Brand Auditor – an upgraded brand bidding monitoring tool

Brand bidding is a major test for the associate 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 turnover 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.

Brand Auditor comes to the rescue

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 faithful and valuable customers. 

This upgraded version features improved functionality based on the insights gained from having worked with more than 2,500 brands. Along with many other improvements, this recent version of Brand Auditor has the ability to intercept and block brand bidding attempts on coupon sites.

To safeguard their advertising budgets and ensure the protection of their brands, advertisers depend on us to ensure the standard and transparency of traffic they receive from their partners.

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 globe – 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 associate 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 (recent!)

This recent function is a trade-first and allows advertisers and publishers to monitor brand fraud activities (including the promotion of expired promo codes) and ensure the standard 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.

straightforward setup and management

Setup & login

We usually only require your most significant brand keywords to commence. If you work with affiliates or other sales partners, we will consent 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 period.

24/7 monitoring & reports

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

Case processing at your convenience and fingertips 

At the touch of a button, you can make legally-compliant documentation of any violations, enabling you to launch a formal complaint and receive legal action against your competitor. 

If you are interested in implementing Brand Auditor into your marketing schedule, 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 joyful to provide you with all the additional information you require.