how can i prove this? (shaving/scrubbing)

grazie

grazie

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Jan 9, 2010
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Here's the brief rundown...

I was consistently converting at 3-5% with organic traffic for a product for a few months. All of a sudden, conversions dropped off the map with < 1%. This has been going on for around 2 months. At first I kinda chalked it up to it being summer time, as this is my first year doing CPA related stuff.

But then I decided to open up a second account with the network using different company names (another of my LLC's), tax ID #, accessing site from a VPN, etc.

Two days later conversions began coming back strong. Currently, it's all circumstantial evidence and I have nothing concrete.

So my question is...

Is there anyway to find out 100% that I'm being scrubbed? Some way to find concrete evidence? Any advice from you tracking experts?
 


Just tell the network you are using what you exactly described here. Call out the issue to your network, most will have no other explanation other than admitting you are being scrubbed. Alot of times, its the advertiser scrubbing behind the networks back.
 
Split your traffic half way between each account for a couple more days and be certain that you are being scrubbed, though you most likely are. 9/10 times it's the advertiser scrubbing, not the network. Nowadays networks are not stupid enough to start scubbing themselves since they know pubs can split-test the offer elsewhere within minutes.

If you are doing decent volume, you can try to contact the advertiser directly and work out a deal. Your traffic is worth SOMETHING, it may not be worth the CPA that the advertiser is currently paying, but because they haven't kicked you off the offer means they are still making money on you. Contact them directly, remove the network out of the equation and you'll probably only see a small reduced rate if the advertiser wants to work for lower.
 
mGrunin said:
Split your traffic half way between each account for a couple more days and be certain that you are being scrubbed, though you most likely are. 9/10 times it's the advertiser scrubbing, not the network. Nowadays networks are not stupid enough to start scubbing themselves since they know pubs can split-test the offer elsewhere within minutes.

If you are doing decent volume, you can try to contact the advertiser directly and work out a deal. Your traffic is worth SOMETHING, it may not be worth the CPA that the advertiser is currently paying, but because they haven't kicked you off the offer means they are still making money on you. Contact them directly, remove the network out of the equation and you'll probably only see a small reduced rate if the advertiser wants to work for lower.
Click to expand...

The network and advertiser are the same entity. It's also a CPS deal so the traffic is definitely good. Will take your advice and continue split testing between the two accounts I have setup. Thanks
 
Bevo Ryan said:
Just tell the network you are using what you exactly described here. Call out the issue to your network, most will have no other explanation other than admitting you are being scrubbed. Alot of times, its the advertiser scrubbing behind the networks back.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I did when I noticed conversions going downhill. However, my 'AM' told me that it's natural for conversions to be sporadic and they have no control over it. Oh well. I guess there's really nothing I can do because the keyword and site I've optimized for is a brand name for the network/advertiser.

I guess I could rebuild the site into negging the brand and say 'try brand Y instead' and split test offers from other networks.
 
When AMs tell you traffic is "sporadic" it means the advertisers aren't paying them for the leads, so they obviously can't pay you, but they don't want you to go to some other network and push their offers.
 
Call up your CPA network....most of the time its advertisers who are scrubbing you and even affiliate network is unaware of it. Talk to your AM and I am sure he might be able to help you out.

Thanks
 
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