How Can Adware Impact Your Web Site and Revenue?

There are many misconceptions of how Adware behave and how they can impact on both Affiliate and Merchant web sites. There are hundreds of known adware applications being downloaded and installed on end user’s computers. There are also many not yet identified adware applications being downloaded and installed. Adware can and does frequently change the way in which they behave on the end user’s computer. With that in mind, we will discuss the major classifications that AFP uses to categorize adware and the manner in which they can potentially impact both affiliate’s and merchant’s web sites and revenue. We will restrict the discussion to potential impact on affiliates and merchants and leave the discussions focusing on consumer impact to others.

Contextual Adware Applications

Contextually-based adware can ultimately behave in a variety of ways (i.e. pop ups, browser redirects). The one common factor for all contextual adware is their behavior is dictated by the content from the web site the end user is viewing. Depending on the adware application, the triggering content can be such web page components as: domain name, page name, meta tags, text contained in header attribute tags and even the text on the viewed page. Contextually-based adware requires at least one piece of information about another’s web site that is being viewed by the end user to determine whether to activate the software and which ad to call into action.

Affiliate Impact

Merchant Impact

Uses content from Affiliate’s web site to activate software for their own financial gain without the permission or financial compensation to the Affiliate Can divert traffic away from the Affiliate’s site Can overwrite the Affiliate’s tracking code with their own once the consumer has clicked through to the Merchant’s web site Can change or modify the appearance and/or contents of the affiliate’s web page replacing key components with their own Can invoke their affiliate tracking code for the Merchant being promoted by the Affiliate and display the Merchant’s web site eliminating the need of the consumer to click on the Affiliate’s tracking link to the Merchant Can decrease the affiliate’s ROI for paid advertising efforts (PPCSE, etc) Can give the appearance to the end user that the pop up is originating from the affiliate’s web site instead of the adware application

Uses content from Merchant’s web site to activate adware Can display ads to a competitors web site on the Merchant’s site diverting traffic Can redirect traffic already on Merchant’s site (natural Search Engine traffic, direct type-ins) through their affiliate tracking code mischanneling the traffic as a commissioned sale Can redirect traffic from the Merchant’s other paid advertising efforts (PPCSE listings, CPM advertising, email advertising) through their affiliate tracking code causing the Merchant to pay multiple advertising sources for the same customer Can skew Merchant’s stats by redirecting the same end user already on the Merchant’s site giving the appearance of a new visitor being driven to the Merchant via the adware application and/or the same visitor showing from multiple referrer sources on the same visit Can cause the Merchant not to pay the affiliate who actually drove the buying consumer to the Merchant’s site Merchant’s brand can become associated in consumers mind with unwanted adware

Rebate Applications

These applications are associated with rebate web sites which act as a ‘reminder’ to the consumer that they can be receiving either a portion of their purchase back as a cash rebate, have a portion of their purchase given to a charity or be earning ‘points’ based on their purchase which are redeemable for products/services. They generally activate once on the Merchant’s web site and not on the Affiliate’s web site (although they can activate on the affiliate’s web site and have done so in the past). They can either automatically redirect through their affiliate link once on the Merchant’s web site informing the consumer they are receiving their reward or present prompting for the end user to click their affiliate link if the consumer wants their reward. Many of these applications will function if the consumer is not registered with their service to receive the reward.

Affiliate Impact

Merchant Impact

Can overwrite affiliate’s tracking code and or cookie when consumer reaches Merchant’s site after clicking on affiliate’s link Can nullify return day cookie benefit if the consumer makes a purchase on a subsequent visit via direct type-in, Merchant search engine listing, bookmark, etc. Can decrease the affiliate’s ROI for paid advertising efforts (PPCSE, etc

