fraudsters are also coming up with more innovative, hard-to-detect ways to commit fraud. These days, fraudsters employ a variety of sophisticated techniques to fool advertisers. Even modern ad fraud bots have become sophisticated. These bots have authentic user/device IDs, that can perform complex actions, and mimic human behavior almost perfectly. Entire communities of cyber criminals, backed by handsome development budgets, are engaged in ad fraud. Using Google Ad Traffic Blocking is a good way to protect your ad campaigns, but it is not enough. Let’s understand how: Loopholes In the Google Ad Traffic Blocking Google Ad Traffic Blocking allows you to block ad traffic from specific sources. This means you can block traffic from known sources of fraudulent traffic. While this sounds great in theory, this strategy has a number of problems: – The list of sources of fraudulent traffic is constantly growing. Nearly half of the traffic on the web is bot traffic, and bad bots account for 39% of this bot traffic. As you’re reading this, there are hundreds of fraudulent websites being created. By the time you add new websites to your ad traffic blocking list, new ones will already be in operation. – Many advertisers depend on their Google Analytics data to detect fraudulent traffic sources and use Google ad blocking to prevent their ads from appearing on these websites. This isn’t a sustainable strategy. It is almost like you are paying the ad platform to learn about fraudulent traffic sources. Depending on the size of your ad budget, such a strategy can potentially cost you thousands of dollars every month. – The combination of Google Analytics and Google Ad Traffic Blocking only works for sites using simple bots. It is much more difficult to detect the activity of sophisticated bots manually. – While Google does not release how it tracks fraudulent clicks, many experts believe it uses IP addresses. If that is the case, fraudsters can simply change their IP address and avoid being included in the Google Ads exclusion list. Marketing professionals and ad platforms realized long ago that they must evolve to put an end to ad fraud. To that end, there have been a number of innovative attempts in recent years. Let’s examine some of these and determine if they are truly effective. Methods Used by Marketers and Ad Platforms To Combat Ad Fraud 1. Ads.txt Ads.txt is a public text file that allows publishers to identify themselves as authorized publishers and prevent spoofed inventory. Unfortunately, the use of Ads.txt did little to stop ad fraud. Besides major sellers like Rubicon, most publishers also allow other “resellers”. You can find these resellers in almost every Ads.txt file. These resellers are not required to disclose the names of the advertisers, they are selling their traffic too. This means that they could be reselling the same traffic to you and some other parties. Moreover, fraudsters have found many ways to conduct fraud using Ads.txt files. 404 bot is one of the most famous instances where fraudsters have launched entire bot networks designed to surpass ads.txt protection. 2. Play Protect Play Protect was another initiative by Google, designed to potentially prevent the release of fake and malware apps on the Android Play Store. Play Protect scans applications for malware and other threats before allowing them to become available for download on the Play Store. While this effort did stop some obvious forms of malware and fraud on the platform, it has not been very effective. The proof of the same lies in the fact that there have been many cases of ad fraud on Google’s Play Store and even Apple’s App Store in the recent past. 3. Fake Account Prevention Just like Google ads face issues with fraudulent publishers, social media platforms are plagued by fake accounts. The issue got serious attention when the Elon Musk-Twitter deal almost fell through because Twitter (allegedly) failed to disclose the real number of fake accounts on the platform. Social media platforms claim that they routinely run checks and purge fake accounts on their platforms. However, new fake accounts pop up just as quickly as old ones are removed. While it is true that creating fake accounts is relatively difficult these days, it is still easy enough to be done at a scale. Why Is Ad Fraud Hard to Stop? Ad fraud is hard to stop for multiple reasons. For one, there are significant monetary benefits associated with successfully committing ad fraud. This motivation makes fraudsters stay committed to finding new ways to steal advertisers’ money. Another hard reality is that some ad platforms may let a small percentage of bad traffic through to inflate numbers. After all, the only one losing money because of ad fraud is the advertiser. Finally, as fraud techniques and bots become increasingly sophisticated, detecting, and preventing fraud will only get more difficult. So, what are advertisers supposed to do? Should they accept that they cannot do anything about ad fraud? Quite the contrary. Just like fraudsters have committed teams and communities constantly finding new ways to commit fraud, you need a team on your side that is committed to preventing said fraud. mFilterIt’s ad fraud detection tool enables the detection and prevention of invalid traffic in real time. In other words, with mFilterIt, you can not only identify bot traffic coming to your ads, but you can also prevent its impact, essentially saving your precious ad budget. Our tool employs AI, ML, and data science capabilities to detect and prevent ad fraud. Conclusion Ad fraud is constantly evolving, making it incredibly difficult to detect and prevent. However, combating ad fraud isn’t impossible. Advertisers need to go beyond traditional methods to survive in this ever-evolving digital ecosystem impacted by malicious elements like bots. With an advanced ad fraud solution, advertisers can ensure that sophisticated bots cannot sneak under their noses pretending

