Solution
You are paying commission
on traffic you already had.
An affiliate bids your brand term, intercepts someone who was already coming to you, and invoices you for the introduction. The hard part is proving which ad is an affiliate's.
You notice it like this
- Affiliate revenue share is climbing without any matching lift in total volume.
- Coupon and deal sites appear above you on “your brand + discount”.
- Your programme manager says everything is within policy, and cannot show you otherwise.
Why it happens
Every ad on your brand term looks the same from the outside. The difference is in the destination URL: a genuine affiliate click carries a network identifier that ordinary paid traffic never does. Without reading that, you are guessing — and guessing wrong means accusing a legitimate advertiser.
What Marley does about it
2 capabilitiesWhat you see
https://deals-hub.example/go/yourbrand? irclickid=aG9wc2NvdGNo & gclid=Cj0KCQjw & utm_source=google & utm_campaign=affiliate_q3
Verdict: affiliate, via Impact. Identity captured, evidence packaged, complaint ready to review.