How can you avoid shaving in affiliate marketing?

One of the unpleasant things that can happen to a webmaster during their work is shaving. What is it?

What is shaving?

Let's say you are involved in affiliate marketing and you see that a customer has placed an order. But then your lead is marked as “unconfirmed” or “cancelled.” The money for the lead goes to the affiliate program, and you are trying to figure out how this could have happened.

This situation is called a shave. The affiliate program or advertiser does not count the conversion, not wanting to spend money on paying the publisher.

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Such actions are usually resorted to by “green” affiliate programs and advertisers who want to avoid unnecessary payments in order to increase their own profits.

Such practices are not common in modern CPA networks. Experienced webmasters quickly identify shaving, so affiliate programs that attempt to do so quickly cease to function.

How can you identify shaving?

You can identify shaving by tracking your current statistics.

When faced with such a situation, you will notice the following characteristic signs of shaving:

1. A sharp decrease in approval. If the approval rate was previously within 70-80% and then suddenly dropped to 20-30%, this may be evidence of shaving. But keep in mind that an unexpected drop in approval can be caused by other reasons. You yourself could have caused this situation if you made changes to the target settings, creativity, etc.
2. The affiliate network statistics differ from the indicators of third-party programs. If you receive higher statistics from third-party tracking than the information provided by the affiliate program, this may be a sign that you are being sheared.
3. The quality of traffic has deteriorated. If, after starting cooperation, you notice that traffic fluctuations have become more pronounced than when using your own sources, check who you are working with. A significant reduction in leads with no change in traffic is evidence of 100% shaving.
4. Decrease in offer performance. Usually, in order to attract more publishers, offers are launched on a number of CPA networks. A decrease in offer conversions on only one of them is evidence of shaving.

Methods of shaving

Shaving can be accidental or intentional. In the latter case, its use is considered fraud. What methods can be used to commit intentional fraud?

Intentional shaving

The following actions may indicate intentional, fraudulent shaving:

• There is no registration of leads. The affiliate network received money for your client, but you were not paid.
• Your traffic was deemed suspicious, as a result of which you were accused of fraud and your leads began to be rejected.
• You were accused of violating the terms of the agreement.
• The terms of the offer were suddenly changed, for example, the payment method was changed, which you found out when you received less money for your work.
• The conversion was rejected and you were informed that the customer did not perform the target action.

Unintentional shaving

Sometimes shaving occurs not because of fraudulent actions, but for other reasons, including:

1. Errors in the advertiser's software.
2. One of the Internet browser extensions blocked the tracking code call, which is why the person who performed the target action is not included in the statistics.
3. There are malfunctions in the CPA network.
4. The creativity does not match the landing page. Such ads are usually uninteresting to users who see unnecessary information after clicking, become disappointed, and do not perform any target actions.
5. Antivirus software removes the affiliate ID from the link. As a result, there are situations where the conversion is not credited to the webmaster despite the user's interaction with the ad.
6. Violation of the affiliate program terms and conditions by the webmaster due to careless reading of the offer terms. Beginning webmasters who do not yet have sufficient experience usually find themselves in such situations. After superficially reviewing the terms of the offer, they start driving traffic to the wrong place. This leads to the cancellation of leads.

How can you avoid shave?

When planning to work with new affiliate programs or advertisers, study the reviews left by webmasters on various platforms in advance. Fraudulent affiliate networks are always identified by publishers who leave negative reviews about them.

The complete absence of reviews should also alert you.

In this case, you can place a test order to form your own opinion and understand whether it is worth continuing to work.

Another source of information is statistics. Study them carefully, keep track of all changes, and draw conclusions. Use a third-party tracker to compare statistics. Compare its indicators with the data provided by the advertiser or affiliate program.

Be sure to check leads that have been unexpectedly canceled. Request call records. Refusal to provide them is most likely a sign of fraud.

If possible, use your own landing pages. Promoting your own landing page is a rather difficult process, but it will give you a clear picture and protect you from fraudulent activities.

To avoid being deceived by a manager of a non-existent affiliate network, we have prepared a selection of verified  TOP Affiliate Networks for you.

Conclusion

Publishers working with advertisers and affiliate programs can encounter shaving at any time. Shaving can be caused by fraudulent actions on the part of affiliate programs and advertisers, as well as other factors: carelessness on the part of the arbitrageurs themselves, various technical failures, etc. By following the recommendations listed above, you can avoid shaving and receive the money you have earned in full.