How To Detect Affiliate Marketing Fraud

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Affiliate ID Tracking

Implementing affiliate ID tracking across your partner sites gives you a detailed view of each affiliate’s performance. This granular tracking enables you to monitor individual metrics and spot potential signs of fraud. Key questions to analyze include:

• Traffic quality: Is the traffic engaging with the site as desired or per usual? 
• Conversion behavior: Are conversions down or lower value?
• User attributes: Are IP address locations and devices consistent with expectations?

This will typically involve affiliate management software and a constantly updating database. Having clear terms of service and open lines of communication with affiliates helps in setting this tracking up. Established affiliate programs will often have affiliate ID tracking as a feature of their platform. 

Affiliate Program Tools

Affiliate programs will include a base level of fraud detection as part of participating. Part of the value they add in connecting and managing affiliates is the initial vetting and anti-fraud tools they offer businesses. Software is made available and integrated into the platform to do basic fraud detection like:

• Basic traffic monitoring: Automated reports flag fraudulent affiliate behavior 
• Cookie tracking: Regularly auditing cookies helps identify manipulation 
• User data reporting: Information on users to confirm their value to the campaign 
• Conversion validation: Lead, sale and install verification before commissions are paid

These tools will identify the more obvious forms of affiliate fraud but will fall short in uncovering advanced techniques. For that, there are ad fraud tools dedicated to performance marketing with more robust and sophisticated features targeting the latest affiliate scams. 

Traffic Trend Analysis

Spotting affiliate fraud through traffic analytics starts with understanding your normal performance patterns. If a campaign performs too well or poorly compared to baseline user data, it may be a sign of fraud or worth investigating further.

Before onboarding new affiliates, establish your baseline metrics and understand their typical ranges. Watch for these warning signs:

• Traffic surges: While promotions boost traffic, unexpected spikes from a single affiliate need investigation
• Engagement metrics: High bounce rates or brief visit times often reveal click fraud
• Commission patterns: Unusually high or low conversion rates compared to other affiliates may indicate fake leads or bot traffic
• Traffic sources: A sudden influx of visitors from unexpected regions suggests affiliate fraud

Set up automated tracking with baseline data before launching affiliate partnerships to catch suspicious activity early.

Device Fingerprinting

Device fingerprinting helps identify fraudulent affiliate traffic by comparing visitor devices against known legitimate patterns. Instead of checking IP addresses, this method creates detailed profiles of devices accessing your affiliate links. Suspicious indicators include:

• Software signatures: Multiple or mismatched browser or software identifiers from the same device often signal affiliate click fraud 
• Multiple identities: A single device generating traffic under multiple user accounts or IP addresses suggests commission fraud 
• Technical specs: Unusual patterns in device characteristics (battery, screen settings, orientation) compared to genuine customers 
• Proxy detection: VPN, Tor or data center proxies are almost always used by fraudsters to mask their location

Devices flagged for matching fraudulent criteria can be dealt with by blocking the associated IP addresses, segmenting the traffic or blocking the device from your network. 

User Behavior Analytics

By studying user-level patterns of visitors you can catch suspicious behavior reviews of aggregate data might miss. If fraud is suspected through traffic analytics or device fingerprinting, evaluating individual users informs the type of fraud occurring and how to prevent it. Watch for these red flags:

• Navigation patterns: Fraudulent affiliates often use bots with unnaturally regular or random clicking, scrolling, and mouse movements
• Site interaction: Legitimate customers show natural browsing and typing patterns – suspicious visitors might rush through pages or linger unnaturally 
• Conversion actions: Watch for unusual patterns like multiple form submissions or strange search terms from the same referral 
• Access patterns: Frequent logins from various locations or devices under the same affiliate link deserve investigation

Monitoring individual user behavior helps verify the quality of your affiliate traffic and protect your program from fraudulent commissions. 

Use Real-Time Detection

Traffic, device and user analytics are great at detecting fraud after it’s happened – conversion rates have dived, bot traffic is apparent, etc. By monitoring affiliate performance in real-time you can identify suspicious patterns before they impact your campaign. This will involve partnering with an affiliate fraud prevention API that integrates with your network. Look for companies with the most comprehensive fraud coverage and an easy-to-integrate API system.

At Fraudlogix, we fight ad fraud in all its forms. We develop custom fraud prevention solutions for the unique needs of each of our clients. Sign up now for a free test or contact us to let us know how we can help you detect ad fraud. Keep ad fraud from hurting your affiliate marketing campaigns with affiliate ad fraud detection solutions from Fraudlogix.