Brand Abuse Online

1
Brand Abuse Online

• David Naffziger
• CEO BrandVerity

2
Common Forms of Brand Abuse

• Abuse is most frequently found in channels where
  abusers can make money.
• Domain Names
• Spam Adware
• Search Ads

3
Domain Typos of Virgin Mobile
3,200
30,000
9,000
200
20,000 visitors a month
1,600
4
The Brand Owners Approach

• Generate a list of domains
• Check the list to see who owns the domains
• Find out which domains have traffic
• Get those domains back

5
Find Typos
http//www.domaintools.com/domain-typo/
or http//www.citizenhawk.com
6
Find Brand Extensions
https//adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool
or http//www.keyworddiscovery.com
7
Find International Registrations
8
Who has Traffic?

• Good indicators of Traffic
• AdWords Keyword Tool
• Input both the full domain and just the stem
  (virginatlatic virginatlatic.com) and check
  scores
• KeywordTracker
• Same exercise as with AdWords Keyword Tool
• Registration Date
• Older registrations are more likely to have
  traffic
• Buy AdWords for every typo in question

9
Get the Domain Back

• Uniform Domain Resolution Process (UDRP)
• Quick, Inexpensive Mediated process to recover
  domains from abusers
• Can take 30 days cost several K
• Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act (ACPA)
• US-based law that allows for up to 100K in
  damages for cybersquatting/typosquatting
• Verizon recently won an award of 30 MM against a
  typosquatter

10
Spam Adware

• Utilized to
• Sell your products
• Usually by your affiliates or partners
• Sell your competitors products
• Sell knockoffs
• May contain legal liability for the brand-owner
• False advertising claims
• CAN SPAM compliance
• Adware consent

11
Catching Spam Adware Abuse

• Requires specialized tools
• Spam
• Lashback
• EmailDataSource
• Adware
• Ben Edelman offers a fantastic detection and
  monitoring service

12
Search Ad Brand Abuse

• Abuse is frequently conducted by organizations
  that
• Compete with you
• Are your partners (affiliates)
• Strongly dislike you

13
Methods of Abuse

• How they hide from you
• Reverse geo-targeting
• Day-parting
• Copy your ad text

14
Methods of Abuse

• How they dodge Google's filters
• TM in Display URL
• Variations on TM (typos, spaces, etc.)

15
Monitoring

• Manual
• Use Google Translate or other translation tools
• Or proxies
• Or AOL client
• Or anything that gets you an IP from a different
  location
• Do the testing off-hours
• Look at the page source
• Automated
• Shameless plug BrandVerity PoachMark
• Free, no-credit-card trial

16
Thanks!
David Naffziger CEO, BrandVerity Search Ad
Monitoring davenaff_at_brandverity.com www.naffziger.
net/blog www.brandverity.com