Lead fraud is a big problem in the affiliate marketing world especially when it come to lead generation. So in this article, let’s dive deeper into the issue of lead fraud and discuss a broader perspective. Additionally, we’ll talk about what the solution can be to overcome this problem.
When we talk about validation, it depends on the industry. For B2B Marketing, lead validation means separating qualified sales leads from other types of conversions in your marketing campaigns. Non-sales leads, like someone looking for a job or doing research, aren’t worth pursuing and could be a waste of time. They end up in your database, and lead validation helps filter them out.
However, for B2C marketers and performance marketers in general, there are differences. In performance marketing, where operations are on a larger scale, you need an automated solution to reduce manual work. If you want to completely get rid of lead fraud, you need a solution that prevents it, not just reacts to it.
The issue with relying solely on the lead validation model above is that it addresses only one problem: not all leads are at the same stage and need different management. This is a basic part of lead management and nurturing in performance marketing, but it should be separate from the new process of lead validation.
What Too Consider When It Comes To Lead Validation
When it comes to lead validation in performance marketing, it’s crucial to think about validating leads right at the moment of generation, not just afterward. This involves real-time validation of emails, phone numbers, names, and addresses as the information is collected. By implementing this lead validation approach, you can eliminate duplicate, invalid, poorly formatted, and fraudulent leads. Custom rules can be set up to prevent paying for low-quality leads, ultimately increasing the percentage of valid sales leads before they are generated. This optimization significantly improves performance, regardless of the type of lead generation method you use.
Last year, approximately 35.4% of all generated lead traffic was identified as fraudulent or invalid. This significant portion of traffic would have traditionally passed through most lead generation campaigns without comprehensive validation. This poses a considerable threat to all lead generators, highlighting the need for protection and prevention.
Whether you’re running lead generation for your brand’s eventual sales or on behalf of clients, validation serves as a crucial solution to minimize fraudulent traffic, enhance conversions, and add substantial value to your process.
What Is Enhanced Validation?
You may be confident you’re already running suitable validation and have optimised your performance; such an attitude would be incredibly risky and would likely see growing fraud creeping into your process, if not now, then soon. The question should always be, “How can I improve performance?”
In reality, when it comes to lead fraud, the closest to zero you can possibly get requires running Enhanced Validation. This simply means going beyond traditional validation of data in terms of numbers, names, emails etc, and taking your validation to the next stage by eradicating lead fraud on a meta-level and further optimising performance using intelligent validation through machine- learning technologies.
What is Metadata Validation?
To enhance validation efforts, you can incorporate metadata validation to identify additional invalid leads and further minimize unnecessary costs. Metadata validation enables the detection and rejection of leads based on additional metadata values attached to the data.
This helps identify and reject users who might otherwise go undetected as fraudulent. This additional layer of validation offers extra protection, ultimately saving you money.
What is Inteligent Validation?
The third step of lead validation involves “intelligent validation” powered by advanced machine-learning technologies. This iterative and self-learning form of validation utilizes a predictive “lead scoring” algorithm that continuously analyzes all sales and rejections. Leads receive a predictive score upon delivery, allowing you to prioritize and determine their usage.
In essence, this represents an advanced evolution of the conventional lead validation model, incorporating automated validation driven by the intelligence of machine learning. It stands as the next frontier in performance marketing, pushing the performance of those who embrace it to unprecedented heights.
Opt for a Comprehensive Process
After your leads have successfully passed through the multi-level real-time validation process, filtering out invalid leads and minimizing unnecessary costs, you can proceed to distinguish Sales leads from non-leads using traditional methods. The key difference lies in the significantly improved quality of the leads obtained through these additional processes.
By applying appropriate rules and leveraging machine-learning technology within your workflow, you can enhance the percentage of leads identified as Sales leads in advance. This allows you to provide high-quality leads to clients, thereby optimizing your overall performance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, tackling lead fraud is a critical aspect of ensuring the success of your lead gen and performance marketing campaigns. While lead validation is essential, it takes on a different dimension in the world of performance marketing, demanding a proactive and automated approach to overcome the challenges of lead fraud. Employing real-time validation at the point of lead generation, leveraging metadata validation, and embracing intelligent validation with machine-learning technologies represent a comprehensive strategy to minimize fraudulent traffic, boost conversions, and elevate the performance of lead generation campaigns. By adopting these advanced validation processes, affiliate marketers can not only reduce wasted costs but also optimize the quality of leads delivered to clients, ultimately enhancing overall campaign performance.
