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Artificial Traffic? (14)

08-26-2015 04:52 AM #1 red_serpent (Member)
Artificial Traffic?

Hi,

I've got a problem with one affiliate network.

After driving couple of months traffic to one of their program with Trafficvance, 50onRed and Lead Impact, I've got a mail yesterday.

It was about my traffic quality which was labeled as poor. (PPV is hi vol/low conversion in general, so I guess it's then poor.)

The offer is PPS not CPA, so sales only.

Only program restrictions were about PPC + it's an Adult category offer.

This is what they accuse me:

"Our terms and conditions which covers all Merchants and is agreed to when you joined our
network covers "Artificial Traffic", as follows.

"The Affiliate must not in any way generate or contribute to generating Artificial
Traffic to Linked Websites. The Affiliate should not use any means of artificial traffic
to gain sales commission, this includes the use of software or products that alter fellow
Affiliates link codes or intercept click through traffic from the affiliate to the
merchant's site."

Haven't used PPV for long, so is it that kind of traffic described below?

I did google search for "artificial traffic" and 50 first hits didn't include anything about PPV or "pay per view".

So have I sent them artificial traffic or not?

At the moment I'm pretty fucking pissed. Why wait two month while I generate +15K revenue to these fuckers and then start whining.

08-26-2015 07:45 AM #2 vikramsinghamit (Member)

Yes some network(CPS) consider PPV as artificial traffic, I knew someone in past got same kind of email saying traffic is synthetic traffic and not got paid.

Thanks

08-26-2015 08:19 AM #3 dynamicsoul (Member)

Maybe they've begun getting charge backs etc from your traffic, and it's taken a couple of month to decide on the quality of it? If it's a straight sale.

08-26-2015 08:52 AM #4 cbrughmans (Member)

Ask them for a detailed report, specifying per sale what the exact reason of disapproval is. PPV normally is OK-quality and especially for a campaign where the user has to purchase something (Sale).

08-26-2015 09:08 AM #5 conquer (Member)

Here's a definition I found on Tradedoubler

"Artificial Traffic" - is a collective term for invalid Clicks, Leads and Transactions, which may originate (for example and without limitation) from automatic openings, spiders, robots, requests in e-mail or chat rooms, script generators, placing links on other websites than informed and Clicks which are not generated by a browser, Clicks which are not preceded by an active act of a Visitor who wants to reach a certain website.
Seems like they simply don't allow pop traffic.

08-26-2015 09:24 AM #6 red_serpent (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by dynamicsoul View Post
Maybe they've begun getting charge backs etc from your traffic, and it's taken a couple of month to decide on the quality of it? If it's a straight sale.
Sales are validated so the traffic is good.

08-26-2015 09:28 AM #7 red_serpent (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by conquer View Post
Here's a definition I found on Tradedoubler

"Artificial Traffic" - is a collective term for invalid Clicks, Leads and Transactions, which may originate (for example and without limitation) from automatic openings, spiders, robots, requests in e-mail or chat rooms, script generators, placing links on other websites than informed and Clicks which are not generated by a browser, Clicks which are not preceded by an active act of a Visitor who wants to reach a certain website.

Seems like they simply don't allow pop traffic.
It's easy to understand from that the TD doesn't allow POP-traffic.

From this not so much:

""The Affiliate must not in any way generate or contribute to generating Artificial
Traffic to Linked Websites. The Affiliate should not use any means of artificial traffic
to gain sales commission, this includes the use of software or products that alter fellow
Affiliates link codes or intercept click through traffic from the affiliate to the
merchant's site."

Especially when it's buried somewhere in their TOS, and program terms are all about PPC.

The last thing is that the niche is adult-related. Usually there's a lot more leverage for promotion.

EDIT: The July sales were validated by merchant almost month ago.

08-26-2015 11:32 AM #8 johner911 (Member)

It makes sense to ban the popunder - direct linked traffic for an affiliate network, especially on very low paying offers. Its not uncommon for the tracking fees to exceed the value of the offer conversion.

To give you a crude example:

Lets take this into consideration:
street offer payout 0,5$
network payout (from advertiser) 1$ (30% + 0,5$ + some room for custom deals to big affiliates)

popunder conversion (direct linked): 1:5000

tracking cost: (http://www.hasoffers.com/compare-features/)
$0.80 / 1,000 clicks

cost of tracking per 1 conversion is:
0,8 x 5 = 4$
Lets say the network gets a huge discount.. 90% discount, cost of tracking is 0,4$

1$ (payout from advertiser) - 0,4$ tracking cost + 0,5$ payout to street = 0,1$ ad network profit..

