TRAFFIC
HOW TO PICK A WINNER
IN THE AFFILIATE
SOFTWARE MARKET
Before you invest in new affiliate software, you can take the risk out of your choice by bearing these
considerations in mind, says Chris Strutt of Lucky Media Ltd
MY COMPANY, LUCKY MEDIA LTD,
and I have trialled most of the best (and
worst) affiliate software, rating it from the
standpoint of both operators and affiliates.
Here, we list our main considerations when
assessing software.
Anti-fraud
A really useful feature is anti-fraud
measures (this consideration is more for
operators). This relates to CPA fraud
more than revenue share fraud, which is a
lot more difficult for affiliates to commit
(unless of course they chargeback losses
and withdraw winnings using multiple
player IDs, which is a tough racket to
pull off).
Some of the most important features
for operators using affiliate software to
look out for are the identification of the
main ways that affiliates defraud operators,
including: player data such as minimum
deposit/wager amount; first deposit
amount; IP addresses used; email address
similarity; payment method similarity; and
fake player details. And for affiliates we
suggest you review all of the rogue affiliate
programs tagged in popular industry
forums. Then correlate that information
with the affiliate software they use. If you
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iGB Affiliate Issue 66 DEC 2017/JAN 2018
see some patterns, you might conclude that
certain affiliate software may have — and
I hasten to add may have — de-tagging, re-
tagging and affiliate shaving features.
Affiliates should work to the rule that
the more transparency there is with data,
the more likely the operator is transparent.
In my view, rogue operators love to
conceal as much data as possible, to make
de-tagging, skimming and shaving less
decipherable, especially by experienced
affiliates who instinctively know how to
spot operator fraud.
sending you their hard-earned traffic. The
most important and mandatory feature for
Lucky Media is that any affiliate software
we use has no features available to skim
affiliates’ data. And our company policy
is to employ only such software without
player de-tagging/re-tagging features.
The other main feature we feel is
imperative for operators is how easy it is
to add new creatives. We sometimes see
operators add only a handful of landing
pages for their affiliates and we question
whether this is down to the features that
their affiliate platform offers.
“Rogue operators love to conceal as much data as
possible, to make de-tagging, skimming and shaving
less decipherable, especially by experienced affiliates
who know how to spot operator fraud”
Features
Most of the features offered by software
companies are nearly identical. Having
researched the market in recent years, I’ve
come to the conclusion that the products
are all pretty similar. Generic affiliate
software that’s not designed for affiliates is
not recommended at all — it simply does
not give affiliates the value they warrant for
From an affiliates’ perspective the most
important features are being able to grab
your affiliate creatives quickly and simply,
and easily track your campaigns on a
granular level. Most of the mainstream
affiliate software has these features as
standard. The other feature we like is
transparency about player data, because
we feel that the less data the operators