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The Power of Perception: Navigating Brand Safety in the Era of Fake News

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Fake news is no less than a plague in the online ecosystem. The list of people and organizations suffering from fake news seems to be growing indefinitely. However, digital advertisers have been a part of this list for some time now. That’s right. Even if your brand has nothing to do with politics or the ongoing current events, if you are engaged in digital advertising, your brand may suffer harm because of fake news. More specifically, fake news can lead to long-term reputation harm for brands. If that sounds alarming, it is because this is an alarming matter, and in this article, we will be diving deep into the details. Let’s start with the basics: What is Fake News? While there’s no fixed definition for fake news, the term refers to any piece of misleading information. When you search for the term on Google, the first result comes from a Wikipedia article dedicated to the subject. The article mentions that making ad revenue is one of the top reasons to use fake news. Here’s the extract, verbatim: “Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity or making money through advertising revenue.” So now we know that fake news can hurt a brand’s reputation and has something to do with advertising. Let’s dig deeper. How can fake news impact the brand’s reputation? If a brand’s advertising/messaging appears on a website that peddles fake news, the reputation of that brand may diminish in the minds of its consumers and prospects. Not surprisingly, this sentiment is not limited to fake news. If your ads are appearing on websites that publish hate speech content, conspiracy theories, and other forms of skewed information, you may be unknowingly causing damage to your brand reputation. This trend is not just limited to sentiments. It is causing real and serious damage to brand reputations, which is hurting the bottom line of advertisers. Over 80% of UK consumers surveyed say the ‘responsibility of ad placement lies equally across the supply chain.’ These consumers have also stated that they will stop buying from brands with ads next to hate speech, fake news, violent content, and even controversial political views, among other similar topics. Alarmingly, less than half of digital advertisers have clear guidelines to avoid advertising next to misinformation or hate speech. How might you be funding fake news/misinformation? Consumers hold brands responsible for vetting where their ads are appearing. This is because many consumers (correctly) believe that the ad budgets allocated to these websites keep them alive, enabling them to continue spreading false information. This means that if your ad appears on a website that publishes fake news, you may unknowingly fund its efforts to spread the said fake news. Global Disinformation Index (GDI), in 2019, estimated that around $235 million of ad budget is given to websites that publish and spread fake news every year. Considering that nearly 500,000 new websites are popping up on the internet every single day, the above number has undoubtedly inflated exponentially in the past three years. Nearly a year ago, GDI published another report about how ad tech giants are serving ads to (and thereby funding) websites that spread misinformation regarding the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. The same companies were also named in a more recent report about ad tech companies funding websites that spread misogynistic disinformation. While GDI does not name advertisers in their reports, most consumers on the web aren’t aware of how digital advertising works and blame advertisers for funding the spread of misinformation and fake news. There is a gap between consumers’ expectations and what is being achieved with brand safety best practices. How to Combat the Impact of Fake News? Every entity involved in the digital advertising supply chain has the social responsibility to ensure they do not knowingly or unknowingly support the spread of fake news. So what can advertisers do? For starters, advertisers using platforms like Google, Facebook, and Bing can manually check where their advertisements appear. All these platforms allow advertisers to customize their placement lists, so you can simply remove the problematic websites from your placement lists. You can also add known publishers of fake news to a blacklist. It is also a good idea to start working on company-wide guidelines designed to avoid ad placements on fake news websites. However, if you are using third-party ad platforms, then manually vetting every publisher can be unrealistically time-consuming. This is where brand safety can come in handy. mFilterIt’s digital brand protection solutions help advertisers advertise in safe ad placements. The solution uses the capabilities of AI and ML to validate the content beside which the ad is placed and ensure it is GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) compliant and contextually relevant.  Conclusion While fake news may seem like a problem that has nothing to do with brands, the case is quite the contrary. As brands continue to spend their advertising dollars without vetting publishers, the monetary incentive for publishers to publish fake news and hate speech is only going to grow. Brands must take a stand against the spread of fake news, realize their role and responsibility regarding the same, and employ relevant solutions that enable holistic brand protection. Get in Touch to learn more about the Brand Safety

