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Got banned from a traffic source. Why would my links go to adult offers? (19)

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I just got banned from a traffic source because apparently my links are giving them adult pages, and I'm not sure why.

One of my affiliate networks (Avazu) redirects to different offers for wrong geos. Some of them are adult offers, so I created a rule in Voluum stating: If someone comes from the wrong geo, then they will be redirected to a custom landing page (I just used the google play home page). I talked with someone at Voluum and I did this all correctly.

Is there any other reason the traffic source would find adult pages?

I should also say that I personally checked all of these offers with a vpn on my Android in the correct geos, and found the correct pages, yet the traffic source still says they're finding adult content.

Am I missing something here?

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How exactly did you set the rule?

If (GEO) is (desired county) = Redirect to offer?

Or

if (GEO) is not (desired country) = Redirect somewhere else?

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I did set up fallback redirection in the avazu offers page and this way it works.
Moreover talk/email to your traffic source rep and explain the issue.

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I did: If (Geo) is not (same as campaign) = redirect somewhere else

I'll try the fallback redirection with Avazu, thanks.

I'm curious, did you try creating the rule through Voluum and have the same issues as me, and then change to doing it through Avazu and see an improvement?

I've actually talked to the traffic source numerous times and explained what happened, but they keep on getting the adult pages, and now they're saying they'll refund my balance and I can't come back. I'll keep trying though.

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when i was alerted by the traffic source about that issue, I contacted immediately my aff man and then set up fallback there.

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Did you ask them to show you exactly how they are getting the adult pages?

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No I did not. I figured they would be doing it correctly because they do approvals all day. Do you think I should have asked them exactly how they were finding the adult pages? If so, why?


Also, would an accurate way for me to check if a mobile Android app install offer page is working to simply go on a VPN to the desired geo on my Android and click the Voluum link? This is what I've been doing for all of my campaigns and I've gotten all the links to go to the correct pages. I always figured this would be the best way to do it. Also I make sure all of my tracking links & parameters are going through correctly using Chrome dev tools, the same way Zeno did in his guide.

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Well if you think you have everything set up correctly and yet they are still claiming they are getting redirected to adult pages, why not ask them to show you how how/where they are seeing this? Then you can figure out the problem.

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That's pretty aggressive they'd send your geo redirect to adult stuff.

Just saying!

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It's possible they actually don't do that...at least on purpose...idk. It doesn't really make sense to me why an aff network would do that. It would probably cause more harm than good for them.

I want to be clear that I wasn't trying to bash anyone in this post, not Avazu, not Voluum, or my traffic source (that's why I didn't name the source). I'm simply trying to figure out what could have happened here and both places have been helpful.

With my traffic source, apparently about 6 out of the 10 campaigns I submitted came back with adult content/aggressive antivirus pages at one point or another. I never created ANY adult pages/aggressive antivirus pages or sent my links to any. I also checked my links MULTIPLE times...like 50 total. But for some reason, they'd click on my links and they'd be sent to these places...apparently a lot.

Even IF my aff network sent geo redirects to adult offers, looking at my clicks on Voluum for one of the campaigns that was apparently rendering adult content according to the traffic source (and actually, this offer is on ANOTHER aff network (not Avazu)), the people from the traffic source only clicked on the link TWICE. One click from India, one from Poland. Don't you think they would have checked it out more than once or twice, even if they DID find adult content? Also, they had previously accepted this campaign, then after I sent ~800 clicks to it and paused it, they decided it was adult content.

What if they simply have too many advertisers who aren't yet profitable like me, and they're trying to get rid of us? Or maybe there's another reason? Or maybe I just suck at tracking?

I've literally watched zeno's tracking vid 10 times and basically have it memorized now. I've also talked with voluum and confirmed I'm doing the rule correctly. I'm definitely not an expert, but I'm also not just randomly clicking the mouse on voluum, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

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Hey just want to drop by and say I'm running through the exact problem You are and I'm here for answers. Got my account suspended on decisive for a redirect to another landing page I had nothing to do with. I'm a newbie affiliate as well

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Got some campaigns rejected on decisive too, for the same reason! It was direct linked campaign to google store

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Hey so I've had a few people contact me and tell me the same thing happened to them, so I'll write here what I've found out about possible solutions to the problem.

