Affiliate fraud is a major issue for anyone involved in online advertising. These scams can range from simple buying fake traffic to more complicated schemes involving bots and other types of digital trickery. Companies should invest in affiliate fraud detection and prevention to combat such fraud. This guide details everything you need to know about ad fraud!
Major Issue for Online Advertising
Affiliate fraud is a major issue for anyone involved in online advertising. Fraudulent affiliate marketing practices can cost advertisers millions of dollars each year, while publishers and affiliates can lose commissions due to fraudulent business partners.
Advertisers should be aware of common forms of affiliate fraud so they can take steps to protect themselves, their companies, and their customers from falling victim to dishonest merchants.
Influencer Engagement Rate Examination
As you look at the engagement rates of the influencers you work with, keep in mind that they’re not all created equal. Sometimes, a low percentage can be a sign of fraud.
For example, if an influencer only has 1,000 followers, but their average engagement rate is 50 per cent (meaning half their followers interact with their posts or videos often), then it’s probably legitimate. In contrast, if an influencer has 100 million followers and an engagement rate of 0 per cent (meaning none of them interacts with anything), then it might be fraudulent activity.
Bot Traffic Concerns
You’ve probably heard of bot traffic before. It’s one of the most common forms of ad fraud and is often used to manipulate ad results by inflating impression counts or page views. This can be done with any number of nefarious methods, but the result is that you may be paying for ads that never even get seen by actual humans. To combat this problem, you need to understand how bots work so you know what to look out for when it comes time to set up your campaigns.
Data Transparency
Sharing data with partners is a great way to ensure your company can thrive and grow. When you share information with third parties, advertisers and other agencies, you’re helping them make informed decisions about how they want to market themselves by using the information you provide them. This will help you build strong relationships with these companies, which means that people will be more likely to trust your brand when looking for a product or service like yours.
If sharing data sounds like something that would benefit your company in the long run but isn’t sure how it works or how much work goes into it, we’ve got some tips on how best to go about doing so!
There are several things you can do to make sure you’re not the victim of affiliate fraud:
Be smart about affiliate fraud detection when running ads.
- Check out influencer engagement rates. It’s essential to know how engaged a given influencer is with their audience to make sure they’re not just buying fake followers. If their rate looks suspiciously high, it might be worth looking into other influencers with similar demographics and interests.
- Don’t trust bot traffic. Bot traffic can be used as an indicator that someone may be trying to trick you into thinking there’s more demand for your product than there is—and thus more likely to pay upfront for ads on your site or app. This means that if an ad campaign has unusually high levels of bot traffic, it may be time to reconsider whether or not running those ads is worth it!
- Share data with partners who are also committed to preventing fraud within the industry – if everyone on the team works together toward this goal, we’ll see fewer scammers trying to prey on unsuspecting sites/apps like yours!