Hence some ad networks prohibit popunders or "Clicks which are not preceded by an active act of a Visitor who wants to reach a certain website"
Tracking cost is too great.

08-26-2015 02:44 PM #9 red_serpent (Member)

I totally agree.

Affiliate network should / and do have 100% control on what type of traffic they accept and don't accept.

It just so fucking easy clearly to include that to the program terms, like for Peerfly example, not start bitching about it when it's payment time.

Fuck those kind of shit networks.

Sorry about language, I'm feeling a bit SMad.

08-26-2015 03:25 PM #10 vikramsinghamit (Member)

There is a reason these networks (For eg AffiliateWindow, TradeDoubler, ShareASale, CJ..etc) don't like PPV traffic because of self targeting issue and they actively monitor for that, now some networks are ok with this traffic if u are not self targeting. I am not sure If they (TD) accept Pop traffic or not as Pop Traffic is not always adware traffic but adware traffic is always Pop traffic, and these networks hate adware traffic like anything as it is very easy to highjack cookies through adware traffic.

Thanks

08-26-2015 03:33 PM #11 red_serpent (Member)

This is not about tradedoubler. I haven't named the network in case here. Just to make this clear. Thanks for the input.

08-26-2015 03:44 PM #12 vikramsinghamit (Member)

Thanks for clarification, But I have seen almost top 13 (US and Europe) networks in CPS model not paying people or banning them because of PPV traffic, as I said earlier highjacking cookies is cakewalk. But still I see guys making money by remaining under radar and doing some pretty good cover Up. (Note: I am not assuming ur doing smthing like highjacking cookies, I am just sharing what have seen in last 1 year.)

Thanks

08-26-2015 05:58 PM #13 cbrughmans (Member)

Hi Johner911,

This is indeed the exact reason some networks prohibit pops and it makes sense as they need to pay hasoffers, cake or Voluum based on the clicks they are getting in (on a pop every impression counts as a click because the landing page gets loaded).

But in the case of TD this argument doesnt hold as they have their own tracking software and hence dont have to pay these fees.

TD doesnt prohibit pops per se, its traffic restrictions differ from campaign to campaign so its always good to read the campaign conditions thoroughly.

Also, in order to avoid problems down the road, I'd always double check with the AM whether pops or PPV is allowed on that specific campaign (even if the campaign T&Cs dont mention anything about it). Good agreements make good friends - so its better to get things crystal clear & on paper before you start generating traffic.

Quote Originally Posted by johner911 View Post
It makes sense to ban the popunder - direct linked traffic for an affiliate network, especially on very low paying offers. Its not uncommon for the tracking fees to exceed the value of the offer conversion.

To give you a crude example:

Lets take this into consideration:
street offer payout 0,5$
network payout (from advertiser) 1$ (30% + 0,5$ + some room for custom deals to big affiliates)

popunder conversion (direct linked): 1:5000

tracking cost: (http://www.hasoffers.com/compare-features/)
$0.80 / 1,000 clicks

cost of tracking per 1 conversion is:
0,8 x 5 = 4$
Lets say the network gets a huge discount.. 90% discount, cost of tracking is 0,4$

1$ (payout from advertiser) - 0,4$ tracking cost + 0,5$ payout to street = 0,1$ ad network profit..

Hence some ad networks prohibit popunders or "Clicks which are not preceded by an active act of a Visitor who wants to reach a certain website"
Tracking cost is too great.

08-27-2015 01:47 AM #14 red_serpent (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by cbrughmans View Post
Also, in order to avoid problems down the road, I'd always double check with the AM whether pops or PPV is allowed on that specific campaign (even if the campaign T&Cs dont mention anything about it). Good agreements make good friends - so its better to get things crystal clear & on paper before you start generating traffic.
Agreed. Normally this is what I do, from now on will always do.

The reason for not double checking this time was that the network sucks big time when it comes to communication.

The second reason was that the offer is adult like I said before, usually pops are ok.

Very hard to get in touch with them. Now have waited two days their reply.

Only reason to work with them in the first place was this offer. Only runs there in this particular GEO.

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