Marketing Fraud
- Sep 28, 2022
- 3 min read
Digital Marketing Agencies, in 2019, spent a third of a trillion dollars. It has been said that COVID-19 will push that number even higher as more and more people are working from home now. Even the unemployment spike didn't slow holiday sales in 2020. This just goes to show that digital marketing plays a huge role in consumers' daily life.
With an increase in spending in a new market fraud is likely to rise. Cybercriminals follow the money and right now there is simply too much being exchanged across the ecosystem. As the market continues to grow criminals will continue to try and stay unnoticed as they take as much as they can.
So what is Marketing Fraud? Marketing fraud is the misuse of any professional marketing tools to divert money or goods from the marketing technology ecosystem directly into the hands of fraudsters. The misuse typically is shown and carried out by very sophisticated bots. These bots will go live on your device and share your entire web browser history and purchase history. They often do this without the device owners' knowledge and are difficult to identify with all the noise of general web traffic. They are typically delivered through malware making it crucial that users pay attention to where their apps are coming from. These bots can conduct a broad variety of fraud attacks.
The effects of marketing fraud have a significant impact. Not only does it spoil the data that marketers are using on further decisions but it will siphon a significant portion of performance marketing budgets.
Marketing Fraud can affect companies of all maturities and sizes and is a bigger problem than we realize.
If the problem goes unnoticed it will only compound over time. Studies show that less than half of marketers regularly scrub their database for junk or fraudulent contacts. The lack of ownership is concerning. Less than half of marketers are talking to their cyber security team about problematic results. Without consistent ownership of how to eliminate marketing fraud, it will only grow to be more successful.
Poorly-informed decisions are a direct result of dirty data. You will have a direct impact on all of your marketing and campaigns if you address the problem head-on and take control. To ensure data in your performance metrics is clean it is imparitive that you take concrete preventive steps. This will result in enhanced conversion rates, prevent data privacy compliance issues, and result in a better-informed campaign.
Here is what you need to look out for to avoid or fix marketing fraud head-on.
Dramatic traffic spikes unconnected to new content or events
Steep increases in traffic connected to a marketing campaign
Time on-site metrics that are dramatically different depending on the traffic source
Your team complaining about the quality of website captured leads
Lower than expected conversion rates
Changing the economics of cybercrime should be done by changing the equation rather than throwing more tools at the problem. Once a fraudster tactic is found and blocked they are up against a race with time in trying to see how long they can operate before they get shut down and how much money they can take during that time. The shift in the equation needs to come from shortening or possibly eliminating the amount of time the fraudster's operation can run.
With the must-haves of enhanced compliance initiatives, data hygiene, and user experience safeguards we can protect marketing budgets from unnecessary wastage.
Do you have a technology problem that you think is impossible? Contact one of our IT specialists today for a free consultation.
949-625-4270
info@wctechpro.com
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