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Augmented Reality in eCommerce: The Future of Online Shopping

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Augmented Reality is taking the customer experience to the next level with eCom platform optimization Leap imagination and turn it into reality. It might be a tough task in life but now possible with product previews on eCommerce platforms. Need not imagine how a lamp would look on the bedside table or wonder will this lipstick shade suits my lips. All you need to do is click a picture or video upload on the eCom platform and see how that product fills the blank space with Augmented Reality. The lack of a full sensory product experience is a major obstacle in online shopping. Physical stores allow you to try on clothes, feel fabrics, or visually assess the size of a couch in a space. However, with augmented reality (AR) applications, customers can gain more comprehensive product information without leaving their homes. Let’s dig deeper to understand how Augmented reality is paving new ways to optimize customer experience and eCom platforms as well. Augmented Reality in eCommerce By using Augmented Reality for product display eCommerce marketplaces and brands are steadily moving towards providing customers with a more inclusive and immersive experience. A real-world-like environment with an interactive enhanced experience via digital elements, visuals, sounds, etc. Allowing shoppers to watch products in 3D or preview in their environment virtually like placing the item say a sofa in the space in your living room. In simple terms, Augmented Reality (AR) simply augments an existing world. Augmented Reality (AR) provides previews by placing items in a real-world scenario. For example, try out frames on Lenskart after uploading your headshot video, ‘Amazon view’ which enables shoppers to try on lipsticks by uploading pictures or live video, and an AR-powered ‘view in my room’ feature. Think back to Pokémon Go, one of the most well-known applications of augmented reality. Users would be playing the game while walking down the street, looking at the real environment through their phones, which overlaid digital characters in specific places. Augmented reality is taking off rapidly. More & more advertisers and brands are deploying it to enhance customer experience. A report by eMarketer stated that over 43 million people in the United States, which is approximately 21% of social network users, were expected to use social network AR monthly. The same report indicated that 35% of U.S. respondents had used AR to customize furniture or vehicles. This is not just relevant for the U.S. but quite evident in the global digital commerce landscape, especially in India where shoppers from tier-2 and tier-3 cities are warming up to online shopping with massive buying potential. With the increase in 5G availability and improved bandwidth, retailers are expected to show more interest in AR and VR experimentation. As a result, more brands are adopting AR product previews, such as “Amazon View” and Flipkart’s “View in My Room”. AR is particularly popular in the Beauty & Personal care segment for try-on purposes and in Home Décor & Furniture placement in a room. How are eCom businesses using AR? AR previews of products help customers make a purchase decision and make the shopping experience more personalized. Virtual Try-On: It’s just like in a brick-and-mortar shop where you see a product on a mannequin, it looks great. But trying it helps make a more accurate purchase decision. Similarly, the virtual try-on uses the shopper’s photo or video to preview how the product looks. This also helps buyers understand what they are buying and if the item works for them. Preview placement: For the Home décor and furniture segment preview placement is the perfect tool to attract shoppers. It helps place items in your room at your desired place. Shoppers can see how a 55’ inch TV would look on the wall or will that color and design bed will suit their bedroom. The real-time preview placement of products in Shoppers’ environment will help shoppers decide whether the product suits their needs or not. Interactive user manuals: This is the more extensive use of AR-creating manuals as a response to user actions by scanning product indicating buttons or using graphical arrows, animation, etc. Social media filters: Generally used for fun. Filters can also be used for try-ons. That can help boost social commerce sales. It can be used to showcase a new product by enabling people to test out how it’ll look on them. According to a survey conducted by Google on AR usage among consumers, 66% of the participants expressed their interest in utilizing augmented reality technology to aid them while shopping. How Augmented Reality can help eCommerce brands? The challenge of representing a physical product in a virtual environment is one of the biggest obstacles to eCommerce. AR technology has the potential to help overcome this obstacle by providing a more accurate representation of the product and helping customers understand what they are buying. Some benefits of using AR technology in eCommerce are as follows: Increase customer engagement: By offering an interactive experience, AR technology can encourage customers to stay on your website longer, increasing the chances of a purchase. Even if they do not buy it immediately. Engagement with the brand and product can lead to better recall in the future. Reach new customers: To stand out in a crowded market, you need to create a buzz. A well-executed AR campaign can help capture attention and attract new customers. Reduce returns: AR technology can provide customers with a more comprehensive view of the product than static images or videos. By showing how a product would look in a consumer’s space, AR technology can help reduce the likelihood of returns due to unmet expectations. According to recently published data by Shopify, an eCommerce platform, products that featured VR/AR content in their advertisements experienced a 94% increase in conversion rates compared to products that did not have such content. Final Thoughts – What’s Next? Augmented Reality is interactive and helps during the product evaluation and consideration phase of the customer journey which leads to purchase decisions, but a good interactive

