There are all types of crafty names “Optimization adjustment”, “Throttle”, or good old “front end scrub”
Being a media buyer I find this nothing short of thievery and feel it should be exposed. It all started back in the early stages of coreg in 2004. Many of you remember the first wave of one field offers out there free $10 Burger King Card etc. when the RPU (revenue per user) dropped below a certain level the advertiser started scrubbing or not reporting all pixel fires, A terrible dishonest practice which has now evolved into tracking systems like Hitpath, Cake, Hasoffers and others adding “adjustment buttons” which allows networks to pay any rate they want and then scrub it down to make it profitable.
Shame on you guys.
As one guy I will leave nameless said on one of my private discussion groups “A performance based industry has got to operate in a completely ethical manner that is beyond reproach when otherwise you have nothing left.”
This new unscrupulous business practice creates a whole new set of problems as unrealistic CPA’s have now hit the market combined with turbulent EPC’s that literally move quicker than Victor Cruz down the field. As the market gets tighter and more and more companies that should not have ever been in business struggle to make ends meet (or a Lambo payment) they result in just re brokering other peoples offers and paying out a astounding rate and then scrubbing it. Shame on you guys.
What does this mean to legitimate Marketers?
Stay sharp, know your metrics and do not be fooled by some B.S. bait and switch payout. This is your livelihood. Every marketer needs to understand that just because someone is a “Network” does not mean they can pay their bills nor has money to pay bills. Just look at the over 2 dozen companies that have gone out of business in the past year leaving Affiliates high and dry on millions on dollars, many to reopen their doors (sometimes simultaneously under a new name)check out helloperformance.com (same owners as COPEAC) or how about Tattoo media?..Sold for 60 million in “assets” and new owner did not take on any of the old “liability” i.e. publisher money they owed. There is still a ton of opportunity out there in this growing space I urge you to choose your partners wisely. Ask for financial statements or payment references. There are great resources out there. On Facebook check out the “Internet Advertising – People Who Don’t Pay” group. It is always full of dead beat listings and real accounts of people not paying publishers.
