Brands Often Blind to Online Performance Marketing Fraud

Brandojo, a state-of-the-art lead verification company, warns that brand managers misunderstand the risks associated with performance marketing. Fraud detection and prevention are key to a positive ROI for cost-per-action campaigns.

Rockville, Md. (PRWEB) June 16, 2009 — As TV and print ad sales continue to slump, traditional brands slowly move toward a newer online method that promises to be cost-effective. But what these brands do not know will hurt them as well as the industry, says veteran performance marketer Vinh Vo.

"Most brand managers I talk to have a limited understanding of how to effectively use online performance marketing," said Vo. "They worry about placement and impressions but have no idea about how to prevent or detect fraud."

Performance marketing is a relatively new way to advertise online. Instead of paying for eyeballs or clicks, you pay only for the sales and leads generated. This method can offer great returns. But Vo warns that if brands do not safeguard themselves properly, they risk losing time, money and even merchant accounts.

To those new to performance marketing Vo offers four main pointers:

• Understand that you will not profit by sales alone
• Luxury goods and services are not a good fit
• An effective lead generation campaign requires trial and error
• Ask up-front how a marketer or network handles fraud

A good performance marketing company, according to Vo, offers solid lead verification. Otherwise "you are guaranteed huge discrepancies at the end of each month," said Vo. Most cost-per-action companies and affiliate networks expect the advertiser to tell them when a lead or sale is invalid. Fraud, however, can go undetected for up to 90 days. By that time, advertisers have already paid for those supposedly good leads and sales.

To shield advertisers from false information, multiple downloads from a single user and stolen credit cards, Vinh and his brother Virgil Vo created Brandojo.com. They offer branded advertisers state-of-the-art lead verification as well as online distribution. Their system cross-references what a user inputs with pre-existing databases to make sure user data is valid before passing the lead or sale on to the advertiser.

"Value-conscious consumer brands can benefit a lot from performance marketing," said Vo, "but if they are not careful they will end up bitterly disappointed."

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