Facts That Brands Need to Know About Brand Safety and Affiliate Marketing Fraud

Affiliate marketing fraud can harm a company’s reputation, raise advertising costs, and result in client chargebacks.

Affiliate marketing has evolved dramatically over the last few decades, far beyond what brands and marketers could have imagined in the past. It has become the most sought-after method of brand promotion, traffic generation, and customer attraction.

Affiliate monitoring tool has methodically evolved as a sophisticated channel supported by intelligent analytics, demonstrating its worth by serving as an omnipresent channel at all customer touchpoints. However, when it comes to brand safety and digital fraud, being everywhere presents its own set of challenges.

As affiliate marketing grows in popularity, so does the likelihood of encountering fraudulent activity, which can harm the brand in various ways. The problem arises when affiliates’ actions are paid for, but real commissions are paid to fraudsters. This drains the marketing budget, jeopardizes a brand’s reputation by involving the wrong affiliates, and harms the overall campaign for a brand.

Every brand must make brand safety a core tenet of its partnership with its affiliates. Customers interact with the brand through partners but ultimately trust the brand. The partner’s incorrect brand positioning (luring customers under the pretext of fake coupons, redirecting them to adult sites, and stealing information) may cause significant damage to the brand.

Any brand’s top priority should be to monitor and prevent fraud, including affiliate fraud. While brands stand to benefit significantly from symbiotic relationships with their strategic partners, watching them should be an ongoing process involving both automated and manual action.

Any affiliate link that directs a consumer to shady domains can put the brand in the wrong light. The brand’s reputation is jeopardized, but there are other consequences, such as excessive spending, due to fraudsters gaming the system and cannibalizing other channel efforts.

In today’s era of social media influencers, brands regard them as valuable affiliate partners. They have no idea that not all influencers are equal or accurate. Influencer fraud occurs when fraudsters inflate their numbers (followers, engagement numbers, etc.) to present themselves as lucrative partners. They frequently charge exorbitant fees for promotional advertisements, but the results are insignificant because their followers aren’t genuine.

To summarise, the only way to prevent Fraud and use Affiliate monitoring tool is to detect and stop it before it causes significant damage. Investing in fraud solutions and Affiliate monitoring tool bridges the gap and generates real-time insights by validating affiliates and removing fraud.