Welcome to part two of our two-part series on affiliate marketing revenue. In part one we unveiled six proven strategies set to strengthen your affiliate programs’ success and revenue. Now, in part two we’ll share five best practices for protecting your revenue from fraudulent activities.

Five key fraud protection measures to leverage

While earning new revenue is imperative to the success of your affiliate program, protecting affiliate marketing revenue from the harmful effects of affiliate fraud is equally as important.

In 2020, almost 10 percent of affiliate program traffic was plagued by fraud. Fast forward to 2022 and the percentage of fraudulent traffic nearly doubled, reaching 17 percent and resulting in an estimated $3.4 billion loss. The impact of affiliate fraud is profoundly detrimental to profitability and partnerships as the brand or network must pay for conversions that should rightfully be attributed to a different source (potentially even another affiliate).

Unfortunately, affiliate fraud manifests in a multitude of ways, including malicious browser extensions, mobile app install fraud, fraudulent purchases, click fraud and various other advanced tactics.

To combat fraud, performance marketers can rely on affiliate marketing technology to proactively validate that affiliate conversions are authentic while also blocking high-risk and suspicious traffic in real time.

Let’s dive into the five essential ways to tackle affiliate fraud.

For a comprehensive plan to stop affiliate fraud using CAKE’s Affiliate Marketing Software, visit our blog here.