Some affiliate networks will redirect wrong geos, caps etc. to adult offers, which is unfortunate for us, because it can cause traffic sources to be wary of us and wonder if we're being dishonest with them when they find adult redirects. At worst, the TS will ban you, which is what happened to me. Apparently one of my redirects was so bad that the exchange my TS works with suspended all of the TS's traffic for a few hours one day (lol, sry guys).

What you can do to combat this problem:

1. (This didn't solve the entire problem for me) If you're using Voluum, create a rule that makes all wrong-geo traffic go to your own custom landing page.

2. (This may have solved things for me) Create custom fallback links through your actual affiliate network. I don't know if this is feasible through Cake, but when using Avazu, scroll down on the offer page, hit "fallback settings", and change all categories (server downtime, wrong geo, campaign pause, budget cap) to what you want. However, apparently the "blank page" custom landing page doesn't work and will still send them to offers, so don't choose it. Just choose a comparable offer to yours that doesn't have anything to do with big black dicks.

3. (This may be the most effective way) Talk to your AM and ask if he/she can turn off redirects altogether for you. I'm pretty sure this will make a bad click simply go to a blank page, and there will be no risk of a "You have 424 viruses" or an adult page page popping up.

4. Before you submit a link to a traffic source, get in contact with them and let them know exactly where the links will go and what will happen if they click from a wrong geo. It's easier for everyone and looks better on you in case something bad DOES happen. You'll be held much less accountable if you communicate with them first. I didn't do this with ALL of my offers, however I was more upfront than average, and I think this is a huge reason why I just got unbanned. I was happy to communicate about the issues and resolve them before anything horrible happened making me look guilty. Also they saw this thread and realized I was just a noob, not a cloaking genius, which made them want to figure it out with me.

More experienced people, feel free to add anything to this.

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Why do these re-directs to bad adult/virus offers happen in the first place? How come they're only happening now? I've never seen this problem come up until you posted a thread about it on STM.

My AM hasn't communicated with me at all throughout this process, I don't know where he is, so i'm looking for a different ad network atm. I told him to switch off redirects and he hasn't gotten back to me yet.

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Note sure if this will solve your problem but maybe you can try reversing the rules in Voluum.

This is how I do it:

By default I have ALL traffic go to some clean page (e.g. google play store).

Then set up a rule to only have the correct geo forward to the offer.

And with the issues you're facing you could maybe also add Device Type etc.. in that rule.

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Good to hear that you resolved the problem.

My guess would be that Voluum uses a different DB for GEO redirects than your affiliate network, so Voluum thought the user actually came from the desired country, but your affiliate network didn't and redirected to the fallback.

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In these cases it's best to contact ( a call works best ) the traffic source and explain what happened.

Also on the other hand get in touch with Avazu and ask them to remove all adult redirects from your account.

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I’ve run into the Avazu issue myself now as well.

The traffic source showed me how they reached the adult content.

It was an Android offer but they were also verifying URLs through iOS and Avazu sends such traffic to a porn apk download because yes, that makes a lot of sense on iOS (sarcasm).

So from now on I’ll be adding geo + device type + OS in my Voluum rules.

Didn’t hear back yet from Avazu on disabling the redirect across accounts.

If this persists, we could submit these offers on Avazu mDSP so they get confronted with the problem firsthand.
Anything to protect the innocent 4 year olds playing Talking Tom.

edit: Avazu confirmed they switched off the redirects

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Yeah I just don't understand how adult redirects would be beneficial. Maybe they'll get the occasional conversion out of it, but it can fuck up relationships for the affiliate.

I also have my redirects totally switched off for now and it's doing the trick. In the future if I have a big campaign with Avazu, I'll put them back on so I can redirect to backup offers, but it's not worth it right now.

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