1. David Naffziger CEO – BrandVerity
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 Owner’s 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

6. Find Brand Extensions https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordTool or

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 competitor’s 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
DataSource
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 Automated
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