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Advertise Fearlessly: Best Practices for Brand Safety in the Digital Ecosystem

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The CNN-Applebee controversy that happened in February 2022 brought a serious problem faced by digital advertisers to light. The TV news channel ran a “squeeze back” ad for Applebee’s, which was displayed right next to their coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This attracted a lot of backlash from the public. The problem of advertising adjacency issues is even more serious in the digital world. While TV advertisers know exactly what content will be shown along with their ads, this isn’t true for most online advertisers. While the Applebee incident might have been the result of oversight, the truth is that with TV ads, advertisers have the freedom to make decisions in the interest of their brand safety best practices. Brands using programmatic advertising have little to no control over where their ad is published. Even in the cases where the brand can exercise control over who publishes their ads, vetting individual publishers can prove to be a complex and time-consuming task. A Times UK article sheds more light on this issue by naming several well-known brands whose ads are being displayed on extremist websites publishing violent and political views. Brands need to start thinking about this emerging threat and update their brand protection protocols to avoid it, and this starts with awareness. Brand Safety Risks The risks to brands’ reputations are not just limited to extremist websites. In this section, we will explore the biggest threats to brand reputation. Let’s get started: 1. M algorithms “Malgorithms” is the term used to describe instances where there is a contextual misalignment between the content of a page and the ad being displayed on it. Here’s an example of the same: The advertisement for the Hollywood film “2012” was displayed right on top of a news story about the devastating Chile earthquake. While some viewers may find this particular example funny, there are much darker ones that may lead to damage to the advertising brand’s reputation. 2. Fake News Fake news is a problem that plagues multiple areas of our lives. For marketers, this problem also poses threats to their brand’s online reputation. Consumers say that they will outright stop purchasing from brands that have ads appearing on websites peddling fake news. In a 2021 survey, respondents from the UK said they would boycott their favorite brands if their ads appeared on websites publishing COVID-19 conspiracy theories. This is primarily because the advertising budgets allocated to publishing on these websites are what keep them alive and kicking. Even if a brand is not aware that its ad is being displayed on a fake news website, the harm to its reputation is going to be very real. 3. Extremist Sites We have already briefly discussed an example of advertisements appearing on extremist websites. This problem is quite prevalent, with ads of some of the biggest brands on the planet appearing on websites discussing extremist religious, sexist, racist, and fundamentalist views. The problem with this is quite similar to the problem with fake news websites. A portion of the ad budget is paid to these publishers, which enables them to continue peddling their hurtful views on the web. Consumers have made this connection and are actively voicing their concerns against brands whose ads appear next to extremist content. 4. Unsafe YouTube Ad Placements These problems are not just limited to third-party websites that work with advertising networks such as Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Some brands have faced serious backlash because their ads have appeared on extremist YouTube videos. Here’s an example: Nissan’s ad is being played right before a video discussing racist views. Well-known brands like Netflix, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Amazon, and Adidas (among many others) have had their ads appear on videos published by extremist channels on YouTube. Such instances pose a serious threat to the online brand protection efforts of these brands. Best Brand Safety Practices to Incorporate Thankfully, brands that depend on digital advertising aren’t completely helpless. There are a number of brand safety best practices that you can employ to protect the reputation of your brand: 1. Define safety standards for your brand This is the most basic yet important step that any organization can take in this matter. Brands must have safety standards that clearly define the following: A list of ad publishers that are to be avoided What content is off-limits for ads, and How these websites and content pieces should be vetted and avoided For instance, you can decide to advertise exclusively with publishers that are transparent about their inventory and publish GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media) compliant content. 2. Get A Transparent Overview The advertisers must be aware of where their ads are served and where the ad spends are invested in the ad supply. This will help the advertisers optimize their campaigns better and ensure their ads are not vulnerable to fraud. 3. Hire A Trustworthy Programmatic Platform The programmatic ad platform you use has perhaps the biggest influence on where your ad will end up. That’s why it is important to work with highly reputable publisher partners. The single most important quality to look for in a trustworthy programmatic publisher is transparency. Make sure you work with programmatic publishers that offer unrestricted access to their inventory, so you can see where your ad may end up and make an informed decision. 4. Run Ads On A Premium Inventory Many brands avoid premium inventory and stick to blind bidding, citing budget constraints. While access to a premium inventory may be a little expensive, it is a small price to pay to protect the online reputation of your brand. 5. Go Beyond Keyword-Blocking Keyword blocking is widely considered an effective way to avoid questionable publishers. However, the generic nature of this strategy deprives brands of access to many premium websites that publish great, contextually relevant content. 6. Rely on Context Than Content Instead of relying on crude methods like keyword blocking, brands pay attention to the context of the content on websites where their ads may be displayed. Contextual targeting doesn’t

