Brand Auditor – a new brand bidding monitoring tool by Mitgo

Brand bidding is a major challenge for the partner marketing industry

Brand bidding (or trademark bidding) is a type of ad fraud that involves bidding on a competitor’s branded keywords to capture their traffic, ultimately stealing their revenue and tarnishing their brand image. 

Long a thorn in the side of online brands and advertisers, its impact increased dramatically in June 2019, when Google decided to abolish its anti-brand bidding restrictions. The only protections that remained prohibited competitors from using another brand’s trademarked name in their ad copy – but bidding on keywords was fair game. This meant that unscrupulous marketers in over 200 countries were suddenly allowed to bid on and purchase the branded and trademarked keywords of their rivals.

Since then, an Adthena study has shown that up to one-third of all search queries experience brand bidding, with 50% of advertisers engaging in competitive bidding on branded keywords. A result of this is that the CPC price for branded keywords has rocketed up by 10x. Overall traffic lost to competitors through brand bidding is estimated by The Search Monitor to be at 12%. 

With Google having effectively washed its hands of all responsibility, and trademark infringement lawsuits launched against the offending companies, and Google itself, having had little or no success, brands affected by brand bidding have been left with few options to fight back. 

This single theme has put the reputation of the whole affiliate marketing industry at risk, due to the fact that 25% of worldwide affiliates do not comply with anti-fraud legislation. It’s time a solution to this global problem was finally found. 

Mitgo comes to the rescue with Brand Auditor

Brand Auditor is an ad fraud monitoring tool that detects any brand bidding violations, as well as other aggressive tactics used by competitors to divert and exploit a brand’s most loyal and valuable customers. 

Originally developed for Admitad, a new, stand-alone version of Brand Auditor is now available. This new version features improved functionality based on the insights gained from having worked with more than 2,500 brands. Along with many other improvements, this new version of Brand Auditor has the ability to intercept and block brand bidding attempts on coupon sites.

Mitgo businesses such as Admitad, Takeads, ConvertSocial and Tapfiliate already use BrandAuditor to the benefit of their clients and partners, and this new, stand-alone version is available to all Mitgo partners, services, and to any company worldwide.

How Brand Auditor protects against ad fraud

Intelligent brand bidding monitoring by Brand Auditor has already enabled advertisers to filter out hundreds of thousands of orders, protecting their marketing budgets by stopping them from paying undeserved rewards to their affiliate partners.

While other monitoring services are restricted by location, Brand Auditor is available universally – in every country, all around the world – and targets the following key types of ad fraud:  

Direct brand bidding

Brand Auditor secures an advertiser’s brand image with a list of pre-approved and forbidden keywords installed directly into the partner program.   

Landing page brand bidding

Guidelines are set that spot, detect and block ad fraudsters attempting to lure valuable traffic away by using coupon aggregators or promo codes.

Unauthorised brand usage

Unapproved partners are restricted from using a brand’s keywords and intellectual property. Any attempts to do so are quickly intercepted and blocked.

Unauthorised brand usage through CPA

The tool tracks and blocks attempts by publishers to use another brand’s keywords to siphon off already-interested buyers into their own affiliate programs. 

Brand bidding detection on coupon sites (new!)

This new function is a market-first and allows advertisers and publishers to monitor brand fraud activities (including the promotion of expired promo codes) and ensure the quality of traffic on coupon sites. 

While constantly monitoring competitors for any illegal or malicious activity, many brands working with Brand Auditor have been able to successfully launch their own branded contextual counter-campaigns, protecting their legitimate organic traffic from any encroachments.

Simple setup and management

Setup & login

We usually only need your most important brand keywords to start. If you work with affiliates or other sales partners, we will agree with you which keywords and tactics are allowed and which are not. You will receive a Mitgo login from us, which you can use to access the tool interface at any time.

24/7 monitoring & reports

You don’t need to do anything else. We monitor and evaluate all external activities around the clock. You receive detailed weekly (daily upon request) reports that inform you of any actions you may need to take.

Case processing at your convenience and fingertips 

At the touch of a button, you can create legally-compliant documentation of any violations, enabling you to launch a formal complaint and take legal action against your competitor. 
If you are interested in implementing Brand Auditor into your marketing strategy, try it for free by clicking the Request a free trial button on our Brand Auditor product page contact form. For any other questions, our account managers will be happy to provide you with all the additional information you need.

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Are you interested to know more about this and other relevant issues for your business? 

Come join us at OMR in Hamburg in May and get in touch with our experts there. To schedule a meeting or attend our booth party, please contact us via this form. Or simply click on attending the event via LinkedIn. 

See you in Hamburg!