The digital advertising industry is ever-evolving. Unfortunately, new opportunities go hand in hand with additional fraud risks. Affiliate cookie stuffing is one of the more popular blackhat marketing techniques used by online swindlers. In this article, we’re going to explain what that is and how exactly it works. Let’s start at the beginning. What’s a cookie? A cookie is a tiny, identifiable piece of code websites leave in your browser when you visit them. Cookies help a site remember you by tracking browsing activity and storing login credentials and other advertising data. That’s what makes them so valuable when it comes to affiliate marketing. What’s affiliate marketing and how does it come into this? Simply put, affiliate marketing means businesses pay a commission to a party that brings them clicks, site visits, or sales. So, for example, if your website sends some visitors to the Apple store, you’d get a small share of anything they buy there. Such arrangements are brokered by an affiliate network, acting as a middleman. Naturally, in order for an affiliate program to work, user visits need to be properly tracked. And that’s a prime example of the usefulness of cookies. Let’s break it down, continuing the Apple example: User clicks on your affiliate link A cookie gets dropped in the user’s browser as they are redirected to the Apple Store They make a purchase During checkout, the store website checks for affiliate cookies If any are found, the transaction is logged, and you get your…
