The invaluable Wesley Brandi brings us his latest cookie-stuffing scammer or as he puts it, "Today's featured fraudster" CouponsUniversity is allegedly defrauding multiple merchants while using javascript to try and conceal what is happening: What CouponsUniversity is doing a little different in their scheme, is that they pick up on the error event raised by the browser when … [Read more...]
Klein Online (& Out-of-Line): Kick Fraud Out!
The mThink/Revenue Performance team were kind enough to offer me an outlet for my opinionated self and perhaps also provide a nugget or two of value. Those who know me understand that I am rarely bashful or quiet, but that said, allow me to bring to you Klein Online. I’d like to throw some thoughts out there on fraud. What’s the biggest single threat to us these days? Al … [Read more...]
Revenue Performance Q&A with Pace Lattin
Performance marketing is an industry full of interesting characters with rich back-stories, lots of ideas and a commitment to making things happen. Pace Lattin fits that description perfectly. He founded a leading online media publication, ADOTAS; he was a major player in the display advertising space and he now runs Inside The OfferVault, a newsletter focused on the CPA … [Read more...]
Will Fraud Kill Affiliate Marketing?
Will fraud kill affiliate marketing? It is up to you. You choose. But here’s a clue: the BP oil spill probably just killed the Louisiana wetlands. I think we should take that as a warning of just what can happen. The affiliate marketing industry is an ecosystem. It consists of a web of interdependent species: affiliates, merchants, networks, merchant processors, etc. … [Read more...]
The Great Divide
Over the last five years, almost all of the topics I’ve written about focus on some aspect of performance-based advertising. My fascination with the subject stems from a desire to understand the role performance-based ads play in the broader ecosystem for advertisers, merchants and affiliates.What I’ve come to believe is that the performance marketing world has two … [Read more...]
Marketing Muscle
Over the years stories about intimidation and goons knocking on the doors of various affiliates and search marketers have circulated at industry events. Some of these scary accounts have taken on a life of their own - much like a game of telephone where fact and fiction are often intertwined as the stories are told over and over again. The victims claim to have seen a variety … [Read more...]
Hybrid Auctions Are Taking Over
As author Robert C. Gallagher observes, "Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine." And so it comes as no surprise that paid search engines are changing too. The biggest change is one of the most fundamental, affecting which paid ads are shown first in the results. The tried-and-true high bidder auctions, pioneered by Overture (later acquired by Yahoo), are being … [Read more...]
Danger: Clicking Ahead
Sometimes a click isn't really a click. Sometimes the person knocking on a website's door is really a wolf in shopper's clothing, perpetrating a fraud that wastes marketers' advertising dollars or steals commissions. Skip Pratt says his Web hosting company BAPort.com was being defrauded on 20 percent of its clicks. He was so frustrated by the problem that he developed a click … [Read more...]
Defend Yourself Against Click Fraud
The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" That's what the Chicken Littles of the world would have you believe when they discuss how click fraud will doom the world of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Of course, some Chicken Littles have a vested interest in raising awareness of this supposedly rampant problem, considering many of them are the purveyors of products that help … [Read more...]
Don’t Give in to Click Fraud Fears
Click fraud is a potentially serious problem faced by any affiliate marketer who uses pay-per-click (PPC) search engine advertising to market their sites.One study estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of a PPC advertiser's budget is lost to fraud. That estimate increased to 50 percent for high-priced, highly competitive keywords.Unfortunately, there is no guaranteed way to … [Read more...]