Guide

The holiday season is the biggest time for the year when campaigns scale fast, budgets expand, and every click counts. Brands prepare months in advance to capture the surge in consumer intent, aiming to convert festive enthusiasm into measurable ROI.  Affiliate marketing campaigns play a key role in this strategy, with brands amplifying their reach, boosting app installs, and attracting high-intent shoppers through affiliate partnerships.  In fact, the US affiliate market is valued at 11.53 billion in 2025 and is anticipated to grow at CAGR of 11.08%. This explosive growth shows how integral affiliate partnerships have become for digital marketing success, connecting brands with millions of potential customers.  But with scale comes risk. As affiliate traffic surges, so does the volume of invalid or fraudulent activity that hides within it. Many brands see higher traffic but unchanged conversions, a clear signal that all that “activity” isn’t coming from real users. That’s where ad traffic validation at all levels becomes essential.  In this guide, we will cover –  What is affiliate fraud?  Impact of affiliate fraud during the holiday season How can full-funnel ad traffic validation safeguard brand this holiday season?  Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)  Conclusion  What is Affiliate Fraud?  Affiliate fraud is when some affiliates perform any illegitimate activity to drive up numbers and generate commission from the inflated metrics. It spoils the campaign metrics and ROAS, especially during the holiday season, when it matters the most. This can occur due to any method of fraud, including fake leads, repeated leads, etc.   How Holiday Affiliate Fraud Impacts Performance   Affiliate fraud spikes during the holiday season as both customer activity and affiliate partnerships surge, with brands competing to capture maximum attention. Let’s look at how this impacts affiliate marketing campaigns and the common types of fraud that tend to peak during this time.  1. Surge in Budgets and Campaign Volume a. Why fraud rises: During the holidays, brands spend more and launch bigger campaigns. With so much traffic and so many clicks coming in, it becomes easier for fraudsters to hide fake activity.  b. Common fraud types: Fake clicks (known as click spamming or click injection), and brand keyword hijacking.  c. How it happens: Fraudsters use bots or click farms to generate thousands of fake clicks or inject clicks just before a real app install, stealing credit from genuine affiliates. Some even bid on your brand name in search ads to capture users looking for you.  d. Impact: Brands end up paying for fake traffic, face inflated costs per click (CPC), and see misleading data on engagement and conversions, paying more but getting less real performance.  2. Rush to Onboard New Affiliates a. Why fraud rises: As brands try to scale fast, they onboard new affiliates quickly, sometimes without proper checks. Fraudsters use this rush to sneak in as “legit” partners.  b. Common fraud types: Coupon misuse, referral fraud, fake conversions, and brand keyword hijacking.  c. How it happens: New or unverified affiliates may create multiple fake accounts, share discount codes widely, or run unauthorized ads using your brand name.   d. Impact: You end up paying fraudulent commissions, your CPC spikes unexpectedly, and your brand message appears in places you never approved.  Read in detail about referral and coupon fraud  3. Incentive-Driven Campaigns Become Fraud Magnets a. Why fraud rises: High cashback offers, discounts, or referral bonuses attract not just customers but also opportunists.  b. Common fraud types: Coupon fraud, referral fraud, and fake conversions.  c. How it happens: Fraudsters or bots create fake accounts to repeatedly use referral links or coupon codes. Some even set up “install farms” to fake app installs just to earn rewards.  d. Impact: You attract a flood of low-quality users who rarely return, damaging long-term retention and skewing your success metrics.  4. Attribution Manipulation Peaks a. Why fraud rises: Holiday campaigns offer higher payouts, so fraudsters compete to take credit for the “last click” that leads to a conversion.  b. Common fraud types: Click injection, and click spamming, also organic hijacking  c. How it happens: Fraudsters trigger fake clicks right before a user installs your app, making it look like they caused the conversion.  d. Impact: Real affiliates lose credit, your optimization decisions become inaccurate, and marketing spend shifts toward bad traffic sources.  5. More Sophisticated Automation Attacks a. Why fraud rises: Fraudsters use advanced bots that can imitate real users during high-traffic seasons.  b. Common fraud types: Fake clicks, fake signups, and automated referral abuse.  c. How it happens: They use tools like “headless browsers” (bots that act like real browsers without showing a screen) or emulators to mimic user actions like clicking ads or filling forms.  d. Impact: Your analytics fill with fake data, increasing payouts to dishonest affiliates and making performance reports unreliable.  6. Masked Fraud in High Volumes a. Why fraud rises: When traffic surges during the holidays, small signs of fraud easily get lost in the mix.  b. Common fraud types: All types, especially coupon/referral abuse and click spam.  c. How it happens: Fraudsters mix fake traffic with genuine visitors or spread out fake clicks over time to avoid detection tools. d. Impact: Fraud becomes harder to spot manually and slowly eats away at your budget and performance metrics.  7. Limited Time to Validate Data a. Why fraud rises: Fraud is no longer a black-and-white issue, and reviewing every click or conversion isn’t practical. Dishonest affiliates often blend legitimate traffic with incentivized fraud and organic hijacking, which are the real human interactions that show activity but no genuine intent to convert.  b. Common fraud types: Incent fraud and organic hijacking  c. How it happens: Fraudsters push fake activity in short bursts, ensuring they get paid before the fraud is discovered.  d. Impact: You end up getting non-genuine users who lead to wasted ad spend, skewed performance data, and lower overall campaign ROI.  How does mFilterIt’s Ad Fraud Detection Tool help Brands during Holiday Season?   To fight affiliate fraud effectively, brands need to validate ad traffic across the entire funnel, ensuring