ad Hijacking on Affiliate Program Assignment Paper.

Ad hijackers use techniques like geo-targeting and day parting that make it virtually impossible to find them without the help of an automated paid search monitoring tool.

This is when an affiliate tries to impersonate the brand by running search ads that look identical to the brand’s ads. By using similar headlines, descriptions, and the same display URL, these affiliate hijackers increase the odds that unsuspecting users will click on their ads instead of the brand’s ads. These clicks convert to purchases, which means the affiliate earns 5-10% commission on these purchases. ad Hijacking on Affiliate Program Assignment Paper.In short, these types of affiliates are stealing money in the form of unearned commissions

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 What does ad hijacking look like?

To someone surfing the internet and looking at a Search Engine Results Page, ad hijacking doesn’t look any different from regular advertising. It happens when a rogue affiliate creates a paid search ad that is an exact copy of the ad created by the brand. Customers typically have no idea they have clicked on an affiliate ad, and the affiliate is paid commission for conversions that the brand would have captured directly.

What’s happening behind the ad:

The example above shows how ads are supposed to work. The brand’s ad leads directly to their own site via their own tracking link. The brand pays a few cents per click.ad Hijacking on Affiliate Program Assignment Paper.

This next example shows ad hijacking. The affiliate places an ad that goes immediately through their tracking link to the brand’s site. They therefore are stealing the commission on any subsequent purchase and are increasing the cost-per-click on branded search terms.

In this final and most egregious example of ad hijacking, the affiliate places an ad and masks its referral through a series of redirect urls. The affiliate hijacker not only receives an unearned commission but it is also using evasive techniques to avoid detection. This scenario is particularly damaging to a brand’s affiliate marketing program because it is virtually impossible to find without help of a paid search monitoring tool.

 Why is ad hijacking harmful?

Ad Hijacking has several negative impacts including:

Reduction in brand revenue: Ad hijackers steal clicks, eat into profit margins and gain unearned commissions. Brands lose money when they have to compete with their affiliates for conversions or sales from paid search keywords. Metrics such as impression share and ROI are also affected – the brand’s metrics become skewed and accurate revenue attribution becomes impossible.

Channel conflict: When the affiliate and the brand are advertising on the same keywords, channel conflict ensues. The search engines will only show one advertisement at a time with the same display URL. As a result the affiliate and brand are competing against one another to be on the SERP and increasing the brand’s CPCs. The affiliate is supposed to be bringing new business to the brand, not diverting existing business. ad Hijacking on Affiliate Program Assignment Paper.

Messaging conflict: The affiliate’s ad, which visitors think is the brand’s ad, may not match the brand’s messaging. Outdated offers and off-brand messaging are common. Since the search engines only allow an advertiser’s domain to appear once on a given SERP, affiliate hijackers often replace brands’ ads with their own— taking away the brand’s control of their own message.

 How does a brand know if its ads are being hijacked?

1. Third party services on your site don’t showing any results.

If you’ve installed a third party service like the popular Hello Bar subscription toolbar or a special discount code popup, but aren’t seeing significant results, there’s a good chance CSIM is causing the problem. Your visitors aren’t even seeing the bar or popups because they’re being obstructed by an overlaid, injected ad.

2. Traffic and conversion numbers don’t add up.

Your marketing funnel is healthy and you’re spending good money to bring traffic to your site, but for some reason the conversions just aren’t following. In bigger companies, the issue may be even further clouded by the fact that the CMO who buys the media isn’t properly communicating with the head of ecommerce who is monitoring conversions.ad Hijacking on Affiliate Program Assignment Paper.

You can tweak the funnel, but checking for CSIM should be your first stop. Otherwise you’ll be throwing money into the fire and playing with metrics that may have nothing to do with the real problem.

3. Customer complaints about competitor ads and suspicious surveys.

This may seem obvious but don’t ignore these phone calls and messages. For every one customer whotakes the time to report the issue, there are a hundred more whosimply gave up and took their business elsewhere.

Injust the past six months we’ve seen a 40 percent increase in new malware that injects a fake survey into the website experience. It’s alarmingly effective at getting users off your site.

It doesn’t take much to lose a customer’s interest online. Even if your site merely looks “off,” they’ll simply assume it’s a security issue on your end. Now you’ve lost a customer and brand integrity.

4. Bounce rate rises while conversion rates drop.

High bounce rates can point to a few things, but when coupled with low conversion rates on your checkout page, then Client-Side Malware is very likely the culprit. CSIM can break secure https checkout pages by injecting non-https elements into the page (which is exactly what happened with the Lenovo Superfish scandal recently.) Even a security certificate can’t fully protect you.

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If your site metrics go against common sense, Client-Side Injected Malware may be the root cause. The threat is growing, but smart brands and publishers can stop it before it becomes a costly problem.

 How can you stop affiliate ad hijacking?

The first line of defense against ad hijackers is airtight affiliate agreements. Be sure your agreements clearly state what your brand-bidding policies are and what the consequences are for violating the agreements.

Affiliates who engage in this type of nefarious behavior don’t want to be discovered by the brand. They use tactics like geotargeting and dayparting to avoid detection, making it almost impossible to uncover and stop them. While some of the red flags mentioned above can give an indication of ad hijacking, manual investigative methods are time consuming and error-prone. Automated solutions, like BrandVerity’s paid search monitoring tool, make this impossible task easy.

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