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Know the Difference Series: Click Spamming and Click Injection Explained

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Digital ad fraud is growing at breakneck speed. This year, marketers are expected to lose over $100 billion to ad fraud collectively. The situation is scary, and the future seems bleak. However, many marketers and brands still successfully turn a blind eye to ad fraud, and they do it because of a lack of awareness. Awareness of the different types of ad fraud can help you be more vigilant and cautious towards the rising threats and help you save your ad budgets from getting wasted. With this blog, we hope to help you bring this awareness. As part of the “Know the Difference series”, first, we will discuss two of the most common types of mobile ad fraud prevalent in the industry. These are click spamming and click injection. While both terms may seem similar, they follow different procedures to carry out ad fraud and steal your marketing budget. Let’s look at them in more detail: Know the difference: Click Spamming and Click Injection What is Click Spamming? Click spamming is a relatively primitive way to commit ad fraud. As the name suggests, click spamming is the act of generating a large number of fake clicks on an ad. This type of fraud mostly takes place on mobile apps but isn’t limited to them. In some cases, click spamming can also be observed on websites accessed through mobile devices. In most cases, an unsuspecting user downloads an app laced with malware. In others, the websites visited by the users are operated by fraudsters. The malware allows fraudsters to click on ads without the user’s knowledge. This kind of fraud can take many forms. Some examples are: The user never sees the ads, but they are live in the background, and the fraudsters are clicking on them. This is also known as click flooding. Apps running in the background can generate clicks anytime or throughout the day (and night). Common examples of such apps include launchers, battery-saving apps, and memory-cleaner apps. Some fraudsters mask views as engagement by the user and get paid for that engagement. And in some cases, fraudsters may also send clicks from the device to different vendors to collect a payout. While Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store have security measures to detect and ban apps loaded with malware, fraudsters have found innovative ways to bypass them. For instance, some apps download malware after the app has been downloaded on a user’s device by disguising it as an update for the app. Impact of Click Spamming The most apparent impact of click spamming is the wasted advertising budget. However, click spamming has a deeper, much more dangerous impact on advertisers- skewed advertising data. Because of click spamming, certain advertising platforms and apps (publishers) may deliver an impressive number of clicks on your ad. When this is reflected in the reporting of your campaigns, it may make said ad platforms and publishers appear more impactful than they are. This keeps the advertisers in the dark and they make business decisions based on these skewed metrics which eventually impacts the performance of the digital ad campaigns. Moreover, the advertisers also keep spending on these platforms under the impression that it is providing them with performance. What is Click Injection? Click injection is an ad fraud technique similar to click spamming but more sophisticated. For advertisers, that means that detecting and avoiding instances of click injection is exponentially more difficult than detecting click spamming. Instead of frantically clicking on an ad, click injection uses a single click to conduct organic traffic poaching. This is done by ‘injecting’ a click right at the point of download. Fraudsters make use of Android apps to listen to “download broadcasts”. Simply put, these broadcasts are sent by Android apps whenever a user downloads a malicious app that has an Android broadcaster that notifies the fraudsters about a new install. When the fraudsters are notified of an app install, they ‘inject’ a click right before the installation is complete. When this happens, the fraudulent app gets access to the user’s unique device tracking code. Using this code, the fraudsters can make their click appear authentic. By doing this, the fraudsters receive the credit (and the payout) for the app install, even though the app install is usually organic. Impact of Click Injection This sophisticated fraud technique not only leads to the wastage of ad spending but also hampers the organic traffic of the advertiser. Not just the advertisers, but the genuine publishers are also victims of click injection. Due to organic traffic stealing, they lose payout to a fraudulent install. Furthermore, click injections attribute organic downloads to fraudulent websites and apps. This can mess with the ad reporting data advertisers use to make decisions about their future campaigns. Using this skewed data, advertisers may continue spending their budgets on ineffective platforms, resulting in more wasted ad spend. This also costs advertisers in the form of lost opportunities by diverting their attention from other effective platforms that may deliver better results. How can advertisers protect their ad spends? As mentioned earlier, protection begins with awareness. Now that you know about click spamming and click injection, you can look at ways to detect these activities and take corrective actions. While click spamming can be detected manually, click injection is a sophisticated form of mobile ad fraud that is hard to detect by humans. These sophisticated fraud techniques are discreet, and human-like which makes it difficult to detect with general ad fraud detection practices. For these reasons, marketers valuing holistic protection must look beyond basic ad fraud tracking techniques to prevent mobile ad fraud. mFilterIt’s advanced ad fraud detection tool helps eliminate invalid traffic across the funnel using AI/ML and data science capabilities. The solution identifies sophisticated fraud patterns based on device, behavioral, and heuristic checks and ensures that the fraudulent traffic doesn’t seep through the funnel. Conclusion Click fraud and click injection both affect marketers at multiple levels. Wasting their current advertising budgets to skewing campaign performance data that leads to subpar optimization

