Eyeball time, the currency of the marketing industry, has fundamentally changed with increasing mobile and PC based internet adoption. Getting and keeping a prospects attention presents new sets of challenges - weekly, when advertising on the WWW. In recent years the advent of video based advertising, a boon for companies attempting to get their message to the masses, has (apparently) presented the best avenue to marketing success.
A new report by WhiteOps casts a shadow of doubt across the entire premise of video marketing effectiveness. Internet based marketing, an auction based pricing model, is driven by competitiveness of keywords. More competitive keywords are more expensive. An active index of price to keyword activity sets the baseline price per impression, or view.
According to a recent WhiteOps report as much as 98% of video views are fraudulent. More competitive keywords and phrases, leading to impression based billing for the advertiser, constitute higher value targets for fraudulent views.
Infected computers, controlled by “Bots”, visit specifically targeted (high value) videos. Impression based billing engines cannot distinguish between a “real” view and a remotely controlled computer. The real loser here, the companies paying for false impressions, are billed for apparent prospect exposure - or a view of their video or marketing message. WhiteOps estimates fraudulent views will represent a total loss to business in 2015 of $6.3B.
In some cases almost all of the videos “viewed” - up to 98% were NOT HUMAN - consisting of robot viewership almost exclusively - SOURCE - WhiteOps Report
Word of mouth advertising has always been a tried and true method of getting your message to the masses. In the new internet age word of mouth is represented as “user generated content” or product review by real people in real time. One way to battle Botfraud - engage your clients and prospects in real time, ensuring they are actual humans - spending dollars.
Engaging clients and prospects across social networks, in real time, may present a challenge to brick and mortar businesses. The technical problems are solved easily. Pushing click to chat, review site updates, and “contact us” form responses to existing in house resources may present technical challenges. Engaged sales and support staff armed with smart phones responding to real time chatter about your companies products and services - a model that should emulate brick and mortar engagement policies - is the key to battling botfraud.
Direct mail gets a lot of bad press. Internet marketers tout the value of video based advertising and SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Long and expensive campaigns designed to push prospects to web based shopping carts are the norm, in most current advertising budgets. Modifying marketing campaigns away from SEO and video marketing towards direct mail and bona fide human engagement, in real time, using current tools, provides economy in marketing dollars and higher ROI (return on investment).
The bottom line - there is no magic bullet. Engaging clients, at the point of inquiry, in real time may present challenges and demand a change in the social flow of sale - but it must be done. In recent months the tools needed to employ real time client and prospect engagement have become increasingly less expensive or “free” - included in the site hosting package that houses your companies existing website.
Untangling the morass that is impression based advertising can be daunting. Engage your trusted geeks, ask the hard questions, demand real data. Analyzing the conversion rates, the comparison of site hits and resulting sales, should shed light on the real value of your current web based marketing initiatives. Demand answers in language you understand. Falling prey to botfraud presents a real risk and loss of hard earned dollars, spent in the web marketing arena.
