By Molly Petullo, Compliance and Online Security Manager

An affiliate network’s fraud prevention program is a bit like playing on the offensive line in football.  If an offensive lineman is doing his job, you never hear his name mentioned by the announcers.  If you do hear an offensive lineman’s name mentioned a lot during the game, it generally means he’s committing penalties or missing blocks and hurting the offense.

Similarly, if fraud prevention is successful, it tends to go unnoticed – because issues are eliminated before they ever happen.  Just like a great offensive lineman is vital to a football team’s performance, having an effective fraud prevention program is a key to an affiliate network’s long-term success.

On any given day, there are 10’s of millions of clicks on offers running through a large affiliate network like affiliate.com.  It is a huge challenge for a network to monitor and safeguard that kind of volume from fraud and non-compliance.  As an advertiser or affiliate, you have a vested interest in working with networks that are dedicated to compliance and fraud prevention.  As an advertiser, you want to work with networks that will send you the highest quality traffic.  As an affiliate, you want to work with networks that provide quality offers and high payouts.  A strong fraud prevention program goes hand in hand with having quality offers and high payouts.

As you look at joining a new network or talking to your current networks about their fraud prevention efforts, here are just a few practices you should be looking for.

Is it a daily process? Any fraud prevention program will be more successful in identifying potential issues if it utilizes consistent and regular monitoring.  Simply doing spot checks every now and then is an invitation for trouble.

Do they follow the money? There is an obvious financial motive for online marketers that are involved in fraud – that’s why they do it.  Keep a special watch on offers with high payouts, as these can seem like lucrative targets for fraud.  But, don’t ignore the lower payout offers either.

Is someone watching when you sleep? Some perpetrators of fraud will strike when they assume (or at least hope) no one is watching.  Stay vigilant after regular business hours and during holidays.

Do they focus on metrics? Search, email, social media, PPV and every other type of marketing tactic tends to have a fairly consistent performance range for different types of offers.  Knowing what kind of performance is typical will help identify suspicious performance metrics that are outside the norm.

Do they look for over-consistencies? Just as strange spikes in performance metrics can indicate a potential issue, extreme consistency can also be a warning sign.  For example, if a publisher generates two leads on an offer at the same time, day after day, it should raise a flag.

Do they know their affiliates? Affiliates are incredibly innovative and many will test various types of traffic.  However, if an affiliate suddenly changes from doing email to search, talk to the affiliate manager and find out if this is a warning signal or just a creative publisher looking to expand into new markets.

Is it a team effort? Perhaps, the biggest key to a successful fraud prevention effort is its complete integration throughout the organization.  Just hiring a few people for the compliance department and calling it a day won’t get the job done.  Just as a football team needs more than just an offensive line to succeed, the most effective way to detect and prevent fraud is for everyone in the company to pay attention and work together.

Working with networks that follow these guidelines in their fraud prevention programs will help you build your business and avoid many of the pitfalls that can come with fraudulent clicks and leads.

Filed under: Affiliate Tips, Industry News by Tom Wozniak