Search Sense

The August survey conducted by MarketingSherpa reveals a lack of concern for click fraud from nearly 4000 marketers and recommends three actions - read more here.

The survey posed the question “why aren’t more marketers are concerned about fraud”:

I’d propose it is down to four key things:

• Ignorance - folk aren’t aware of the size or even the very existence of the problem.
• Trust - trust in media owners (Google, YAhoo, MSN) ability to take action overrides concerns.
• Good staff - they have appointed a good agency or have staff tackling the issue head on.
• Powerlessness - the feelings of inability to do anything or the issue’s complexity act as a barrier to action.

Only 9% of marketers were worried it would get worse and 20% said it was a non issue - oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

I can boldly state if you are playing in financial services or bidding on terms with a value of £3.00 per click or higher then you most definitely have been a victim of click fraud. The high prices and competitive markets act as a honey pot.

The primary search engines (Google, ASK, MSN and Yahoo) do try to eliminate invalid clicks and have very sophisticated technology and teams to do this. The but is and it is a very BIG BUT, is that search engines do not have access to conversion patterns of your customers from a variety of channels or access to large quantities of post click data.

So whilst the search engines are excellent at trapping most robot activity and dodgy affiliates pre click and automatically refund your marketing spend in most cases, beyond the click it becomes trickier. However, it need not be a “fact of life” as the respondees to MarketingSherpa’s Click Fraud survey seem to believe. Nor do the “Second-Tier” search engines (AOL, Miva, Mirago, WebFinder, etc) need to be a no go area, they just need more skill to manage.

MarketingSherpa recommended three actions:

• track conversions by source
• review contracts for protection
• invest in fraud prevention services or software.

I’d agree with them all, but throw in some more detail and one or two actions of my own.

Tracking: If you don’t monitior it you can’t catch the fraudsters. Good tracking technology and services are the CCTV of the internet. We at Spannerworks use three different types of fraud detection/prevention software and have data analysts ready to assess the information obtained. Our clients get real money benefits from this and we are thinking of launching the service for a wider audience.

All you web server log files will contain IP information - if funds don’t exist to buy tracking software then perhaps your friendly neighbourhood IT guy can help extract this information for you to identify unusual traffic sources.

Contracts: Don’t just examine contracts with search engines to see if you’re covered for fraud, but consider using a third party which is incentivised to bring you customers and not just clicks. Look for shared risk models or deals based upon cost per action. Pay differenetial pricing for clicks based upon the quality of the traffic (especially important with second tier engines and if using content networks).

Invest in services: Sounds good to me, especially if it’s a Spannerworks PPC service with fraud prevention, but hey I would say that. Seriously though, getting access to data from a wider network, so you can spot unusual activity when compared to an industry trend is sound advice. Even just talking to your trade body may help.

Spannerworks are very active combating fraud through our Aperture technology, the IAB (Internet Advertisers Bureau) and directly with the search engines.

Tails and Timing: Aggregate those low cost, highly targeted terms as a a strategy to reduce the threat of fraud - also makes it easier to spot. Consider week / month parting strategies to cool and heat up campaigns when the click quality changes.

I’ll end by saying fraud is more serious than spam email, because the cost is real money - every click, every month. Like spam email it is also time and hidden costs - a triple whammy.

So don’t sweep fraud under the carpet, take action now and stop your competitors, dubious affiliates or others stealing both your time and money - do contact us if you’re interested in hearing more.

Mat Morrson of digital marketing consultancy Ryan Morrison & MacMillan has published a great post on its blog entitled “5 things you never knew about search” which quotes our very own David St John Tradewell liberally.

For the full run-down read the original article, but the five things are headlined:

1. It’s not about search, it’s about find.
2. Search businesses are service companies. They are only as good as the technology they employ.
3. Show me the money. (”If you can’t put a value on a transaction, you can’t optimise your search.”)
4. Good search businesses can’t afford to have all their staff in London offices.
5. Something makes people search….

I’d certainly agree emphatically with the first and last points especially.

But I’d go further, adding my own impressions as a brand communications specialist who has spent a few months in the world of search marketing now.

Often people see search marketing simply as a transaction-based or lead generation business. It is very, very good that, but it is also becoming more: search should be viewed as media, and search marketing as a part of brand communications as well as a powerful customer delivery tool.

Search is the most powerful application for making sense of the exponentially growing complexity of the online networked world.

Product information and pricing are only part of the story of how people are using the web, and search, in their daily lives, about how they navigate and make sense and use of online networks.

People are using the web (and therefore search) more than ever and their sophistication in its use, their demands of it, are growing more complex too. It’s an intimate, sometimes unwittingly so, relationship that many have with their search engines, and search marketing must evolve alongside that.

: : I’d also add to point two that search businesses are also only as good as the people they employ.  Technology is massively important, but not more important than people who can put it to best use, read and action data to best effect, plan and execute strategies to succeed, find  the best ways to market online with search.

I’m a big fan of search research - using data about what people are searching for to tell you more about a market, demographic or trend. Heather Hopkins of Hitwise correctly predicted that Bebo would overtake MySpace as the number one social network in the UK based in part on the growing number of people searching for “Bebo”.

Well, despite Bebo having taken the number one spot a couple of months back it seems that even more people are searching for it now than ever, according to new Hitwise data. In fact almost as many people are searching for Bebo as for eBay, the most ussed search term in the UK.

What that expresses is even more people wanting to know more about the site, which should lead to more sign ups for the service. I read that as menaing there’s plenty of growth potential yet for services like this.

: : Could there also be a decline / plateauing in the fortunes of eBay here, I wonder? I’ve heard a good few grumbles of discontent among friends who are users of the auction site recently.

Cross-posted to Open.

There’s a real sense that marketers are taking search, both paid and natural, far more seriously. (more…)

The AOL data provides a rare chance to see accurate statistics from a major engine fed by Google. (more…)