Affiliate marketing is all about two problems: where to get traffic and how to avoid shaves. Imagine the following situation: you have discovered a perfect combination, set up an advertising campaign, and started driving traffic, but only half of it was credited to you, or even less. The manager can give you any reason, ascribing to you either the violation of the rules mentioned in the affiliate program terms or saying the banal you have not examined the conditions of the offer. If you hear such excuses, you are most likely facing a case of shaving. How to avoid being scammed? Let's talk about it. In this article, we have it sorted out step by step. What is shaving in arbitrage? What are the dangers of shaving? How to recognize shaving and what to do with it? Answering now.
What Is Shaving
In traffic arbitrage, a situation where an affiliate or advertiser deliberately does not report a certain number of conversions or traffic to the webmaster is called shaving. Some corrupt networks cut off part of the money from conversions and keep it for themselves.
This is what it looks like. The affiliate receives order confirmation from the client, but in the affiliate network, this lead suddenly receives the status canceled or unconfirmed. The reason for canceling the order remains unknown, and the affiliate program takes the money for the lead.
Who Does the Shaving
Normally, the ones who are involved in shaving schemes are young affiliates and new advertisers. They save their money on payments to affiliates and thereby increase their income.
In CPA networks, shaving is a rare occasion because, for an affiliate network, dishonest schemes are tantamount to suicide. Affiliates quickly
crack the scheme and figure out the deception, inform their colleagues about it, and go to their competitors. Actually, it works both ways: advertisers tend to stay away from the con as well.
Signs You Cannot Ignore
It's not that hard to comprehend whether you are being shaved. It's enough to keep an eye on the statistics and check fluctuations you might occasionally spot in your metrics and indicators. You can find potential shaving signs below.
- A sharp approval rate decrease. If your approval rate was 80% for three months straight, and you suddenly see it fall to 30%, the situation may not be clear. However, you should not be in a hurry and accuse the network immediately: such fluctuations, even sudden and significant, do not always indicate shaving. Sometimes it is caused by your actions: for example, you changed your target settings, or your new creatives have not reached your audience. Therefore, you must clarify if the problem is not on your side. To do this, analyze your campaigns and collect as much data as possible.
- Decrease in offer indicators. Typically, offers are launched in several CPA networks at once to attract more enthusiastic affiliates. If you see a sharp decrease in the conversion of an offer, check its indicators in other CPA networks. If everything is fine, and only yours is surging to and fro, the verdict is clear. The shaving's being done.
- The statistics of the affiliate program and third-party tracking do not match. Those who use third-party resources to track traffic can compare its statistics with those available in the affiliate program. If your statistics in the tracker are higher than the indicators in the CPA networks, you know why. Shaving.
- The quality of traffic has become worse. This metric is only suitable for affiliate marketers who use their own traffic sources. For example, you placed a banner ad on your own website. On average, you enjoyed a solid 600 clicks and 15 conversions. Suddenly, you spot 300 instead of 600. The deception is obvious.
- If your conversions remain at the same level but the number of leads decreases, the shaving on the affiliate program's part slaps you in the face.
There are a few recommendations for affiliates who have not yet worked with an affiliate program and want to find out if it is notorious for shaving.
Scrutinize the reviews. Sounds corny, right. A crass recommendation that can eventually save you time and money. Comb through forums, groups on social networks, and review sites. If you cannot find the answer to the questions you're asking, open a new discussion with other affiliates.
Make a test order. See if your affiliate program confirms it for you or not.
Check for a double redirect. Sometimes, affiliate programs cut off leads, explaining that these leads do not pertain to the chosen GEO. Therefore, before you start working, look at the landing page of the offer. If there is a double redirect, clarify the reasons with the affiliate manager or even choose another platform.
Shaving Methods
We are speaking about frauds and deceptions in this article, however, traffic may be cut off inadvertently. Thus, shaving is traditionally divided into two groups.
Deliberate Shaving
Deliberate shaving implies that the affiliate program deliberately, intentionally, knowingly and willfully deceives the webmasters working with it. Deliberate shaving is common in the following situations:
The affiliate program does not register received leads. In this case, a customer fills out a purchase order, but this customer is not included in the statistics. As a result, the advertiser gets a client, the affiliate program gets money for him, and the webmaster receives a good, fat nothing.
The affiliate program cancels a conversion without explanation. The webmaster is simply informed that the client did not complete the target action, and the conversion is rejected.
The affiliate program accuses you of fraud. This is the time when the affiliate program rejects some or even all leads, alleging that all the traffic you provide is highly fraudulent.
The affiliate program complains that the requirements of the offer have been violated. For example, a webmaster may be told that the leads they provide are not coming from the GEO specified in the promotion conditions.
The affiliate program bans your account. If you did not violate any rules, and the penalty you got cannot be justified, this may be a shaving technique. With the blocked account, the webmaster cannot receive payouts.
