Brand Bidding in Affiliate Programs: What to Allow and How to Enforce It

Affiliate brand bidding rules sound dull until you find out you’ve been paying commission on your own customers. Picture someone standing outside your shop, handing your customers a flyer for your shop as they walk in, then sending you an invoice. That’s brand bidding.

[Puts the flyer in the recycling]

Here’s how it works. A partner buys paid search ads on your brand name and sends the clicks through their affiliate link. The customer was already looking for you. You pay commission on a sale you’d almost certainly have made anyway, and often pay more for your own clicks too, because now the partner is bidding against your ads.

It’s one of the most common leaks in affiliate programs. The good news is that clear terms stop most of it.

Decide your policy

There are three common approaches.

• Ban it completely. No partner bids on your brand name, variations or misspellings. Simplest to explain and easiest to enforce.
• Allow it by agreement. Selected partners can bid on your brand in specific markets or search engines where you don’t advertise, usually at a lower commission rate.
• Allow it with limits. Partners can bid on wider phrases that include your brand, such as your brand name plus “alternatives”, but never on your brand name on its own.

For most brands I’d go with a clear ban, plus written exceptions for the rare partner who genuinely adds something in paid search.

Write terms with no gaps in them

Vague terms lead to very long emails. Spell out exactly what isn’t allowed.

• Bidding on your brand name, product names, common misspellings and combinations such as your brand plus “discount” or “login”.
• Using your brand name in ad text or display URLs.
• Sending ad clicks straight to your website through an affiliate link.
• Doing any of the above through a friend, a cousin or a second account.

Say which search engines and markets the rules cover, and what happens when someone breaks them.

Keep an eye on it

You can’t rely on partners to report themselves. Search your main brand terms regularly in each market you sell in, and look for ads that aren’t yours. Brand monitoring tools can do this automatically and save the evidence for you. Also watch your reports for partners whose sales arrive with very little content behind them. Flyer people rarely write reviews.

Enforce it fairly

Have a clear process and use it for everyone.

1. Record the evidence. The search, the ad and the date.
2. Contact the partner, explain the breach and ask them to stop.
3. Reverse the commission earned through the breach, as your terms allow.
4. Remove anyone who does it again.

Most partners stop as soon as they know you’re watching. The few who don’t are rarely worth keeping.

Look after the partners who play fair

Brand bidding doesn’t just cost you money. It takes credit away from the content sites and creators who did the real work of persuading the buyer. Enforcing your rules is how you keep those partners keen.

Our own editorial standards rule out bidding on a partner’s brand without written agreement, and we hold the programs we manage to the same standard. So, no flyers outside the shop. If you’d like help tightening up your program, have a look at our program management work.