Reducing Fraudulent Leads to Ease the Burden on Inside Sales and Improve Working Conditions

— Firstly, could you tell us about your area of responsibility?

Currently, I am responsible for recruiting franchisees for the 'IBJ Federation' marriage counseling agencies operated by IBJ. Our recruitment advertisements are similar to franchise advertising, where the main conversion points (CV) are requests for free informational materials or applications for briefing sessions. After receiving an application, we follow up with potential franchisees via phone or email, provide them with a detailed explanation of our services, and guide them toward joining our network.

— What led you to identify this issue?

At a certain point, our Google Ads P-MAX campaigns started displaying ads on foreign-language and MFA (Made-for-Advertising) sites. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact cause—whether it was due to the rapid increase in MFA sites, changes in Google's algorithm, or the effects of machine learning on CV optimization. We faced limitations in controlling this through offline CV integration or placement exclusions, and to be honest, we were struggling.

We allocate about 60% of our total ad budget to Google Ads and Meta Ads, with P-MAX accounting for around 25% of our Google Ads budget. Since we were investing a significant amount, fraudulent and invalid leads caused various issues.

For instance, our cost per order (CPO) began to worsen, and at one point, we considered completely halting P-MAX. However, while narrowing our options would have increased efficiency, it would have also led to missed opportunities, making the decision difficult.

Improving Efficiency for the Sake of Employees, Not Just Profit

— What made you decide to implement the P-MAX Fraud Detection Service?

Before implementing the P-MAX Fraud Detection Service, there were weeks where we encountered double-digit numbers of fraudulent and invalid leads.

When following up on applications, oftentimes the phone number and email address were incorrect, making it impossible to contact them. In some cases, the registered contact information belonged to someone completely different, leading to awkward interactions. Additionally, though our service targets Japanese-speakers,  we were receiving applications from individuals who did not understand the language. These issues significantly increased the burden and stress on our internal sales team.

This problem isn’t unique to Google—it's a common issue across all digital advertising platforms. Since digital ad platforms adjust based on the data of converted users, machine learning can sometimes create a negative feedback loop. Even if there’s a potentially effective channel, if it gets optimized for invalid leads, it becomes counterproductive.

Given this background, we decided to implement Spider AF’s P-MAX Fraud Detection Service.

— How has your experience been since implementing the P-MAX Fraud Detection Service?

After implementation, the number of fraudulent and invalid leads from P-MAX significantly decreased, reducing the burden on our internal sales team. Financially, this helped prevent hundreds of thousands of yen in ad fraud losses per month. However, more than the cost savings, we found it invaluable that our staff could focus on meaningful work.

Had we only focused on monetary savings, we might not have proceeded with the implementation. The real benefit is reducing futile tasks and interactions, allowing our team to spend time on constructive, fulfilling work. Our decision was made with both efficiency and employee well-being in mind.

For companies like ours that deal with services that are not entirely web-based, ad misplacement can take away valuable time from sales teams. I imagine other companies face similar challenges. If a company is running machine learning-based automated ad campaigns and has experienced this issue, I highly recommend implementing a solution like P-MAX Fraud Detection.

Expecting Spider AF to Address All Forms of Fraud

— What do you expect from Spider AF in the future?

We are highly satisfied with Spider AF’s current functionality. Moving forward, we hope it expands its capabilities to detect and prevent fraudulent conversions before they even occur.

Ad fraud and MFA sites can be created by anyone who wants to. Currently, no laws exist to directly crack down on ad fraud, and ad platforms themselves lack the incentive to enforce strict measures, because fraudulent activity contributes to their revenue. As advertisers, we not only suffer financial losses but also face numerous operational challenges due to degraded machine learning models, making this issue a serious concern.

We would love to see Spider AF evolve into a tool that can detect and prevent fraudulent online activity, helping ads reach the right audience as they should.

— Thank you for your time. We appreciate your insights.

In Conclusion:

As mentioned in IBJ’s interview, ad fraud is not just a numerical issue—it also burdens internal teams. While advertising operations are often considered purely digital, real-world problems frequently arise. Thanks to Spider AF’s extensive experience in analyzing one of Japan’s largest ad data sets, we offer unique solutions to these challenges.

Take advantage of our free diagnostic service for up to one month! Click the link below to try it out:
https://spideraf.com/fake-lead-protection-sign-up