How to avoid shaving
Shaving in affiliate marketing (from the word “shave”) is an unfair practice where an affiliate network or advertiser hides part of the conversions or traffic from the webmaster by filtering legitimate traffic, such as bots, or incorrectly counting unique users. This leads to a reduction in the webmaster's legitimate income, which is appropriated by the affiliate networks or advertiser through technical manipulation of tracking and conversion data.
Recommendations for webmasters on preventing sheaving
Webmasters need to carefully monitor all fluctuations in statistics (CR, EPC, approve rate) and conduct retrospective analysis. If you detect anomalies and after conducting your own check, including analysis of server logs, caching, and script correctness, and you are sure that the problem is not on your side, contact your personal manager with a detailed report.
Monitoring call recordings and comments
Be wary of hidden comments and call recordings from the call center, as this may indicate shaving. From a technical point of view, it is particularly suspicious if there are recordings for some leads and not for others, especially for high-value leads; this requires checking the call distribution and logging system.
Use your own proxy server or VPS
Experts do not recommend directing traffic directly to the final link received from the affiliate program due to the risks of cookie stealing or manipulation of UTM tags. Instead, it is recommended to invest a small amount in your own hosting or VPS. This will allow you to set up traffic proxying through your server, ensure data transfer via Postback API/S2S, and implement detailed server logging (recording IP, User-Agent, time, referrer, clicks) with the ability to customize filtering to your needs. Having your own hosting protects you from shaving at the redirection level and gives you complete control over the installation of any necessary metrics and tags.
Using test leads
It is extremely useful to periodically run test leads. The key condition is that the lead must be real, honest, imitating the behavior of the target user with unique data, IP, and device. The simplest method is to place an order through a friend or relative. A test lead helps to technically evaluate the quality of the advertiser's product, the speed of lead recording in the affiliate networks (timestamp), the fact of its recording, and the correctness of data passing through the chain from click to conversion and postback.
Use of your own landing pages
It is highly recommended to use your own landing pages. Having your own landing page eliminates the risk of built-in hidden code for shewing, such as scripts that filter traffic before it is transferred to the affiliate link. An additional advantage is complete freedom to change the design, conduct A/B testing of elements, and have full control over all scripts and pixels placed without template restrictions.
Connecting external tracking systems
For independent control and prompt detection of discrepancies in the number of clicks or conversions between your data and the data of the CPA network/advertiser, which is a key indicator of fraud, as well as for additional traffic quality verification (bot detection, source validation), you should connect external tracking services (e.g., Binom, RedTrack, Voluum).
Analysis of canceled or invalid leads
It is important to request a detailed check of leads that have been marked as “canceled” or “invalid.” If there are doubts about the reasons for the cancellations, especially if the percentage of refusals is high, it is necessary to request call records, CRM screenshots, or processing logs from the affiliate networks. This allows you to personally assess the quality of lead processing and compliance with validation criteria. Refusal to provide such technical data or a clear justification for the cancellation is considered a clear sign of shaving.
CPA network measures to strengthen trust
Technical support and bonus compensation
CPA networks are obliged to put the interests of their partners above their own. The ideal solution is to implement support programs. For example, if there are delays in data reconciliation (caused by API synchronization issues or data pipelines) between the network and the advertiser, leading to delays in payments to the webmaster, CPA networks should compensate for this by issuing additional bonus points (cashback) that can be spent on promoting offers.
Regular technical audits
To prevent loss of trust to affiliate networks, regular technical audits of their infrastructure are necessary to eliminate failures such as API crashes, incorrect postback processing, or errors in offer configuration. Such malfunctions directly lead to a decrease in the approve rate and webmaster's income.
Checks should include the availability and response speed of key website pages and API endpoints (using uptime monitoring services such as Pingdom, UptimeRobot, and WAVE 3.0 or FAE availability tools), the correctness and validity of landing page code and scripts (using the W3C Markup Validator Service and JS/CSS linters to eliminate critical errors that affect calculations), as well as ensuring cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility of landing pages for offers before publication (checking display and functionality in different browsers, on different operating systems and screen resolutions using emulators and real devices).
Dealing with suspected fraud
If there is suspicion of fraud (cheating, bot traffic) on the part of the webmaster, it is critically important to first initiate a detailed dialogue, providing specific evidence (logs, screenshots, anti-fraud system data), rather than applying a block without explanation. If the violations are not systemic in nature, the manager should clarify the circumstances — perhaps the cause is a poor-quality source or a technical error on the part of the webmaster. Account blocking should be considered only as a last resort after all other options have been exhausted.
Transparency and accessibility of reporting
Maximum transparency of reporting is the foundation of trust. This implies providing call records (through integration with call tracking), access to full comments on leads, detailed conversion statuses, and the ability to export raw data (logs) on request.
Equally critical is effective and technically competent support, preferably available 24/7 via a ticket system and live chat, with clear SLAs. Webmasters must be confident that they can quickly contact the CPA network and receive a substantive response from competent engineers or managers. In the long term, the introduction of distributed ledger (blockchain) technologies for transparent and immutable verification of conversions can help build trust.
