Paying real money for fake impressions is frustrating. Luckily, you can easily detect suspicious user activity with the help of ADEX tools. But is it even possible to get a refund for that fraudulent traffic?
Fraud is like grit on your lens. Fighting it becomes harder day after day, since the bots develop and cheating strategies get more inventive. Detecting sources of fraudulent traffic is not the easiest thing to do, even when you have a pack of tracking features by your side. Sometimes, you just miss the right moment to block suspicious traffic once and forever.
Let’s imagine a situation. One day, you may open your campaign stats and realize that a huge part of your traffic is actually fake. Obviously, you want to complain to the traffic provider and request a refund. But is it even possible to get your money back?
Yes, when you rely on ADEX, you have chances to restore justice.
How to get a refund for fake traffic?
Don’t panic. Even if you miss the right moment to block the dubious traffic source, you still have chances to fix the issue. Here is how the entire procedure looks like:
#1. Forming a custom report
Of course, you cannot count on a refund without having a pack of solid evidence. Everything should be maximally neat here – the report must be compliant with the industry standards and your contract with the supplier. Also, your claim should be based on convincing details, like reasons, numbers, dates, etc.
Creating a report yourself is a pretty tedious process: there are so many things you have to consider. In case your report is not entirely blameless (and it’s hard to make up an ideal one without relevant experience), you risk getting a refusal. Standards of the industry mean a lot and even a minor mistake can become a reason for rejection.
Our platform allows you to create a precise PDF document with the full list of evidence. The report includes such details as Source ID, fraud percentage, fraud categories, and other statistical data.
Each situation is unique, therefore – additional specific parameters for every single case are included into the report.
#2. Sending the report to a traffic provider
So, now you have your report prepared and should address it to your traffic provider. The predicted response is pretty obvious – most traffic providers are not inspired by the idea of making refunds and they do everything possible to reject such claims. They won’t acknowledge the fact that the traffic is poor that easily.
At this stage, you shouldn’t take a step back, but rather ask the provider about additional data, stats, evidence, and more facts needed to consummate the processing of your complaint.
The problem is that far from all anti-fraud tools provide sufficiently precise and personalized reports. It means that you may need personalized help, consultation, and support provided by experienced professionals. And this is what you get at ADEX.
Our task is to ask for the maximal possible refund, so ADEX managers will help you make the claim meaningful and watertight. Together with our management team, you will communicate with the traffic provider and discuss all the details carefully. We will help you on every stage of the process and do everything to prove that you really deserve a refund.
#3. The result
So, there are three possible results: partial refund, full refund, and total rejection. Oftentimes, traffic providers try to be flexible with such conflicts, since they value their customers, especially loyal ones. With a detailed and convincing custom report, you really have chances to get at least partial compensation.
However, if your traffic provider continues to deny the undeniable and ignores the pack of proofs, think twice before cooperating with him again.
#4. Avoiding the same mistakes again
Last but not least, to avoid such situations, you should track your campaigns and verify the traffic providers regularly.
Luckily, you have a whole set of tools from ADEX to do so. Whenever a certain source seems unreliable, make sure to get rid of it as fast as possible.
You may use our Fraudulent Traffic Redirect feature to send the bots to the blank page and keep your landings safe from fake views. There is also a Postbacks feature – with its help, you will detect fraudulent activity sources in a matter of seconds.
Case studies from ADEX: How do we solve issues practically?
Now let’s talk about the most common fraud cases and the ways we solve them. These examples are based on real case studies from our partners.
- iGaming: the most vulnerable niche at stack
iGaming is not the easiest field to work with. Advertisers know that for sure – this vertical is not only competitive, but also stuffed with fraud risks. From our experience, iGaming advertisers receive no less than 25% of fraud traffic, which is a significant amount.
In case you work with a pricing model associated with payments per registrations, there is a risk of fake accounts and bots that will never make any deposits/purchases. Such fake accounts are not just useless – they cause serious money losses.
Due to our anti-fraud tools, you can sieve the fake accounts away even before they finish registration. Also, if you believe that something like this has already happened, you can always request a refund from your traffic source.
We will help you gather evidence and prove that the traffic was fake. As an example, one of our recent partners got a refund as we helped him investigate the iGaming traffic issue. We discovered that a number of fake accounts were registered from a single address and gathered solid evidence to prove that. The traffic provider had no choice but to acknowledge the fact.
- Fake locations fraud
Another widespread type of fraud all advertisers must be familiar with is fake user locations. As you know, registrations and impressions from particular countries are pretty expensive. Say, the Tier 1 category costs much more than Tier 3 and 4.
In the fraudulent scheme, the user’s location is easily changed by means of Proxy or VPN. As such, this user “moves” to the USA from Pakistan, for instance. Let’s assume that his actions used to cost you 50 cents before, but now they are no less than $5.
ADEX platform will help you track traffic sources carefully and distinguish such switches to prevent or prove fraudulent activity.
Conclusion
Indeed, issues with fake traffic are not uncommon. Make sure to keep an eye on your traffic sources and block the problematic ones before they do harm to your campaign. Keep ADEX features at hand to do that efficiently and timely. However, even if you fail to get rid of fake traffic on time – don’t panic, not all is lost.
ADEX will help you gather accurate data, precise statistics, and solid arguments to create a meaningful custom report. Also, our managers will support you during the entire dispute, so you are not alone! Let’s fight traffic fraud together!