The Rebate Application does not drive customers to the Merchant’s web site as the adware does not activate unless the consumer is already on the Merchant’s web site Can redirect organic traffic on Merchant’s site (natural Search Engine traffic, direct type-ins) through their affiliate tracking code mischanneling the traffic as a commissioned sale Can redirect traffic from the Merchant’s other paid advertising efforts (PPCSE listings, CPM advertising, email advertising) through their affiliate tracking code causing the Merchant to pay multiple advertising sources for the same visitor Since many of the Rebate Applications direct through their own servers before redirecting to their affiliate tracking link, it can be difficult for the Merchant to ascertain how much of the traffic/sales are coming from the Rebate web site (true customer acquisition) and how many are being redirected through the adware application Can skew Merchant’s stats by redirecting the same end user already on the Merchant’s site giving the appearance of a new visitor being driven to the Merchant via the adware application and/or the same visitor showing from multiple referrer sources on the same visit Can cause the Merchant not to pay the affiliate who actually drove the buying consumer to the Merchant’s site Merchant’s brand can become associated in consumers mind with unwanted adware

Toolbars

Toolbar may seem rather self explanatory however they can encompass a rather wide range of behaviors from innocuous to invasive. Some toolbars amount to glorified bookmarks. Others may provide a one-step access to search results. However, others may generate pop-ads, browser redirects or other questionable behavior.

As the behavior of toolbars can vary widely, the impact on affiliates and merchants varies accordingly. As such we will not attempt to list all the possible impacts. Toolbars present a unique challenge as there are literally thousands of toolbars available now and the degree to which their behavior can vary.

Pop Up Applications

These applications deliver advertising but the ads are not necessarily targeted to the content the end user is viewing (i.e. untargeted). The ads can occur at anytime not only when the end user is surfing. A variety of ad delivery mechanisms can be used including pop ups, pop unders, pop behinds, and sliders. Since the advertising is not targeted, the adware tends to generate more ads than the contextually based applications. It is also less common to see affiliate tracking links with these applications as advertisers paying by CPC or CPM are preferable with the frequency of ads displayed.

Affiliate Impact

Merchant Impact

Can divert traffic away from the Affiliate’s web site End users may not be aware of where the pop ups are originating from and believe they are originating from the affiliate’s web site Can decrease the affiliate’s ROI for paid advertising efforts (PPCSE, etc) Can divert sales if the pop up occurs once the end user clicks through to the Merchant’s site The potential for cookie/tracking overwrites is less even when affiliate tracking is automatically invoked through the pop up since the ads are not targeted and may well not be related to the same Merchant or niche the affiliate is promoting and end user is viewing

Can divert traffic away from Merchant’s site to a competitor’s web site Can decrease the Merchant’s ROI on paid advertising efforts Merchant’s brand can become associated in consumers mind with unwanted adware

Browser Redirect Applications

Browser redirect applications take control of the end users browser and automatically direct the browser to a web page that the end user has not willfully chosen by clicking on a hyperlink. Many times these applications do not generate pop up ads and therefore it may not be as obvious to end users that the application is installed. One example of this type of application is 404 error/name resolution redirect application.  Another example are applications which automatically redirect the browser their affiliate URL without any type of promotion of the Merchant.

Affiliate Impact

Merchant Impact

Can divert traffic away from the Affiliate’s site Can overwrite the Affiliate’s tracking code with their own once the consumer has clicked through to the Merchant’s web site Can decrease the affiliate’s ROI for paid advertising efforts (PPCSE, etc) Can nullify return day cookie benefit if the consumer makes a purchase on a subsequent visit via direct type-in, Merchant search engine listing, bookmark, etc.

Can redirect traffic already on Merchant’s site (natural Search Engine traffic, direct type-ins) through their affiliate tracking code mischanneling the traffic as a commissioned sale Can redirect traffic from the Merchant’s other paid advertising efforts (PPCSE listings, CPM advertising, email advertising) through their affiliate tracking code causing the Merchant to pay multiple advertising sources for the same customer Can skew Merchant’s stats by redirecting the same end user already on the Merchant’s site giving the appearance of a new visitor being driven to the Merchant via the adware application and/or the same visitor showing from multiple referrer sources on the same visit Can cause the Merchant not to pay the affiliate who actually drove the buying consumer to the Merchant’s site