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The Blind Spot: Advertisers’ Limited Visibility into Contributing Publishers

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With the rapid growth in the mobile app ecosystem, the number of fraudulent activities is also increasing at the speed of lightning. From the installs to events, the fraudsters have become smart enough to tamper with these metrics and steal the advertiser’s money. One of the common and sophisticated types of mobile ad fraud is Click Injection. Click Injection is a technique that not only impacts the advertisers but also the genuine publishers who are generating real traffic. Here is a handy guide to know how click injection impacts your app and how the click injection rule can help combat this threat. What is Click Injection? Click injection is a sophisticated form of mobile ad fraud that is used to manipulate app installs. It is a technique where a malicious app or a spoofed SDK in a user’s device fires an ad click between the duration of a genuine app download till it’s first open. The genuine publisher loses their payout as the last click is attributed to a fraudulent install. How does Click Injection happen? How mFilterIt Protect Against Click Injection? Due to the last click attribution, the install is attributed to the publisher who has fired the last click on the advertisement. However, the fraudulent publishers steal the last click attribution by firing a click just before the app install completes. To detect this anomaly, we apply our click injection rule which analyses the concentration of clicks by contributing publishers for a specific publisher in a day. And if the clicks by contributing publishers exceed 40%, then we analyze the time difference between the clicks (the time when the first click on the ad happened and the time when the contributor click happened) If the click happens within a certain timeframe, then we mark it as fraud. To simplify this further, this pattern happens when the publisher is involved in a click-injection activity. Otherwise, the chances of this happening are minuscule. These checks are conducted on three levels to get a deep-dive understanding of the anomalies in the installs and give transparency to the advertisers to evaluate their ad traffic quality. Real Case To explain this better, we have taken an example of a publisher who was actively involved in these kinds of activities. We observed the installs from this particular publisher for a period of 15 days in which he gave 11,917 installs out of which 6,434 installs were contributed by other publishers or came organically. This consisted of 54% of the total traffic. According to the click injection rule, we marked all the records as a fraud whose difference was within a certain timeframe. It’s Not All Black There is a grey zone in the digital ecosystem. Not all contributing publishers are participants in mobile ad fraud. Some of them are unaware of the fraudulent activities that happen within the app they publish or distribute. While there are some contributing publishers who are misled by fraudulent app developers or ad networks. This led to financial losses for not just the advertisers but the genuine contributing publishers as the fraudulent publishers steal their share of revenue by capturing the last-click attribution. Way Forward The fraudulent techniques in the digital ecosystem are becoming sophisticated and discreet with every passing day. Due to this, marketers are in a constant dilemma of choosing the right media partner to advertise with confidence. Therefore, validating the ad traffic from publishers and sub-publishers has become a necessity to ensure that there is transparency and trust among all parties. With the right ad traffic validation solution, marketers can get clarity on their ad traffic, and decide which channels they need to focus on to get greater returns. Marketers, it’s time to leave the old ways and advertise fearlessly with a media partner you can trust!

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BRAND SENTIMENT: Do You Know Who Is Saying What, Where & Why?

