Richard Kahn
Ad fraud has its tentacles in many things, including lead generation. If you find yourself spinning your wheels or getting notices that you’ve violated TCPA compliance, your lead generation methods may have been affected by ad fraud.
Here’s how ad fraud can affect your lead generation and what you need to do to minimize your risk.
1. It Makes It Harder to Reach Consumers
Using lead generation methods like lead lists and landing pages that are riddled with fraud makes it harder to reach real consumers, the ones most likely to buy your product. And unfortunately, sometimes you don’t know your lead gen method has been compromised until it’s too late.
Let’s say you purchase a lead list that you assume has been vetted. Turns out it’s fraudulent and the leads were generated from bogus form fills. Your team starts calling only to find out that none of the names on the list are real. Or worse yet, the individuals are real, but they never gave permission for you to contact them.
If it’s the latter, not only have you wasted time and money, but you’ve violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) compliance which has serious and costly consequences.
2. It Violates TCPA Compliance
When you contact an individual who hasn’t opted in, you are violating TCPA compliance rules. TCPA requires advertisers to get explicit prior consent before contacting consumers. If consent hasn’t been granted, violating TCPA can result in hefty fines for companies.
Source: Aspect
The FCC can impose a fine of $11,000 per incident, which can quickly add up fast as The Dish Network found out. They ended up with a historic $280 million fine for telemarketing violations. Ouch.
3. It Costs You Money
Ad fraud hurts your bottom line. From purchasing bogus lists, to paying for manpower, to the fines you’ll incur for TCPA violations, it all adds up.
It’s frustrating because you need a lead generation to grow your business. But then fraud comes along and snatches the proverbial carpet out from under you along with your revenue. So, what’s the solution?
How to Protect Your Leads
While you can’t eradicate ad fraud, you can mitigate the problem to avoid being burned. Employ safe lead generation tips like:
Use a CAPTCHA Form. Most bots can’t fill out a CAPTCHA form. Consider using one on your landing pages.
Source: CAPTCHA
Know Where Your Traffic Is Coming From. Always know where you’re buying traffic from. Investigate the company and only buy traffic from reputable networks.
Use a Network That Has Checks and Balances. How a network protects itself is a good indicator of how your company will be protected. They should be able to answer questions like “How do you filter your traffic?” What steps are you taking to prevent click fraud?”
Avoid Purchasing Sketchy Lead Lists. Unless you’re 100% sure the names and contact information are vetted, you’re putting your business at risk for TCPA compliance.
License an Ad Fraud Solution. In addition to everything above, you can license an ad fraud solution that specializes in lead generation fraud. These solutions can work in real-time and provide the analytics that you need to pinpoint the fraud and protect your most valuable asset; your advertisers.
These are just a few ways to protect yourself from ad fraud's negative effects. By knowing what to look for and what to expect, hopefully, you’ll be better prepared to stop fraud in its tracks.