The affiliate program changes the terms of the offer. CPA networks can alter the terms of the offer agreement unilaterally. Dishonest companies use this loophole to revise the rules retrospectively. For example, a CPA network can transform the number of payments, and the webmaster will discover the news the moment the money gets credited to their account.
Inadvertent Shaving & Other Reasons for Decreased Conversion Rates
A decrease in performance is not always a sign of fraud. Conversion numbers may drop for various reasons, including, for example, an error in the advertiser's software. And this is not the only problem that may cause fluctuations in statistics.
Malfunctions in the CPA network. It does not happen frequently, however, you should always keep in mind that there is a possibility of a technical failure.
Old tracking code. Some browser extensions tend to block the tracking code trigger. It entails a glitch: the person is not included in the statistics, even if they perform the target action.
Antiviruses. Virus-protection programs may cut off the affiliate ID in the link. As a result, the client performs the target action, but the conversion is not counted.
Statistics delay. A simple example. The traffic was running smoothly on January 20, but the statistics came ready on January 24. Such a delay can create a misleading impression of shaving.
Violation of the terms of the affiliate program. Inexperienced beginners who do not quite grasp the essence of the entire process sometimes overlook the most important bits mentioned in the terms and conditions of the affiliate program or the offer they're working with. Sometimes they end up sending traffic through prohibited channels. You know what happens next? Leads are canceled.
The landing page of the offer changed. Landing pages may be updated, no big deal. The same applies to layouts, they can be fixed, right? However, you can continue driving traffic, but people will still refuse to buy products because of the landing page they don't find particularly enticing.
The offer in the creative does not correspond to the information on the landing page. Now, the situation that occurs when webmaster put all their effort and thought into luring users to the landing page by embellishing the real offer with additional benefits they may or may not have contrived on the spot. Users click on the ad, read the actual terms of purchase, and leave. Let's not pin the blame on the affiliate program, it's the webmaster who did the thing.
Before accusing the affiliate manager of shaving, check indicators and pages. Perhaps it's you—or the advertiser himself.
Avoid Shaving At All Costs
If we were to write a guidebook on how to avoid shaving, we'd start our book with one simple line: be attentive to all changes in statistics. If you checked every nook and cranny and you are now sure that the problem is not with you, contact your personal manager for information.
- If commentaries and recordings of call center conversations are hidden from you, this may be a signal that you are being shaved. If some leads have comments or posts and others don’t... That’s weird.
- Refrain from driving traffic directly to the link you received from the affiliate program. Spend a few dollars on hosting, set up data transfer via API, and customize logging for yourself. Having hosting will protect you from shaving, plus you can set any metric you need.
- Launch a test lead. Leads must be real, not fraudulent. The easiest way to accomplish this task is to place an order for a friend or relative. A test lead will help you understand what quality the advertiser’s product is, how quickly the lead is counted, and whether it is counted at all.
- Use your own landing pages. Having your own landing page makes it possible to avoid built-in shaving codes. The second point is that you can decide for yourself how to change the design of the landing page, and not adapt to the ready-made format.
- Connect a third-party tracker. This will help you immediately identify fraud on the part of the affiliate program, and you can check the quality of traffic.
- Request a review of leads that fall into the canceled category. If you have any doubts regarding canceled leads, ask your affiliate program for call recordings. This is how you can see how well the leads are processed. If you are denied information, this is definitely a case of shave.
Enhancing Trust
The first rule a CPA network should stick to is that it must put the interests of its partners above its own. Ideally, there should be support programs, for example, due to the fact that the affiliate network and the advertiser check indicators late, payments to the webmaster may arrive with a delay. The CPA network should compensate by issuing at least additional points that affiliates can spend on promoting the offer.
Every once in a while, you should check the network to eliminate the possibility of technical failures. Such problems on the part of the CPA network lead to a decrease in approval, and with it, income.
Therefore, the affiliate network should check:
Accessibility of your website pages. This can be done through the WAVE 3.0 Accessibility Evaluator or FAE Accessibility Test services;
Validity of the code. One wrong character can lead to fatal consequences, so code-checking is mandatory. The W3C Markup Validator Service will help with this;
The landing page of the offer before adding it to the catalog. The point is that CPA networks look at how the landing page is displayed in different versions of browsers.
If an affiliate program suspects a webmaster of fraud, initiate a conversation first. If the violations are not systematic, the manager needs to clarify the situation. Perhaps the webmaster is not familiar with some rules. In any case, a penalty is a last resort.
It is also necessary to ensure transparency in all reports. For example, some CPA networks provide conversation recordings, make it possible to see lead comments, and so on. Strong technical support is also important. Webmasters should know they can turn to their CPA network anytime and receive feedback.
Wrapping Up
Although shaving is a problem for a webmaster, you shouldn’t be afraid of it. It can be quickly identified by simply following the instructions from the article. If you are careful when choosing a partner, you may never encounter outright shaving.
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