Detecting affiliate fraud detection is crucial for eCommerce businesses. This is because rogue affiliates can damage your brand and reputation by using fraudulent marketing tactics to generate sales.

To prevent fraud, the first step is to clearly communicate your terms and conditions to affiliates in writing and make sure they understand that breaking these rules could result in penalties. You should also take steps to protect your company’s data, for example encrypting it or using an affiliate marketing tool that can detect suspicious behavior and activity typically associated with fraud.

Fraudulent affiliates often use spam to drive traffic. These include bots, cookie stuffing and URL hijacking, which can result in massive spikes in conversion, but will eventually lead to significant revenue loss, disputes and chargebacks.

How to Protect Your Business from Malicious Affiliates and Optimize Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy

Bad affiliates are one of the quickest ways to ruin your business. The best way to avoid them is by ensuring that you only work with people who have a proven track record in the affiliate industry.

The second step is to monitor the KPIs of your affiliate partners, which will alert you to any odd behaviour. This is particularly difficult if you are simply signing up to an existing affiliate network, so it’s important to create your own program and build a strong relationship with your affiliates.

A strong affiliate fraud detection solution can help you identify affiliate fraud in real time. The right tool will detect abnormal activity such as low engagement rates, high click through rates and a sudden surge in traffic from a single IP address.