soundalliance.blog

Driving traffic is a black art and I’ve come across many dirty tricks of the trade over the years.  But a recent scam has emerged that takes the art to a whole new low.  In a digital economy where clicks (plus fans, views & followers) are a lucrative currency, a new breed of organizations has emerged who essentially sell clicks.

Clients are buying them, but they don’t know it.  Their agency partners are using the clients marketing dollars to dress up the results of mediocre campaigns.  The goal is to present a mirage of success to an unwitting client who looks at the numbers and assumes the agency is delivering engaging work.

Here’s how the scam works (based on a recent campaign for a brand that shall remain nameless). Agency X sells Client Y on an idea that involves the agency creating a piece of content.  Agency X puts the content up on a social media platform and within a matter of days the content has been clicked on several thousand times with no media spend.  Agency X hails the campaign a huge success claiming it has gone viral and talking up the number of clicks.

Here’s what really happened: Agency X went to Company Z who sells ‘guaranteed clicks, fans, followers’ for a small fee.  Company Z then buys access to a database of bored housewives and the unemployed who get paid in shopping vouchers and credits to click mindlessly on links. An ultimately valueless exercise for the brand, tantamount to a warehouse full of monkeys sitting at PC’s.

The agency hails the campaign a success claiming that the brand has cut through and engaged its target audience. After all, the clicks never lie!  The harsh reality is something altogether different.  All clicks are not created equal.

What needs to change for this practice to disappear?  Firstly, clients need to be better educated as to the value of engagement over just clicks.  The agency should be evaluated on engagement with the right audience in the right environment.

Secondly, agencies that support this practice need to lift their game and take a long hard look at themselves.  If I was a client and I knew one of my trusted agency partners was doing this, I’d be asking some serious questions about that agencies intentions.  Hopefully some clients read this and start asking the right questions of their agency partners.

Lastly, the industry needs to look at metrics beyond clicks to demonstrate the value of online. In the real example I gave, there was a huge artificial spike and then a drop off in views which is the red flag that something fishy is going on.  Where’s the momentum?

The interest level in the content is well below average, another clear signal that viewers are clicking then closing the video without watching it, resulting in low interest and engagement.

Sure, there were clicks, but how valuable were they?  I’d argue it delivers negative value.  Paying people to click on content actually gives the paid viewer the impression it is less than worthless. Not even good enough to be free!

One Response to “All clicks are not created equal!”

1. Tweets that mention All clicks are not created equal! « Sound Alliance Blog -- Topsy.com says:

   December 10, 2009 at 5:39 pm

   [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by NeilAckland and Ben Shepherd, Digital Surf Media. Digital Surf Media said: Eposing digital media scam of buying clicks, fans, followers – All clicks are not created equal http://bit.ly/74SRh1 RT @NeilAckland [...]