Best practices for SMS carriers
Black Friday for SMS Aggregators
Skyward offers insights and solutions to help you successfully prepare for the major marketing season
Black Friday is the peak season for SMS marketing services, where businesses heavily use SMS aggregators to send promotional messages for their Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales. This includes large promotional campaigns characterized by bulk traffic to maximize sales, with messages offering early access, flash sales, and special deals for a significant number of subscribers. During BFCM there is a great demand for A2P services and a huge spike in message volume, creating serious challenges for SMS operators.
Main challenges SMS aggregators face
- Limited throughput and system instability:
Large promotional campaigns during this season would mean a tenfold increase in traffic volume. If several clients send their high-volume campaigns simultaneously, limited throughput would lead to service disruptions, traffic loss, and even server outages. Moreover, possible DDoS attacks place a significant load on the aggregator's switch, which can result in extended network downtime.
- Inefficient routing:
Sending peak campaigns simultaneously without dividing messages into specific types would result in channel congestion. Likewise, vendor channels have their own maximum throughput, which could be a serious obstacle. As a result, message buffering can occur, with critical communications delayed by lower-priority traffic or even lost due to system malfunctions compromising the reliability of the entire system.
- Fraud risk:
Different types of fraud traffic may blend in with the heavy flow of messages. AIT and unsolicited traffic will create additional strain on already overloaded channels. Phishing messages will try to reveal personal data about subscribers. Delivering such messages and false positive blocks of legitimate traffic seriously harms the aggregator’s, partner’s, and brand’s reputations.
- High load on NOC service:
In preparation for marketing campaigns, many operators begin accumulating new traffic and testing routes, directly increasing the volume of support requests and the load on the NOC service. Errors from the NOC team become increasingly costly. Incorrect or outdated request handling can cause clients to switch their traffic to more reliable operators.
How do SMS aggregators prepare?
- Ensuring the necessary system throughput and server capacity:
To prepare, some companies allocate additional equipment or server capacity to increase system capabilities, while others coordinate peak campaigns with major clients in advance. It is also necessary to implement a comprehensive health system that monitors traffic and system performance continuously, allowing for prompt responses to issues such as unexpected load spikes or DDoS attacks and preserving system stability.
- Establishing an optimized and reliable routing:
Working with vendors includes preliminary testing and scaling of their throughput capacity. It is equally important to optimize the use of different channel types for various traffic types, like critical and time-sensitive OTPs and less time-demanding transactional and marketing traffic. Technical optimizations like faster SID registration, whitelist updates and adding backup vendors are essential.
- Implementing fraud protection:
SMS firewalls and other anti-fraud solutions greatly improve the security and efficiency of the channels by blocking unsolicited traffic while maximizing margin for providers. Additionally, traffic monitoring plays a critical role in early fraud detection, allowing for quick identification and blocking of fraudulent traffic based on quality indicators across specific directions.
- Traffic accumulation:
To get the most out of marketing campaigns during this season, SMS aggregators try to expand coverage by introducing new channels, resolving clients’ issues that led to traffic removal and attracting new clients and partners. Some companies implement Rich Communication Services (RCS) to increase the margin and accumulate even more traffic.
What solutions does Skyward provide?
- NOC Service
Our NOC team is always prepared well in advance for busy marketing seasons like Black Friday. We conduct an inspection of client infrastructure to identify possible issues and implement tools and improvements that enhance infrastructure stability. By operating 24/7, we can quickly detect and resolve any issues – from emergency routing changes for specific clients to system recovery after unexpected outages. Our processes have not only been verified over the years, but we have also automated a significant portion of our operations by implementing both third-party products and our own solutions. Learn more...
- Monitoring System
Our monitoring system is a comprehensive solution that proactively detects instability within the whole traffic flow. The real-time analysis of all switch components and server resources: CPU load, RAM usage, and availability of switch modules, gateways, and other operator equipment provides complete visibility into the health of the entire platform and the quality of incoming traffic. Additionally, dashboards configured to each client's needs visualize system performance, and dedicated NOC engineers constantly study monitoring alerts, preventing future issues. Learn more...
- Skyward SMS Antifraud (SSA)
Our anti-fraud system safeguards SMS routes by instantly analyzing messages and automatically blocking any suspicious traffic, avoiding clogging of channels. It offers flexible configuration options that can be applied to individual routes or traffic types. By proactively stopping fraudulent activity, we not only protect our clients' reputations but also turn this unsolicited traffic into a source of 100% margin. Learn more...
- Skyward Traffic Typifier (STT)
Our solution gives aggregators message-level control of the traffic flow, greatly increasing margin and operational efficiency. The prioritization of time-sensitive and high-value traffic like OTPs or transaction alerts prevents them from being delayed or lost within the massive avalanche of marketing messages. When combined with alternative channels like over-the-top routes or RCS, it helps prevent message buffering. Together, these capabilities guarantee that essential communications are delivered timely, even during peak load periods. Learn more...
Black Friday is a critical period for SMS aggregators, marked by extraordinary traffic volumes and heightened operational demands. Successfully preparing for the challenges months before the actual marketing seasons is essential not only to maintain seamless message delivery but also to protect aggregators' reputations and maximize revenue. Our NOC service, together with our products tailored for SMS aggregators, plays a vital role in this process by carrying out full preparation, ensuring robust system performance, and providing constant monitoring. Together, these solutions empower SMS aggregators to meet the rigorous demands of the season confidently and efficiently, turning potential obstacles into opportunities for growth and reliability.
Skyward SMS Antifraud (SSA)
Skyward SMS Antifraud (SSA) is a cloud-based solution that helps A2P SMS providers protect their valuable routes by checking all SMS messages instantly and automatically blocking any suspicious traffic.
Artificial Traffic Detector (ATD)
Artificial Traffic Detector (ATD) is a solution designed to identify and block SMS AIT fraud, preventing its spread. By analyzing statistical data and traffic flow patterns, ATD quickly detects suspicious activity and stops fraudulent campaigns.
Learn about our solutions
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