Introduction

BuySell Technologies is a Japanese company operating two main businesses: purchasing and sales. Within Japan, its e-commerce division manages B2C sales across six consumer categories including kimonos, luxury goods, jewelry, watches, cameras, and alcoholic beverages. These online sales channels are focused on the Japanese domestic market, while many other parts of the company operate primarily in B2B.

Shiga oversees BuySell Technologies’ consumer-facing e-commerce operations in Japan. He manages major Japanese marketplaces such as Yahoo! Auctions Japan and Rakuma and has previously handled the company’s own EC site and Yahoo! Shopping store. He continues to support the teams responsible for each channel and places emphasis on accurate platform knowledge, verified responses, and fast coordination across departments.

Although another division had used an ad fraud prevention tool in the past, the EC team had limited visibility into how ad fraud affected their own local channels. A free diagnostic with Spider AF provided clarity and revealed issues that had not been visible in everyday operations.

The Challenge: Little Expectation of Fraud, Strong Evidence of It

Before the trial, Shiga expected minimal fraud. “I didn’t think ad fraud was happening at any significant level,” he says. The diagnostic revealed a different reality.

Spider AF identified several issues:

• Bot clicks influencing ad performance
• Internal employee access affecting reporting
  A higher concentration of invalid clicks on the kimono e-commerce site compared with the jewelry site
• Unnatural traffic patterns that appeared to be generated by third parties

The findings revealed a clear gap between team intuition and factual data.

Why BuySell Technologies Considered Spider AF

BuySell Technologies learned about Spider AF through Faber Company, a provider of SEO and GEO analysis tools in Japan. With the fiscal year ending in December, the timing aligned with their review of ad efficiency. The free trial made it easy to begin assessing the level of invalid traffic affecting their campaigns.

Trial Findings: A One-Month Loss Too Large to Overlook

The team focused first on visualizing their current state. Spider AF helped identify bots, internal access, and other invalid activity.

The financial impact was larger than anticipated. “The loss from invalid clicks in just one month was considerable,” Shiga explains. When projected across an entire year, the projected loss indicated a strong need to take corrective action even after factoring in the cost of the tool.

Why BuySell Technologies Selected Spider AF

Two factors influenced the decision to implement Spider AF.

1. The trial revealed issues that had not been visible before.
2. The projected annual loss was significant enough that it could not be ignored.

Shiga also noted that Spider AF’s explanations and documentation were easy to understand and that the support team responded quickly. “Even when not everyone could attend a meeting, the shared materials were clear enough for everyone to grasp the situation,” he says.

How BuySell Technologies Uses Spider AF

Automatic Detection and Blocking

Spider AF detects and blocks bot-generated clicks, protecting the ad budget and improving the delivery of ads to real users.

Removal of Internal Traffic

Internal browsing and test clicks are removed from reporting, giving the team a clearer view of real customer behavior.

Campaign-Level Automation

Automatic invalidation rules help suppress non-performing placements early and improve the accuracy of performance metrics.

Impact: Cleaner Data and Improved ROAS

With invalid traffic removed, BuySell Technologies saw consistent improvements in ROAS. Budget management also became easier. “It became much simpler to invest only in what works because the data was finally trustworthy,” Shiga explains. As click quality improved, CVR and CPA stabilized, and the team’s PDCA cycle became both faster and more accurate.

Budget Considerations

Even though December is a period of strict cost-performance evaluation, BuySell Technologies decided to proceed with implementation. The trial provided concrete estimates of costs and ROI, which was especially important for the kimono site that relies heavily on advertising for sales.

Who Should Consider Spider AF

Shiga recommends Spider AF for companies that run online advertising without existing ad fraud countermeasures, regardless of budget size. He also recommends it to companies that have increased ad spending but feel that their cost performance has not improved. A diagnostic helps visualize noise, remove invalid clicks, and reallocate spending toward valid traffic.

Looking Ahead: Pricing Strategy and Long-Term Audience Growth

BuySell Technologies plans to continue refining its pricing strategy. When relying only on advertising, it becomes difficult to understand whether results come from promotions or product pricing. To maximize revenue, the company intends to optimize both.

The team also aims to improve recognition among younger audiences in Japan. “They are not our main target today, but we want them to know about our company and services early,” Shiga says. The goal is to become top of mind when this demographic eventually enters their core customer segment.

Continued Use of Spider AF

BuySell Technologies intends to continue using Spider AF in its advertising operations. Shiga believes that removing noise such as invalid clicks has already improved ROAS and strengthened decision-making. He expects further gains by combining cleaner data with a more structured pricing strategy.

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