Reading the Hijacking Advertisers Report

reading the hijacking report the hijacking report is one of the most important in marcode it shows advertisers running ads to your website that aren't you, almost always affiliates stealing your paid traffic this guide explains what you're looking at and what to do about it take the 2 minute interactive tour what this report shows the basics every advertiser running ads to your website how many ads we have analysed for each any affiliate details we've found example ads you can inspect why it matters these advertisers are stealing your paid traffic and claiming affiliate commissions for customers already looking for you this inflates your search costs and cannibalises your ppc/seo performance understanding the chart the coloured bars show advertiser activity over time width (left to right) time period height number of ads seen that day colour each advertiser has a unique colour quick read taller bars = more aggressive bidding consistent tall bars = persistent hijacker understanding the columns advertiser the company name shown in google or bing when they paid for the ad important this is usually not the affiliate's name; it's often a generic company name share of voice the percentage of your searches where this advertiser appeared affiliate details shows whether we've successfully extracted affiliate parameters from their ads if we have found some, it will either state an id or say "some parameters identified" links if 0 analyses have been run, read "how to run a manual affiliate analysis" if no affiliate parameters are identified when analyses have run, read "what to do if no affiliate details have been identified" ad an example ad from this advertiser deep diving on an advertiser to investigate further click the example ad to open the detail pane each ad shows date and time of detection keyword searched device type (desktop/mobile) ad position what to do next found a hijacker? read these reading the hijacking affiliates tab setting up playbooks to take action on offending affiliates taking action on affiliates using playbooks common questions "why is there an advertiser doing this who isn't an affiliate?" sometimes if the brand sells a "is this definitely a hijacker?" if they're advertising to your website and you don't recognise them, yes cross check with your publisher list to be sure "the share of voice keeps changing?" normal—fraudsters often use time based bidding look at weekly trends, not daily fluctuations 💡 quick tip sort by share of voice (highest first) to see your biggest problems at the top start with those