Afiliados

Undue commissions: how affiliates can become competitors?

gustavo-mariotto · Published on August 06, 2024 · Updated on April 10, 2026

The vast majority of companies that value the digital protection of their brands are already in the habit of actively monitoring their competitors. However, few of them tend to pay attention to what is done by their partners and affiliates.

This is where a great danger lurks: undue commission. But what is this practice, after all, how is it carried out, what are its impacts on companies' profitability and, above all, how to avoid it becoming a legal issue?Come with Branddi and understand how to protect your brand from undue commission!

What is undue commission?

Affiliate marketing is a growing trend in the corporate world, after all, it allows more flexibility, reduces costs and increases the visibility of your products and services. To achieve this, however, it is essential that the policies determined in the affiliation agreement are followed.

This is not what happens in cases of undue commission. In them, the affiliate breaks the signed agreement and goes beyond what was determined to gain financial advantages, “stealing” organic traffic from the main company to profit from conversions that would not happen in sponsored campaigns.

In other words, this practice combines brand bidding with attribution deviation from what was previously agreed between parent company and affiliate.

Undue commission, attribution deviation and brand bidding

The unauthorized use of a brand's institutional keywords by a competing company is called brand bidding. However, when this practice is carried out by a partner or affiliated company, we call it misattribution.

These occurrences, which have dominated the corporate legal debate currently, occur when the affiliated company maliciously uses its partner's sponsored campaigns. That is, they unfairly seek to elevate their links above even the main brand to earn commissions. id="">Duplicate sales: when the same sale is attributed to more than one affiliate, generating double payments;Improper cooking: occurs when a cookie is inserted on a user's device without their consent, with the aim of incorrectly attributing a sale to an affiliate;Violation of program rules: when the affiliate uses unauthorized methods to promote products or services, such as spam, purchasing paid traffic without authorization, etc.But how can this really impact brands?

What are the main threats behind undue commissions?

One of the main points about undue commissions is that they can affect brands in the most different ways, both in the efficiency of their paid campaigns and in the relationship with your partners and expenses.

For this reason, it is so important to have a watchful eye, capable of identifying these threats before they delve into serious problems. Check below the three main negative issues caused by attribution deviations and undue commissions:

Increase in the brand's institutional CPC

As the company's keywords are being used in an unauthorized way, it is common for undue commissions to increase the cost per click of campaigns. In this way, the brand is unable to see significant returns on its marketing strategies, as this value is being altered. After all, every unnecessary expense reduces the amount that could be invested in actions truly oriented towards the company's objectives.

However, to talk about this increase in expenses, we need to consider the entire panorama involved in these cases. This is because, in addition to the increase in the institutional CPC, this type of unfair competition also increases the company's expenses with commissions and actions that do not generate a return or real value. id="">Increased distrust between affiliates and advertisersFinally, another main result of deviations in attribution and payment of undue commission is the creation of a constant climate of distrust between advertisers and affiliates. After all, they can generate erroneous accusations and break the harmonious bond that existed until then.

This, however, does not only harm the relationship between the two companies involved: it is also capable of affecting even the reputation of the affiliate program and the main brand. This is because affiliate programs with a high incidence of undue commissions usually have greater difficulty in attracting new partners and advertisers.

How to eliminate undue commissions from your concerns in your affiliate program?

Now that we have talked about the main issues surrounding undue commissions, it is common for you to be wondering how to eliminate this threat from your affiliate program.

It was with this in mind that we, at Branddi, put together three practical tips to help your brand deal in a more transparent and positive way with its partners! Let's go?

Tip 1: Create objective and clear rules for your affiliation policy

Establishing clear guidelines about what is and is not allowed in your brand's affiliation program reduces the possibility of “gray areas”. That is, everyone will know what is and is not expected and will be aware of the limits that cannot be crossed.

Tip 2: Conduct regular audits

Conducting regular audits ensures that all affiliates remain compliant. This way, your brand can form much more aligned and lasting partnerships.

Tip 3: Prioritize constant monitoring

Actively monitoring your brand's exclusive terms and elements is an essential step to finding suspicious occurrences before they hurt your company.

However, this can be a complicated action, especially for companies with a large number of affiliates in your program. In these moments, relying on a specialist company like Branddi can be the ideal tool to protect your program efficiently and still have time to focus on other objectives. We know how valuable your company is, that's why we are experts in brand protection in the digital environment. In cases of unfair competition, such as brand bidding, misattribution or commercial violations, our team offers continuous and in-depth monitoring at a global level, simulating different locations, times and devices.

In this way, we can even find affiliates who are working to circumvent superficial surveillance on Google Search and Google Shopping.

When we identify these unfair affiliates, we send friendly notifications asking for regulation of the partnership. This action not only protects the affiliation program, but also avoids the legal development of these cases.

Proof of our effectiveness are our results: reduction in CPC by 70% and an average increase of 20% in organic clicks. In addition to a 90% reduction in spending on costly legal actions.

Don't let your brand suffer from undue commissions: count on Branddi support!

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