Reading the Hijacking Affiliates Tab

the hijacking affiliates tab shows you the actual affiliate details of those hijacking your ads once you're comfortable with the platform, this should be your daily starting point if you have hijacking it cuts straight to the actionable information you need here's a quick demo outlining the key steps the default view by default, the report shows these columns affiliate id the standardised affiliate id we've detected often empty because hijackers can get paid just by using click ids or other parameters instead that's why customising this report is essential (see below) advertiser the company name running the ad in google or bing important this often has no relation to the actual affiliate name last seen the last time we analysed an ad from this advertiser that contained affiliate details how to read it today's date = still active last week = recently stopped running ads or adding affiliate details due to previous action last month+ = likely removed or ceased bidding we analyse hijacked ads daily, so if this date is in the past, the advertiser has stopped running ads with affiliate parameters ad an example ad, click it to see the full analysis useful for seeing which affiliate parameters the advertiser is using, so you know what to track customising the report (recommended) why customise? the default columns might not show the specific parameters needed to identify hijackers in your programme customising reveals the details you need to take action step 1 investigate example ads before customising, look at a few example ads to see what parameters hijackers are actually using to do this click on example ads in the report look at the affiliate parameters section note which parameters appear consistently common parameters to look for click ref / click id / site id utm parameters (utm source, utm content, utm campaign) sub ids (subid, subid1, subid2) publisher ids (pub id, affid) network specific parameters example in the screenshot above, we can see click ref is being used by the affiliate utm content identifies the platform they're using step 2 add useful columns once you know which parameters matter, add them to your report to customise click the gear icon (⚙️) to open report settings find the parameters you identified in step 1 add them as columns click "save" your settings are saved automatically as your default view, so you'll see this every time you log in your customised view now your report shows all the actionable details at a glance affiliate ids (where available) click references platform identifiers any other tracking parameters this is the view you should check daily to identify and act on new hijackers quickly you can download this report by clicking the arrow icon in the top right corner what to do next found affiliate details? when to warn vs ban decide your approach set up playbooks to make taking action simple contact offenders to stop them setup alerts track your enforcement common questions "what if the affiliate parameters keep changing?" some hijackers rotate their parameters add all variations you see as columns, and look for patterns "should i add every parameter i see?" no, focus on parameters that help you identify the affiliate (click ref, sub ids) skip generic ones like utm source unless they're unique or beneficial to you "none of my hijackers have affiliate ids, is this normal?" yes, very common that's why the other parameters (click ref, etc ) are more useful for identification "how often should i check this tab?" daily if you're actively fighting fraud weekly minimum once your programme is cleaner setting up alerts helps you streamline this proces