Retargeting is behavioural targeting because it targets people who have visited a website. When users visit other websites, you can target them with relevant ads. The most effective retargeting creative includes a clear call-to-action and a specific offer that entices users to buy. Retargeting reminds visitors about your products and services after they leave your website without making a purchase. Retargeting is used in apps, search, and website banner ads.
For today’s serious marketers, retargeting is critical for connecting with customers and increasing revenue. Retargeting is accomplished through “cookies,” which are small data saved by the browser that track who has seen your ad or visited your website. Marketing teams can then retarget users with relevant ads using the cookie data. This is done to target users interested in a specific product or service, which will help you increase conversions and brand awareness.
The Major Impact of Retargeting Fraud
Ad fraud is a problem for advertisers and marketers. Retargeting is the process of re-engaging users who have expressed a strong desire to take a down-funnel action. The level of engagement of the user, whether through simulated clicks or installs, does not affect the fraudulent activity. Consider the consequences if ads are served to bots rather than actual users, and there is no call-to-action; it raises advertising costs and produces poor results.
Fraudsters sabotage good quality traffic by generating invalid traffic, causing marketing budgets to suffer. Bots and invalid traffic impact advertisers’ marketing strategies because they skew analytics and other metrics that help them make better business decisions.
It results in less advertising revenue, lower ROIs, and higher lead generation/referral payouts. Furthermore, unprotected retargeting campaigns produce phoney high-performance results, inflate keyword bids, reduce ad visibility, and reduce search ad effectiveness.
Keyword Bid Inflation
Retargeting campaigns target prospects to increase sales/conversions. Users are captured for the campaign via cookies, dynamic, or list-based methods. Furthermore, it includes keywords for increasing ROI by reaching people who still need to enrol in the campaign but are interested in the product/service. However, bidding on similar keywords in digital ads can cause the bid price to rise.
Fraudsters infiltrate brand retargeting campaigns by posing as prospects. They use bots to add products to carts, which they abandon and leave the website. Advertisers add these bots, which mimic human behaviour, to the remarketing list. Furthermore, fraudsters use bots to click on brand ads and increase impressions, clicks, and visits. As a result, advertisers believe that their retargeting campaigns are performing well.
Reduced visibility
Fraudsters are accustomed to following the money, and retargeting campaigns appear to be a honey pot. As a result, they are constantly engaging in ad-stacking, pixel stuffing, cooking stuffing, and other ad frauds to profit from retargeting ads. Furthermore, retargeting fraud raises the cost of ad impressions/views.
Through retargeting campaigns, brands can increase recall value or gain mind space. Increased visibility can also lead to increased conversions. Unfortunately, retargeting fraud reduces visibility and distorts potential outcomes. The effectiveness of retargeting ads is eventually compromised.
Distorted Search Ad Results
Another significant effect of fraud on retargeting campaigns is the distortion of paid search ads. A tracking code is installed on a brand’s website to display custom ads to users on a partner site. The display/video ads are based on the products the user has searched for on the brand’s website. The remarketing list includes commonly searched keywords on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others, as well as the brand’s web pages.
Advertisers use Google Ads tag, Google Analytics (GA), App Analytics, Ads Data Hub, and other Google resources to create website data tags. Furthermore, they frequently generate prospect user lists using metatags on the website’s first page. They can also detect prospects using the additional data tags in the Google Site Kit extension of site builders such as Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace.
Remarketing initiatives consume a sizable portion of most marketers’ and advertisers’ advertising budgets. Invalid traffic (IVT) infiltrates Customer Data Management systems and remarketing lists. Fraudsters use sophisticated bots that mimic human behaviour. Bots behave perfectly, but humans do not, and interpreting / reading data necessitates knowledge.
While remarketing campaigns are the best option, previously engaged users make excellent fraud targets. Advertisers who use retargeting are vulnerable to fraudulent hijacking techniques. Every intelligent marketer’s marketing strategy should account for this risk. Advertisers can confidently proceed with their remarketing campaigns now that the second layer of defence against such actions has been established.
mFilterIt is a leading platform and affiliate monitoring tool for detecting and preventing advertising fraud. It offers a strong second line of defence against fraudulent activities, allowing marketers to ensure the integrity and success of their campaigns, particularly retargeting efforts. Marketers can proceed with confidence in their retargeting efforts, knowing that mFilterIt’s services will ensure the integrity and effectiveness of their campaigns.
