In this era of digital boost, we all are witnessing the change in customer-business communication. Today, almost every industry comprehends the importance of conversing with customers, bonding with them, and improving their online presence to create their brand’s awareness. In 2020, the global digital advertising and marketing industry was estimated at $350 billion, projected to reach $786.2 billion by 2026. The US digital market is estimated at $460 billion.
The increase in lead generation and conversions with the help of digital marketing is one of the critical reasons for this shift of businesses to digital marketing over traditional marketing. But again, fraudsters have found a loophole between digital marketers and businesses to generate their pathway to earn from people. Highlighting this invasion, Faisal Abidi, Co-founder of RNF Technologies, discusses ways to prevent lead generation frauds with us.
Faisal Abidi’s Definition Of Lead Generation Fraud
Faisal Abidiof Phonato Studios, RNF’s product development arm, defines lead generation fraud as the subcategory of advertising fraud that involves the generation of fake leads. In these frauds, the fraudsters are concerned about generating more fake leads with the help of bots, human fraud farms, and malware to fill in the forms and give one more stagnant lead, which has no conversion chances. Fraudsters often use the personal data of people unaware of it, which is another problem. Faisal Abidi says that the fraudsters are applying all the possible strategies to bring more leads to the business to get their share from them.
Preventive Measures For Lead Generation Frauds
When fraudsters are trying to augment their techniques and strategies to provide you with fraud leads, it’s time to become vigilant of the process adopted by your digital marketing teams, suggests Phonato Studios’ Faisal Abidi.
Faisal Abidi shares ways to protect yourself from the growing lead generation frauds. A few of the suggestions are –
- Analyze Bot Traffic & Detect Form Submissions
Checking your traffic is one of the most convenient ways of detecting lead generation fraud. Fraudsters use bot programs to complete the repetitive tasks of filling up the forms or creating fake accounts. RNF Technologies‘ Faisal Abidi recommends a quick API request to analyze the IP address or device properties, which can help identify whether it’s the bot or a human behavior generating more leads and traffic for your business.
- Evaluate Metrics Of The Running Campaigns
Regular analysis of the campaign metrics like CTR (click-through rate), CR (conversion rates), reach, and impressions can help you know the actual growth of your campaign. Affiliates with high conversion rates or constant conversions usually are a mark of fraud lead generations. By tracking the source and affiliations, one can know about the fraud details and cut these leads out of your conversions.
- Validate User Data
Analyzing the user information lets one know whether it’s a real lead or just some fake account. Email ID, postal address, and phone number can be quickly scanned, and one can filter away the poor-quality leads. One can even check the data breaches of recent ids and match them with the lead emails. Again, if it fits, the fraudsters steal and use the data to generate fake leads.
- Include Honeypot Form Fields
These honeypot form fields are invisible to human users but are visible and answered by the bots. By adding this field, one can separate bot users from human users.
Final Thoughts
While validating the lead generation data, one can also take care of the risk score for each lead and figure out the fraudulent affiliates responsible for sending fraud leads to your forms. Although lead generation is an essential step for expanding your business, be cautious about the digital team you’re hiring and the methods chosen by them to help you with your business goals suggests RNF Technologies’ Faisal Abidi.