Cookie stuffing | Affiliate series part 1 of 5
We’re no experts in affiliate marketing, but we do state that we aim to “fix what’s broken in conversations with leads and clients”.
This includes understanding how leads are generated through affiliate networks, and why the statement “leads are bad” is more often true than false.
Feel free to correct us, add your input, or disagree in a small series of articles, where we will attempt to explain the “not so straight forward” marketing tactics currently at play.
What’s considered “proper” affiliate marketing?
When a user clicks a link, a cookie is placed on the user’s browser. This identifies the affiliate as the referrer. The user therefore took action, prior to being tracked.
Normally the workload required to produce an action from a user is big, since it involves investment in quality traffic, targeted content, audio/visual representations and real marketing efforts.
Cookie Stuffing
Cookie stuffing on the other hand, places tracking cookies on a user’s browser without their consent or click on a link or ad. How? By forcing the browser to load an affiliate link in the background that automatically drops a cookie. Hence the name “cookie dropping”.
Techniques include:
- Invisible iframes (inline frames), 1x pixel size to secretly load the link
- javaScript code (malicious) is injected into the browser to load the link
- tracking pixels in invisible 1×1 pixel image, when loading it loads the link
- browser extensions (malicious) designed to load the link during normal browsing.
Cookie stuffing has several systemic downsides:
Low quality leads
Lead numbers inflate, but without much potential for conversion
Distorted analytics and attribution
Marketing analytics no longer accurately reflect which channels or campaigns are really driving outcomes. The result? Poor decision-making and budget misallocation.
Financial impact
Payments for conversions that were not legitimately earned. Each payout drains marketing budgets and reduces return on ad spend.
Damage to affiliate ecosystems
Affiliates who generate quality leads or sign-ups lose commissions unfairly. Some resort to doing the same to compensate, but the bottom-line hurts trust and partnership quality.
Legal and compliance risks
Many affiliate programs explicitly prohibit cookie stuffing in their terms. Placing cookies without consent can breach privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA, with regulatory penalties.
“I registered by accident” or similar, is a common response that may originate from cookie stuffing. You may want to say “thank you” or “sorry to bother you” as an immediate response, but is your value proposition applicable to everyone?
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allFX-Consult is an industry trainer since 2014. Our corporate trainings power teams across the globe, in an effortless and non-disruptive way in an effort to build, rejuvenate, reskill and upskill participants in our space.
Our 1-on-1 sessions with individuals/professionals, aim to capture the real essence of a lead or client, always according to the company’s value proposition. Exploring a conversation (and to go a step further, having an impactful conversation), doesn’t recognize hot and cold leads. Its the mandate we get as soon as we onboard the role of a brand ambassador and representative.
Contact us to arrange discreet, off-the-grid sessions with us to see how this is possible, and change the way you see leads forever.