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Listen To Everything Said About Brands and Products Across social media eCom Platform “Kuch toh log kahege, logo ka kaam hai kehna!” (People will always have opinions, this is what they do) but the voice of an eCom shopper cannot be left unheard or dismissed as useless chatter. Opinions and experiences of shoppers matter when it comes to the digital commerce ecosystem. Brands must be aware of every single word said about them be it customer reviews, shoppers queries, lashing-out tweets, gentle words of appreciation, or simple suggestions.  Every sentiment needs to be monitored and analyzed as it deeply affects brand reputation. But why? The answer to this why” is a little complicated but here we are going to simplify the brand sentiment what it means and its impact on the brand. Building brand reputation is a continuous extensive process that comprises multiple factors. Brand messaging is one such factor that drives brand sentiment. So, Let’s dig deeper and find out why it matters so much. According to a survey, 76% of customers claim they would quit a business that fails to respond to a negative social media post while 82% of customers expect brands to respond to their social media posts within 24 hours. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Brands must be aware of every kind of sentiment about their products and brands. Evaluating Brand sentiment is critical for brand health and the reputation of the business. Let’s presume a case where a customer got a wrong color item or some part or accessory is missing, leaves a negative review, marks for return or replacement along with venting out on social media.  Just imagine what an unresolved tweet can do to a brand’s reputation. This makes social listening and quick follow-up critical to brand reputation. The digital commerce landscape is cut-throat and competitive It’s not just about social media conversation and customer sentiment about brands but even cross-platform conversation also needs to be monitored. Brand sentiment also covers understanding and analyzing what people feel about their interactions. Brands must carefully monitor this dynamic and enhance those aspects that leave a positive impact and enhance customer experience! How people feel about your business or product can have a huge impact on product sales, brand loyalty, and customer retention. Lend Your Ears Are You Listening? The most powerful element in building a brand reputation is word of mouth the experience leads to voices, and voices turn into opinions. These opinions shape the buzz about the brand. For example, let’s consider the case of TATA Nano, a pocket-friendly car with a budget of the middle class that faced a major bump in the market as it got labeled as a cheap car. It is important to ensure what the brand wants to convey about the product matches the target audience’s interpretation. Brands need to pay attention to what people are saying. Being aware of how the brands are responding is crucial to product performance in the market. Brands need to stay alert in real time to track sentiments across the digital ecosystem. This includes understanding. Context and tone of sentiment Subjectivity of sentiment Change in sentiment over time Source of sentiment Understanding sentiments will help brands categorize sentiments and grade them accordingly. Brands need to keep track of word-of-mouth mentions and respond accordingly. Perks Of Tracking Brand Sentiments Tracking brand sentiment is like social listening crisis management under one roof. According to a survey, 88% of people look for opinions online before making a purchase. Finding your brand mentions and making your presence felt is an important step toward upswinging brand digital efficiency. Turn the insights into action by monitoring and analyzing brand sentiments across the digital ecosystem. Here are some core benefits of being aware of brand sentiments: Improved Customer Satisfaction Respond swiftly to Customer feedback Ensure customer retention making customer opinion/experience feel valued Understand the target customer and what makes customers happy Understand your industry segment Identify threats or opportunities Improve marketing strategies Data Driven decision making What Brands Should Do To Improve Brand Sentiment? The reputation built by positive words about the brand or product is what propels sales and helps acquire new customers most organically. The way brand sentiment shapes up decides the fate of the product. The challenge lies in identifying sentiments and responding to them swiftly as the more time negative feedback is spent in the digital landscape the more damage it does to brand reputation. So, what can the brands do about it? Relentless Monitoring The digital space keeps on evolving at a rapid pace. The monitoring and analysis process should be relentless and continuous to keep up it. A comprehensive system should be in place for automated sentiment monitoring with actionable insights to support data-driven decisions. Swift Response Make sure customers feel valued. Personalized responses to negative feedback will go a long way in building brand trust and loyalty. This will help the brand handle the problem before it turns into a crisis. Make strategies more adaptable The strategies that can turn a crisis into opportunities. Understand customer sentiment and respond accordingly. Never miss a conversation about your brand monitor Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, News, Blogs, and the entire world wide Web including the eCommerce marketplace customer feedback reviews and QAs. Track every social channel Join conversations about your brand Keep an eye on the competition Manage your reputation online Final Thoughts Be Sensitive to Sentiments ‘Whats in a name? In the digital commerce landscape everything. As any mention of brand or product name matters. Brand sentiment plays a pivotal role in building brand reputation and value across the digital ecosystem and beyond. Social Listening, digital commerce intelligence with sentiment analysis, and optimizing customer experience are the core digital efficiencies that every brand should strive for in the digital landscape. Omnichannel Shopping including Live Social commerce and expanding geographical outreach of digital commerce retail is opening up new avenues for shoppers. Now shopping has become more interactive where shoppers can directly engage with the sellers or brands. Knowing

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Guard Your Wicket: Why Digital Advertisers Need to Be Vigilant Amidst The Cricket Fever?

