eBiz News: Click Fraud Up, New Auction Site By Michelle Megna
July 26, 2007
Rising click fraud rates, a new site that turns the tables on auction sites by reversing traditional buyer and seller roles, and a report outlining ways to maximize e-mail marketing are making news this week in the e-commerce industry.
Click Forensics. just released a report for the second quarter of this year — and the news is not good. Key findings from data reported for Q2 2007 include the following:
The overall industry average click fraud rate was 15.8 percent for Q2 2007. This is an increase from 14.1 percent for the same quarter in 2006 and 14.8 percent for Q1 2007.
The average click fraud rate of PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was 25.6 percent. That's up from 21.9 percent for Q1 2007 and 19.2 percent for Q4 of 2006.
Traffic from botnets doubled from Q1 to Q2 2007 and contributed significantly to the increase in click fraud rates.
In Q2 2007, the greatest percentage of click fraud originating from countries outside North America came from France (5.1 percent), China (3.2 percent) and Australia (3 percent).
"Click fraud has become the new spam and it's clearly a problem that is getting worse, not better," Tom Cuthbert, president and CEO of Click Forensics, Inc. said in a statement. "A significant percentage of today's click fraud traffic can be attributed to two growing areas of concern for search advertisers — traffic that comes from botnets and from parked domains or made-for-ad sites. Advertisers running campaigns on content networks are especially vulnerable as they are increasingly targets of this growing pool of savvy fraudsters."
The Click Fraud Index monitors and reports on data gathered from the Click Fraud Network, consisting of more than 4,000 online advertisers. The Network provides statistically significant pay-per-click data collected from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies.
Google's Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety, has responded to Click Forensics' data at his blog, which you can read to get their side of the story.
Tips for E-mail Marketing In other news, Forrester Research Inc. just released a list of e-mail marketing tips culled from its recently held seminar "Roadmap for E-mail Marketing Success." Here are three of the key take-aways:
How can I grow my email list? E-mail vendor e-Dialog finds that most marketers have e-mail addresses for only 15 percent to 20 percent of their existing customers, according to the report. E-tailers can address this by "turning all existing channels into e-mail acquisition vehicles; ask for e-mails at sites, stores, and call centers and by direct mail."
What will prevent list attrition? For those with established e-mail databases, the challenge is more about list maintenance than growth. "Domain name registrar, Network Solutions, prevents the loss of 30,000 to 40,000 e-mail addresses per week by sending 'reactivation' postcards immediately after inactivity or bounces from an e-mail address reach a set threshold," says the report.
What ensures message deliverability? Stephanie Miller, vice president of strategic services at e-mail delivery and list management vendor Return Path, says that maintaining your reputation as a "trusted sender" is crucial. This is done by monitoring the following: 1) complaints — one complaint in 5,000 messages sent is enough to block delivery; 2) content — sexual phrases, broken HTML syntax, excessive capitalization or punctuation will trigger spam filters; 3) file quality — mailing to inactive e-mails and addresses that have never opted in to any mailings signals poor list maintenance; 4) infrastructure — e-mails coming from servers that are not compliant with Internet standards raise a "spammer alert" for ISPs; and 5) constancy — irregularities in delivery.
The report goes on to say that e-tailers should focus on nurturing loyal customers with discounts and special offers through their campaigns rather than wasting time and money on "half-hearted customers." For those who, want to get more customers to return to their sites, the recommendation is to "keep addresses that have not replied to you in more than one year in a separate file that you contact by e-mail every six months."
Beggars Can Be Choosers Finally, in other e-commerce news is an interesting new site, BegMetoBuyIt.com, launched this week.
BegMeToBuyIt.com puts a new spin on the traditional online auction format. Instead of allowing buyers to bid on a product offered by a single seller, the buyers at BegMeToBuyIt.com post ads for the products they are seeking. If a seller has the product a buyer is seeking, the seller can then post their "bid" — or selling price — as well as relevant details about the product and the terms of the sale.
The company claims that this model offers marketing potential for e-tailers because instead of waiting for shoppers to come to them, the e-business can specifically seek out buyers who have already expressed an interest in their product or service.
"Anyone can search a potential seller in their zip code," Joseph Anania, creator and owner of BegMeToBuyIt.com, said in a statement. "This will benefit professionals in the area who might want to increase their exposure and find new customers."
With BegMeToBuyIt.com, buyers can search for items or services within a 50-mile radius of their location or can search nationwide. Each request can be listed for a range of one to 90 days, and sellers will have the specified number of days to place their selling bids. Buyers can also set a budget range in order to give sellers an idea of the price the buyer is willing to pay for the product or service.
An internal communication center allows buyers and sellers to safely communicate about the transaction. Potential buyers can use the message center to ask additional questions, and both the buyer and potential seller can discuss price negotiations, delivery and shipment, warranties and other aspects of the sale.
Sellers can also post profiles, designate areas of expertise, and other information about themselves. A feedback system ensures that only quality sellers and serious buyers are engaging in the buying and selling process, according to the company.
There is no fee for registering for a buyer or seller account at BegMeToBuyIt.com. Once a transaction has been finalized and a seller selected, the buyer is charged a $3 flat-fee. The seller's final price is subject to a 1 percent commission fee.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
Do you have a comment or question about this article or other e-commerce topics in general? Speak out in the SmallBusinessComputing.com ECommerce Forum. Join the discussion today!
Tools:
Add ecommerce-guide.com to your favorites Add ecommerce-guide.com to your browser search box IE 7 | Firefox 2.0 | Firefox 1.5.xReceive news via our XML/RSS feed
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
