A rant, well maybe…..I dunno.

When I started in this business I quickly realized that the building industry is a unique bunch. For the most part integrity is way up on their priority list both for their customers and for their business partners. Those that typically crossed the line of honesty didn’t stay in business very long or it wasn’t very long before they had a black name within the building community which in turn eventually cost them their business.

Sounds ordinary right? I mean if a business has fraudulent practices and weak business ethics it only seems right they don’t survive……right?
But what about those businesses that seek to deceive under the radar and get away with it? Would I be naive in assuming that every successful business is pure as the driven snow when it comes to ethics? Maybe naive isn’t the word because I’m certain mistakes are made all the time while trying to run an honest business, but I’m not talking about innocent mistakes here. I’m talking about companies in our midst that reap a profit from the industry that we love so much and doing it with fraudulent methods or at the very least, with questionable practices.

How would you react if you discovered that a marketing company you were paying to perform a service was deceiving you as to how they executed that service? Dumb question right? Maybe a better question would be, would you know if a business partner was cheating you? Do you have measures in place to catch it?

My intentions for writing this blog is to make an attempt to briefly discuss the most prevalent method of marketing fraud in our industry and perhaps cause your radar to sound off the next time you’re prompted to jump in the water with a future business partner.

The increase in marketing fraud.
There’s no question that online fraud is on the increase. Maybe because of the economy, maybe because it’s easy. At times I outsource work for my company to people that don’t work directly within my circle of accountability. How easy would it be for one of them to claim hours worked that were not? Easy. Too easy. A risk I need to take? Perhaps, but how do I reconcile those questions with the check I’m writing? For me it’s a simple matter of making a mental note as to how much time I think this job should take and all the while having expectations of certain benchmarks of completion along the way. If I question the performance against the hours worked I simply raise my concerns with the contractor.”Gee that sounds too simple” you say. Well, yes that part is but where it gets sticky is the reaction and or response of the contractor in question. Generally speaking a humble, inquisitive response says a lot about their honesty. Now I’m no CSI detective but I know what a defensive accusatory reaction says too. It tells me that I’m most likely right in my assumptions and I make my future decisions armed with that feeling in my gut. It can be as easy and remembering two words when faced with this dilemma. Reaction or response.

What about pay per click fraud? You pay a venue to advertise your product and pay them “per click” to perform that duty. Having worked in the pay per click environment I know the questions all too well. “How do I know if my competitors are just clicking away on my links?” or “How do I know if the vendor is just clicking away on my links?” Does this happen? Unfortunately it does. “You mean to tell me that it’s not just my competitors but the vendor itself that’s clicking my links?!” You betcha, and if you don’t have measures in place to catch it, you’ll just pay the bill. Money out the door. Now, on a personal level, thievery just rubs me raw but when it happens from someone you think you can trust because of their reputation, well then it’s just downright unscrupulous. But it happens. It’s the world we live in. How do you catch it? The good thing is that Google is getting better and better at catching these fraudulent clicks and reimbursing for the cost of those clicks. You can also do something.

Pay attention.

If you want a system that you can just set and forget well…..forget it. That approach will end up costing you. If your vendor is telling you that you received thousands of clicks and your phone didn’t ring once and not a soul requested info on your website then you may have a problem. I realize that this is extreme but honestly paying attention to your traffic reports will pay off. Google Analytics is also a great tool for combating fraud. It has a cool geographic locator that tells you what regions your clicks are coming from. Are they all coming from the same region? Red Alert! You can also go commando and pay for a service like whosclickingwho.com. They track all of your clicks and provide you with data on repeat clickers. You can use this 3rd party data to approach your PPC company about refunds. If they aren’t open or willing to accept proof of fraudulent activity and offer a refund, chances are pretty good you should look for another vendor. I would actually recommend that you always check to see if they even have refund policy in place.

Perhaps it sounds like I side too much with the builder in this issue. Maybe, but one thing is for certain. The home building industry supports a huge part of our economy and many businesses owe their existence to builders. My company included. We can’t afford fraud especially coming from our business partners. It’s already too hard to make a buck in the current economic climate and the idea of someone stealing that buck is just disgusting.
Be prepared, be alert and pay attention and if a scammer happens to be reading this……shame shame shame. How do you sleep at night?

Leave a comment, say amen or tell me to take a hike.