Ad hijacking is a practice in which dishonest affiliates place search ads that look nearly identical to a brand’s official ads. They copy headlines, text, and display URLs, so users see what appears to be a legitimate campaign. The reality is that these affiliates—often engaged in affiliate hijacking and other affiliate program scams—redirect clicks through their own tracking links to earn commissions they have not truly generated. Sometimes, this trick is called affiliate ad hijacking when it happens within an affiliate program. In many cases, the affiliate uses an affiliate link cloaker to hide the final redirect and keep brands or ad platforms from noticing. If a user clicks on one of these ads, they land on the brand’s site with a secret affiliate tag attached. The brand then pays a commission for what should have been a direct visit or a regular paid search click.
How Affiliate Hijacking Affects Your Brand
When ad hijacking and other affiliate program scams go unchecked, it can seriously hurt a company’s finances and reputation. First, affiliate hijacking causes brands to pay unnecessary commissions on sales that would have come at no added cost. By placing look-alike ads on branded keywords, the hijacker competes with the brand’s legitimate ads or even outranks them, resulting in higher cost-per-click (CPC) for the real advertiser. Meanwhile, affiliate ad hijacking can distort your performance data. It skews attribution metrics, showing inflated affiliate sales while reducing direct or organic search traffic. Over time, you may make decisions (like boosting affiliate commissions) based on false performance numbers. Plus, if the hijacker uses an affiliate link cloaker, they can cover their tracks, making it harder for your marketing team to see where the affiliate traffic is coming from.
Spotting Ad Hijacking in Action
Recognizing ad hijacking and online ad fraud can be challenging because the ads often look exactly like the brand’s own campaigns. Still, there are some warning signs:
• Imitation Ads: If you notice an ad that mirrors your official wording, design, or domain but does not appear in your ad platform account, that could be affiliate hijacking. Sometimes the ad’s displayed URL is identical to the real site, and only a minor difference in punctuation or an extra keyword gives it away.
• Sudden Spikes: A large, unexpected jump in sales attributed to a single affiliate might suggest affiliate ad hijacking. If you have not launched new promotions or changed your commission, it is worth investigating.
• Redirect Clues: An affiliate link cloaker can disguise the route a user takes after clicking an ad. However, you may spot unusual tracking parameters in your analytics or see suspicious referral codes that show up only during certain times or in specific regions.
The Challenge of Manual Detection
Brands often rely on periodic checks—typing their own name into a search engine—to see if anything suspicious pops up. This manual process rarely catches ad hijacking because rogue affiliates are clever about when and where they run ads. They might bid on a brand’s keywords only late at night or target a single city on the other side of the country. Moreover, advanced affiliate hijacking tactics include cloaking. In this scenario, if the affiliate’s software recognizes a brand monitor or bot-like IP, it redirects to the genuine site, concealing any wrongdoing. Detecting these tricks requires continuous global monitoring and sophisticated technology—spot checks just are not enough.
The Adidas Case: Over 100 Instances Found in 40 Days
A clear example comes from Adidas. During a 40-day period, Bluepear discovered repeated ad hijacking and online ad fraud that impacted the company’s branded search results. More than 100 violations of affiliate hijacking were logged, where affiliates impersonated the Adidas ad, sometimes placing it above the official one. Bluepear also found that these fraudsters had created countless variations—at least 245 ads—aiming to remain hidden.
This shows why checking for affiliate ad hijacking on your own can be so frustrating. These hijackers often appear in small markets or at times when brand employees are not likely to look. Even if the brand runs a quick search from its main office, everything might seem fine. Yet behind the scenes, especially in niche geos or off-peak hours, affiliates can exploit your name. Because some view these tactics as a hijack industry standard, they keep trying new ad variations until they are caught.
How Bluepear Helps and Why It Matters
Bluepear combats ad hijacking in multiple ways. First, it runs continuous checks in different locations and at all hours. If an affiliate starts targeting a brand’s keyword at 3 a.m. in a small city, Bluepear still captures it. Second, it uncovers each instance of affiliate hijacking and shares robust evidence:
• Detailed ID Tracking: Bluepear shows which affiliate is responsible for the ads, so the brand can pinpoint violators quickly.
• Documented Ads & Landing Pages: The system records both the ad link and the final page, making it easy to prove affiliate ad hijacking if the affiliate disputes the charge.
• Screenshots: Brands receive actual images of the search engine results page, so there is no question about how high the hijacker’s ad was placed.
• Easy Violation Reporting: Within Bluepear, you can send a summary of the infraction directly to the affiliate, complete with timestamps and URLs.
In Adidas’s case, Bluepear found more than a hundred offending ads in just a few weeks. That is a stark reminder that some affiliates treat deception as a hijack industry standard and rely on the brand not noticing. By consistently monitoring every major search engine around the globe, Bluepear raises the bar on compliance.
One final layer to mention: some affiliates use more than one affiliate link cloaker or rely on rotating domain techniques to dodge detection. Bluepear’s constant scanning and data cross-referencing make it tough for these fraudsters to stay hidden. The tool also streamlines your response—no more juggling spreadsheets or trying to gather proof from multiple ad reports.
Conclusion
Ad hijacking is a major threat to any brand that values its online presence and affiliate relationships. Thanks to around-the-clock surveillance, Bluepear caught over 100 instances of affiliate hijacking for Adidas in 40 days, proving how common these stealthy violations can be. By combining real-time global checks, cloaking and click fraud detection, and strong reporting features, Bluepear helps brands close the loopholes that ad hijackers exploit, keep valuable traffic, and maintain confidence in their affiliate programs.
