Understanding Discount and Coupon Site Fraud

discount sites share similarities with hijackers but add an intermediate step instead of directly adding affiliate parameters to your website url, they insert themselves into the customer journey by bidding on your brand terms combined with "discount", "promo code", or "coupon" keywords how discount site fraud works the user journey user searches for "yourbrand discount code" or "yourbrand promo" discount site appears in paid search results user clicks and lands on a page offering discount codes user interacts with a code (clicks "reveal code" or "copy code") discount site redirects user to your website with their affiliate parameters attached they claim commission on the resulting sale the key problems there is a very good chance you would have got these sales anyway the reason brands stop publishers brand bidding is that the user is already looking for the brand, so the incrementality of these sales is very low the codes often don't work the sole purpose of these sites is getting users to click or interact so they can drop their affiliate cookies they're not providing valuethey're stealing credit for sales they didn't genuinely influence even when codes do work, these sites are claiming commissions on sales they obtained by breaking your programme rules (brand bidding) they're also creating a poor user experience and potentially impacting basket completion rates when customers expect a discount that doesn't exist two types of discount sites 1\ known publishers breaking rules these are legitimate partners already on your affiliate programme who decide to brand bid despite it being against your terms characteristics recognisable company names established discount/voucher sites on your approved publisher list usually respond to warnings how to handle contact them directly and instruct them to stop brand bidding most will comply when caught 2\ fake discount sites these sophisticated operations are specifically designed to commit fraud, often joining your programme through subnetworks characteristics unrecognisable site names websites thrown together quickly codes may be completely fabricated or expired often operated from countries like china, pakistan, or india (though not exclusively) extremely sophisticated cloaking techniques can appear in the thousands how to handle take a strong enforcement approach with minimal tolerance see our guidance below link to understanding subnetworks (article to be created) marcode's ai powered detection discount sites are notorious for cloaking, using sophisticated techniques to hide their affiliate details from detection tools they can "fingerprint" users and will never redirect via an affiliate link if they suspect you're a bot rather than a genuine customer how marcode's ai agent works marcode uses an ai agent that navigates discount websites exactly like a real user would mimics human behaviour to bypass fingerprinting and cloaking clicks through codes and "reveal" buttons naturally follows all redirects through intermediate tracking domains captures the final url when landing on your website extracts affiliate parameters from the redirect chain this happens automatically, revealing the true affiliate ids and tracking parameters that fraudulent sites are trying to hide finding discount site violations automatic analysis marcode analyses discount and coupon sites automatically on a weekly basis this is less frequent than hijacking analysis (which runs continuously) but sufficient given the slower pace of new discount sites appearing viewing the results navigate to "coupon and discount ads" in the trademark section click the "coupon affiliates" tab review all identified affiliates in this category similar to the hijacking reports, this shows advertiser/site name number of ads detected analysed ads with affiliate details keywords they're targeting geographic locations manual analysis if you see a discount site where the analysis hasn't run yet (showing "ad not analysed") click on the advertiser name to view all their ads click the "ai analysis" button on any ad the analysis runs immediately (may take a couple of minutes, depending on the queue) check back to view the extracted affiliate details why you need these details fake discount sites often hide behind subnetworks or use obscure company names, so the web domain alone won't tell you which publisher is responsible the ai analysis reveals the actual affiliate ids you need to take action taking action against discount sites our recommendation strong enforcement discount sites—particularly fake ones—warrant aggressive enforcement with minimal tolerance suggested approach first offence warning with 24 48 hour deadline to stop second offence (or no response) immediate removal from programme for fake sites consider immediate removal without warning these sites are deliberately violating your terms and harming the user experience unlike genuine partners who might accidentally breach policies, discount site operators know exactly what they're doing using playbooks for enforcement set up dedicated playbooks for discount site violations with shorter warning periods example playbook structure send first warning → wait 2 days if no response or second offence → immediate ban tag as "discount site removed" link to setting up strike based policies working with subnetworks many fake discount sites operate through subnetworks when you identify them extract the affiliate details using ai analysis identify the subnetwork responsible contact the subnetwork to remove the offending sub affiliate if they don't comply, consider removing the subnetwork entirely link to understanding subnetworks (article to be created) reporting to google for discount sites brand bidding, you can also report to google for legitimate or fake partners breaking rules report as "affiliate site breaches programme rules" however, google enforcement can be inconsistent your primary action should be removal from your affiliate programme link to reporting ads to google why discount sites are particularly harmful 1\ they steal credit for existing intent users searching for your brand already intend to purchase the discount site adds no value, they simply intercept the customer journey and claim commission 2\ they damage user experience when codes don't work (which is common), customers feel misled and frustrated may abandon their basket lose trust in discount offers blame your brand for the poor experience 3\ they impact your metrics failed discount code attempts can lower basket completion rates increase cart abandonment skew your conversion data make legitimate affiliate performance harder to measure 4\ they scale rapidly a single operator can run dozens or hundreds of fake discount sites simultaneously, draining significant commission budget 5\ they're sophisticated advanced cloaking means traditional detection tools miss them without marcode's ai powered analysis, you'd never see the affiliate ids to take action best practices review the coupon affiliates tab weekly match marcode's automatic analysis schedule set up alerts see docid\ q 4ak45rlacgtwntkraze to create brand bidding alerts prioritise ai analysis for high volume advertisers sites showing hundreds of ads should be analysed first don't give fake sites chances legitimate partners deserve warnings; sophisticated fraud operations don't track removed affiliates use tags to mark discount sites you've banned so you recognise them if they return communicate with your network share patterns you're seeing with your affiliate network's fraud team combine manual and playbook approaches use playbooks for efficiency but review high value violations manually common questions "how can i tell if a site is legitimate or fake?" if you don't recognise the name and the ads are running from unexpected countries, treat it as suspicious run the ai analysis to see the affiliate ids if they're coming through subnetworks you don't recognise, it's likely fake "should i give known partners a warning before removing them?" yes, established partners who are breaking rules deserve a chance to stop however, keep warnings short (2 3 days) and be prepared to remove them if they continue "what if the ai analysis shows 'ad not analysed' for days?" click the ai analysis button manually, he automatic weekly analysis might not have reached that advertiser yet "can these sites rejoin my programme after i remove them?" they can try, often through different subnetworks or under new names this is why documenting and tagging removed discount sites is crucial "should i allow any discount sites on my programme?" some brands work with legitimate voucher partners under strict terms (no brand bidding, authorised codes only) that's your business decision, but enforcement must be consistent "do these sites only target brand terms?" primarily yes, these searches have the highest purchase intent so make the fraud most viable "how much revenue can fake discount sites steal?" it varies dramatically by brand and vertical, but sophisticated operations running dozens of sites can drain tends of thousands in commissions monthly