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The Cricket Fever is Unstoppable!   From IPL to the World Cup, the audience goes all gaga to see their favorite teams playing. The advertising world also goes into a frenzy during this time and wants to capture the attention of the “Cricket Heads”. The pitch might be clear on the ground, but the pitch in the advertising world has hurdles at every step.   While the advertiser spends meticulously, the fraudsters also look forward to stealing their money and having a gala time. Over the years, these scamsters have evolved and adapted more advanced techniques to steal the advertiser’s money.   In this blog, we have covered some of the advanced techniques of ad fraud and brand safety threats happening across the gaming and betting industry which is most impacted during the major sports events. Digital Threats During Sports Events 1. Rise in Fake Accounts The IPL and World Cup season is much awaited in the advertising world as gaming/betting advertisers spend heavily to ensure they are part of the game. However, the advertisers are hardly able to make a sixer during this time as the scamsters are also ready to make them go clean bowled. They are the most active during this time and look for all the best opportunities to steal the ad spends of the advertisers. And one of their easy-to-execute techniques is using disposal email addresses and phone numbers to create fake accounts.   Here is an insight from an analysis done for a leading gaming app: Based on the data extracted, mFilterIt detected sign-ups occurring from similar-looking email addresses in less than a minute interval. This activity was suspicious, and we detected the patterns to identify bot activity which was eventually impacting the performance of the gaming advertiser.   These disposable email addresses and numbers are also used by fraudsters to commit referral or coupon fraud which eventually hurts the brand’s image among loyal consumers. The brands run referral programs to bring in new users and retain loyal users. However, due to fraudsters’ involvement, these programs are often manipulated, and genuine users cannot use these benefits further blaming the brands. 2. Event Spoofing Beyond the misuse of disposable email addresses and phone numbers, the fraudsters have another winning move that can help them win the cup (in this case advertisers’ ad spends). They use advanced fraud techniques like SDK spoofing to commit event spoofing.   In this case, the scamsters often manipulate the events like sign-ups to get their payout. The advertisers are under the impression that their apps are being downloaded by genuine users, but the reality tampers. The publisher receives their payout, but the advertiser neither gets the genuine audience nor the growth. 3. Use of Misleading Ads The last season of IPL saw a massive surge in misleading and manipulated ads run by fraudulent affiliates/influencers to lure innocent users. ASCI flagged 285 real-money gaming ads on social media on the account of violation of the ASCI guidelines of March’22. Furthermore, 14 ads were found as violating ASCI during the IPL on both Television and OTT. This year, the government has become more stringent about the ads run by gaming and betting platforms. There has been a rise in cases where these platforms leverage news content or eCommerce promotions as a disguise for betting-related advertisements.   The game season is the best time for fraudsters to leverage the brand’s name to commit fraud and enjoy the benefits. Whereas the brands have to pay the price in the form of wasted ad budget and tarnished brand image resulting in loss of consumer trust. 4. Brand Reputation at Risk Misleading ads by fraudulent affiliates are a real problem. Another behind-curtain fraudulent practice is where the brand’s ads run on illicit or adult websites.   An ad of a legitimate brand appearing beside obscene content is a brand safety nightmare. In this situation, often the consumers assume that the brands have placed their ad beside illicit content consciously and they are not concerned about their consumer’s safety. This leaves a deep impact on the brand’s reputation as the consumer questions the reliability of the brand. 5. Organic Traffic Stealing Apart from misusing digital brand assets, these Sports events are also the “hattrick season” for fraudulent affiliates/publishers. During this time, usually, the brands put money on search advertisements introducing “exciting offers”. The fraudsters use this moment as an opportunity.   They bid on the brand’s keywords to appear above the “legitimate brand” in the search results and divert their organic traffic to their website resulting in organic traffic stealing. This also increases the bid prices of the brand keywords and the bhas have to pay more for their branded keywords. Don’t Be ‘Clean Bowled’ this Season Sporting events have been the “festival of joy” for fraudsters as advertisers spend heavily during this time. To safeguard the ad budgets and protect the brand reputation, the advertisers need an advanced solution to validate ad traffic and ensure that the ad is placed in a safe environment.   mFilterIt provides advertisers with this transparency to make efficient business decisions. With cutting-edge and innovative media validation solutions, advertisers can validate their ad traffic and eliminate invalid traffic to target only the audience that matters. It also helps the advertisers to ensure their ads are placed in a GARM-compliant environment and are protected from brand safety threats.   Take quick action to make the best out of these sporting events in 2023!

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