Affiliate marketing is a simple concept. The affiliate gets clicks to a merchants website. If these clicks convert to a sale within a predetermined time frame a commission is paid by the merchant to the affiliate. Often the merchant will employ an agency, a network or both to act as an intermediary between them and the affiliates and manage their campaign. Agencies and networks are paid by either a flat fee or a commission per sale. Under the commission set up it can be in the network or affiliates best interests to overlook breaches of terms and conditions – as they make more money. I’m not saying all do and I’m not saying how widespread it is (I don’t know) but when money is at stake there is always someone willing to bend the rules.

One of the most important parts of the role played by agencies and networks is to ensure that affiliates are playing by the rules set out on the campaign, or of the network. The terms and conditions of the affiliate program are additions to the terms and conditions set out by the network. The terms and conditions of the programs are simple to find – they are visible to view before signing up for a program. Often the terms and conditions of use for the network can be far more difficult to find.

A simple way that affiliates can cheat the system is to ‘force clicks’ to a merchant site – the propective buyer does not make a decision to go to the merchant site instead they are forced into the merchants site, often without the users consent or knowledge. Forced clicks should fall against the terms and conditions of the networks.

Buyat opinion on Forced Clicks.

Getting to this opinion was a bit of a pain – their site is in frames so search engines can’t index the site effectively so using Google was out the window. Trying to navigate the site led to little rewards so I got on the phone – no one was available at that time to speak to me but I was told where to send an email and someone would get back to me. Shortly after my email – about 8 minutes – I got a response.

Hi Mike,

OK in response to this one, buy.at are opposed to any affiliate forcing clicks or dropping cookies without a user following a link to the merchant’s site. Any affiliate who is found to be doing this will be requested to stop that promotion and failure to do so would mean buy.at would look to suspend their account.

I hope that’s ok for you. If you want to discuss the matter further then please feel free to drop me a line on the details below, or you can get me on MSN – Warrick.lambert@perfiliate.com

BTW – it may be worth looking at this blog that was written on the subject recently – One Little Duck Post

Warrick Lambert

Head of Account Management

Nice response and the link to the post is useful – I’d read about it earlier that day but I liked the effort to contextualise the debate and show that they as a network were keeping uptodate with the online debate. (nb – I’ve shortened the link as it broke my blog template)

Forced Click Discussion

Within the link above you’ll find a discussion of an affilite site, myvouchercodes.co.uk, (he aint getting a link!). Where the site loads the merchants site in an iframe to force the click and make a sale. This guys has been cited on a few blogs before about his conduct : see Stephen Pratleys blog for an example. One of the comments on the one little duck post had a comment Dave Fiske about the reesponse to this issue he received from an affiliate network about this specific affiliate and the issue of forced clicks:

Just had an email from Wulfric Light-Wilkinson of Tradedoubler:

“I have looked into their site. The user has to select a merchant they wants to view before the merchant site is loaded in the IFRAME. As the user has to makes a conscious decision to view the merchant, we don’t deem this as unfair practice.”

In essence as the site has navigation and the navigation can direct you to the page where the click is forced its fair game.

In light of this if you are a merchant and your campaign is running just now on TD I’d suggest you get rid of them and change your network! Making sales are good, making cost effective sales are even better but making sales which could be injurious to your brand because your affiliate network are not willing to deem the unethical practices of some affiliates as bad.

I even know of an agency just this week who actively seek out affiliates breaching terms and conditions on programs – as they have a strong policy on protecting merchants brands within progams. And when they contacted a network they were told that they were aware of the problem with a site and that no effort had been made to inform the agency as it wasn’t really that big a deal and as the industry wasn’t convinced that forced clicks was unethical. WTF – are these people purely money grabbing so and so’s – merchants pay networks money to promote their brand and regulate the behaviour of the affiliates on the program. I may get myself in trouble but:

• Forced Clicks are unethical
• Forced Clicks should be a breach of network terms and conditions
  • The network should have a policy on what the actions are when an affiliate is found Forcing Clicks
• A Forced Click policy should be part of every affiliate program terms and conditions
  • The policy for what happens when an affiliate forces clicks should be on every program
• Every agency should have a Forced Click policy
  • this informs the terms and conditions of the specific programs

A little work, by networks and agencies, at the outset of a program launching would save problems later.

IMJUK Ideas on Forced Clicks

What to do if you’re a merchant.

Find out from your agency/network what their policy is on forced clicks and how they monitor this. Does the network have a way to check for forced clicks? Do the agency check websites for forced clicks before they let a website onto your program? Does your agency have a list of affiliates who are ‘black listed’ for previous t&c infringements and if so who on this list is on your program? Does your agency/network have a system for informing you when forced clicks are found?

What to do if you’re a network

Get the finger out! Start developing robust programs for tracking affiliate behaviour over time. If they consistently breach T&C’s are they going to damage your network in the long term – probably. If you have no policy on forced clicks, or the policy is weak, inexact and/or useless build a new one and get it visible on your site, update your staff, update your affiliates, the agencies you work with, your merchants and get it online and start promoting just how ethical you are and be proud of the work you do to protect your clients brands.

What to do if you’re an agency.

Ensure all your account managers know what a forced click is and how it operates. Ensure that before affiliate acceptance to a program forced links are checked for. Liase with your network to develop a robust, clear, concise policy on what should be done on your clients affiliate programs if forced clicks are found – and make sure your network stick to it.

What to do if you’re an affiliate.

Stop it. Get your site fixed.

Here endeth the rant.