Paid Traffic Detection

Some affiliates use paid ads (Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, etc.) to drive referrals — which often means you're paying commissions on traffic you're already paying for through ad spend. Paid Traffic Detection helps you identify and control this.

How It Works

Affonso analyzes incoming referral traffic for signals that indicate a paid advertising source. When a match is found, a fraud event is created in your Risk Center so you can review it.

Detection covers all major advertising platforms and uses multiple data points per referral to minimize false positives. Each event includes a confidence level (high or medium) so you can prioritize your review.

Three Modes

You can configure Paid Traffic Detection per affiliate program in your Risk Center Settings:

Off — No detection. All referrals proceed normally. This is the default.

Detect — Referrals flagged as paid traffic are still approved and earn commissions, but a pending event is created for your review. Use this to monitor your program before taking action.

Block — Referrals flagged as paid traffic are automatically rejected. Commissions are still calculated but created with a Declined status, so you have a full audit trail. You can manually change a Declined earning to Approved if the block was a false positive. A resolved event is logged for your review.

Setting It Up

1. Go to your Risk Center Settings
2. Find Paid Traffic Detection
3. Set your preferred mode
4. Save your changes

Recommended: Start with Detect mode for 1–2 weeks to understand your traffic patterns before switching to Block.

Reviewing Flagged Events

When paid traffic is detected, you'll see events in your Risk Center with the type Paid Traffic. Each event shows:

• The affiliate and referral involved
• The confidence level of the detection
• Which advertising platform was identified

From there you can:

• Confirm the event as fraud — the referral is rejected and commissions are declined
• Resolve the event as a false positive — the referral keeps its original status

What Affiliates See

Affiliates don't see fraud events or detection details. If a referral is blocked, they'll see the referral status as rejected in their portal — the same as any other rejected referral.

Things to Keep in Mind

• Detection only applies to new referrals going forward. Existing referrals aren't retroactively checked.
• In Block mode, transaction.created and transaction.rejected webhooks are still emitted for blocked referrals so external systems stay in sync.
• If detection encounters an error, the referral proceeds normally — the system never blocks a referral due to a technical failure.
• You can change modes at any time. Switching from Detect to Block won't affect previously approved referrals.

Questions about paid traffic in your program? Contact support and we'll help you find the right setup.