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Ad Fraud Digital Marketing Banking

Banking’s digital marketing problem: How to combat ad fraud and boost high-street accounts

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April 17, 2023 | 5 min read

In recent years, the banking and financial services sector has undergone a massive transformation

The industry was once dominated by large conglomerates and legacy banks, but the emergence of 'challenger banks', which compete directly with traditional institutions, has revolutionized the field.

As a result, there are now numerous providers vying for market share, and challenger banks are using more digital marketing strategies. This has forced traditional providers to adjust their approach to reaching their audience, as simply having a physical presence is no longer sufficient. To connect with customers in today's digital age, financial institutions must invest significant time, research, and money in digital marketing channels. By investing wisely in appropriate channels, optimizing communications, and eliminating invalid traffic, financial institutions can maximize their return on investment.

Total elimination of invalid traffic is crucial to the success of the sector

Invalid traffic, including advertising fraud, encompasses any advertising interaction that is not genuinely or legitimately interested. This ranges from fake clicks from bots, competitors or even internal employees. Ad fraud is categorized as a form of invalid traffic that is generated by a malicious malware to steal your ad spend.

Due to a general lack of awareness and regulation, combined with the sophisticated tactics of fraudsters, ad fraud and other forms of invalid traffic can consume as much as 30% of an advertiser's budget. For financial service providers, the impact is even more severe because ad fraud can lead to other types of cybercrime, such as credit card fraud, payment fraud, and bank fraud. In some cases, we have seen that finance mobile apps are the highest hit when it comes to ad fraud, at a whopping 65%.

Ultimately, in such a complex and mechanical industry as advertising, it’s unlikely that banks and providers can gain a true understanding of how invalid traffic is affecting their bottom line without specialist assistance.

Ad fraud, like any form of fraud, tends to follow the money. In the world of advertising, this is no exception. Unfortunately, high-street banks have fallen victim to this trend, losing a staggering $2m each month to invalid traffic and fraud. This money could have been invested in legitimate marketing activities or put back into the business, but instead, it was wasted.

The most sophisticated fraudsters operate undetected, making millions from financial service providers daily. Regardless of the channel, location, or type of financial institution, everyone is affected by the direct and indirect losses caused by invalid traffic and ad fraud.

High-performance tech to the rescue

Marketers are faced with fraudsters who are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, requiring equally sophisticated strategies to combat them.

Use machine learning: One effective approach is to leverage machine learning instead of continually reacting to new fraud tactics with new rules. By using machine learning, fraud can be mitigated from both known and unknown tactics, preventing fraudsters from getting paid. According to Juniper Research, machine learning could save advertisers more than $10bn in ad spend wasted on fraud by 2022. One big example of success right here in Singapore is DBS bank, which uses AI for multiple levels of integrated risk surveillance to monitor holistically from “transaction to account to the customer to network to macro” levels.

Enable full funnel prevention: Often it isn’t just one person or one team, or even one business that needs access to accurate, real-time performance data. By measuring and responding to traffic across your whole advertising journey, you don’t need separate solutions for different campaign types or channels.

Talk to experts: Seeking expert advice from ad fraud prevention specialists can also help combat fraud and safeguarding security, as they can block invalid traffic at multiple levels and as early as possible. Despite this, many financial service providers have not yet extended their proactivity in this area to their digital marketing functions.

Protect the customer and the brand

Invalid traffic and ad fraud have significant consequences, impacting not only marketing teams but also the c-suite and customers. While reconciliation solutions can help alleviate the aftermath of fraud, preventative tools that stop invalid traffic before it affects your budget are even more effective in maximizing budgets and resource efficiencies.

Removing invalid traffic creates an opportunity to capture real users, increase average revenue per user (ARPU), and maximize lifetime value (LTV). This, in turn, increases profits and ensures that marketing efforts target actual prospects. A reliable industry partner can balance transparency, automation, and accuracy to relieve the financial service provider of the manual reconciliation burden and focus on areas of protection most in need across all paid marketing channels.

By preventing fraudulent bots from profiting off the advertising budget, marketers can gain a competitive edge over other legacy banks. With more budget, flexibility, and efficiency, they can also compete against up-and-coming challenger banks and keep up in the ever-evolving financial market.

Ad Fraud Digital Marketing Banking

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