I spent around 5000$ to send in traffic for a network Network Name : CPAcampaigns , Website : www.cpacampaigns.com After Recieving my leads . After one month they told they were fraud. Even the referer perfectly shows they are from search . Today when i asked my payment this is what the affiliate manager replied. Coolcowboy (08:22 PM) : Hello melissacpacamp (08:23 PM) : hello Coolcowboy (08:23 PM) : I just called u up . Not sure if i am not audiable melissacpacamp (08:24 PM) : there was no one on the line melissacpacamp (08:24 PM) : what's up? Coolcowboy (08:24 PM) : Its regarding my payment . Today is 1st . melissacpacamp (08:24 PM) : you are correct melissacpacamp (08:25 PM) : this is what has happened - all of the leads sent on the Ellis offer - the school has said that none of them are any good, therefore we will not be paying for them Coolcowboy (08:25 PM) : Well the leads are perfect from search engine . Coolcowboy (08:25 PM) : There is no way anyone can cheat it ryt melissacpacamp (08:26 PM) : and as per our Terms and Conditions, when fraud occurs, we reserve the right to refuse all payments, so I am sorry, but there will be no payments sent to you Coolcowboy (08:26 PM) : Ok . I guess you need to keep all your documents perfect Coolcowboy (08:26 PM) : there are no terms and conditions during signup Coolcowboy (08:26 PM) : and also the traffic i have sent is perfect. melissacpacamp (08:27 PM) : uh. yes there are terms and conditions that you have to agree to to become an affiliate melissacpacamp (08:27 PM) : it will not let you continue without agreeing to them Coolcowboy (08:27 PM) : Okey . Thats fine actording to that its net 30 Coolcowboy (08:27 PM) : i did wait for 30 days melissacpacamp (08:27 PM) : we also have heard that this has happened with you on other networks, so there really is no room to discuss this Coolcowboy (08:27 PM) : and well the traffic is perfect and the leads are not fraudlent Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : bcos i dont have any direct contact with the person who wil produce the lead Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : so i am in no way concrened Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : i have my google adword bills to prove things Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : and also the referer Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : i guess i need to speak to your ceo Coolcowboy (08:28 PM) : Well this is not the way to deal with the affiliates who send traffic from search Coolcowboy (08:29 PM) : I am not sending any free traffic in here melissacpacamp (08:29 PM) : Actually, you do not need to speak to my CEO - he is in complete agreement with me - and so is Sandy. melissacpacamp (08:29 PM) : We make united decisions here, and we never pay for fraud. Coolcowboy (08:29 PM) : Just prove me one thing Coolcowboy (08:29 PM) : that i made a fraud melissacpacamp (08:29 PM) : Yes? Coolcowboy (08:29 PM) : the referer is so clear Coolcowboy (08:29 PM) : that its being sent from Google melissacpacamp (08:30 PM) : NONE of the leads were accepted by the school - mostly because NONE of the email addresses or phone numbers worked Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : if they just say that not to play Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : pay* Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : i cant be responsible for that Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : i have sent in the traffic melissacpacamp (08:30 PM) : It expressly says that if the lead is incomplete or invalid, it can't and won't be paid for melissacpacamp (08:30 PM) : You have sent BAD traffic Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : . Well you can say that i made a mistake if i drive in traffic from my website . Pay incentives to users Coolcowboy (08:30 PM) : and make them signup melissacpacamp (08:31 PM) : and, as I said, this is not the first time you have done this - I asked around and you have done this before on other networks. Coolcowboy (08:31 PM) : its so clear the traffic is from search melissacpacamp (08:31 PM) : Wait - you " Coolcowboy (08:31 PM) : well you can check with all others melissacpacamp (08:31 PM) : Pay incentives to users melissacpacamp (08:31 PM) : ??? Coolcowboy (08:31 PM) : i said i wont be paying incentives to users melissacpacamp (08:31 PM) : That is expressly forbidden on this offer Coolcowboy (08:31 PM) : as i am not having any direct contact with them Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : and well which network did i do this to ?? melissacpacamp (08:32 PM) : Regardless, there really is nothing left to discuss - I am sorry if you spent money to send these leads, but the leads are considered fraud and WILL NOT be paid for Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : i am being paid by all networks for which i do search traffic Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : ok fine Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : wait for the notice melissacpacamp (08:32 PM) : Notice? Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : yup melissacpacamp (08:32 PM) : What kind of notice? Coolcowboy (08:32 PM) : You will hear soon melissacpacamp (08:32 PM) : Just so I can let our attorneys know melissacpacamp (08:33 PM) : they are waiting Coolcowboy (08:33 PM) : sure melissacpacamp (08:33 PM) : thank you I am just planning to sue them for this as they wont repeat with anyother publisher of affiliate.
Name added. Such networks should be sued. I didnt know abt them . Atleast such networks should completely banned so that others wont be at loss like me .
damn, First, their website doesn't even work in FF. They need to die. I had similar story with another affiliate program: I run a poker website (a great one actually). A guy from CPays.com contacted me and told me he wants me to enroll is their affiliate program. Well, my website has a no affiliate whatsoever policy. So I told him he can run an add, a banner, dedicated section in forums, and a dedicated page for one year for $500. He immediately jumped on it and said sure. Let's do that. Then he told me to put the banners up and he'll send the money. I told him I'll wait until the money is sent. Long story short, he made me wonder for 2 weeks and never paid. Every time I talked to him he was trying to convince me to put the ads up for 2 months under affiliate program and then he would be willing to pay me even more. I had heard from other people how affiliate companies use you to run those two months of affiliate ads and then tell you how they do not feel the website has enough potential to make it a paid ad. Therefore the only way would be to stay on affiliate. My simple policy is no affiliate ads. If someone wants to advertise on my website, pay in advance and enjoy all your earnings.
Maybe I'm not up on the affiliate programs as much as some, but why would someone pay $5000 in order to drive traffic to an affiliate site? Affiliate programs are set up for you to drive traffic to their site using the visitors of your site... Placing direct search engine ads doesn't seem like it would follow an affiliate's TOS. They are usually extremely clear about what you can place in order to drive traffic (i.e. pre-defined banner ads and text links). So if you are creating your own ads, using your own ad copy, etc, then you are essentially assuming their advertising identity, which I'm sure, they wouldn't like. Also, the whole point of affiliate programs isn't just to drive traffic to their site, it's to drive buffered traffic which can convert to sales. By buffered I mean the following. You create a site with users who like your site, the content, features, etc. You gain a certain level of legitimacy in the eyes of your users by offering quality content, so they are more likely to click on an ad from a site they trust. So your site is acting as a buffer from raw leads to potentially motivated buyers who have faith in your recommendations. By removing this buffer, you are just sending random people to the site. I know they may have searched for a specific term, but if I search for "football" I'm not necessarily looking to buy sports equipment, I may be looking for game stats. And if you create the ad with your own copy, the affiliate company has no way to ensure that the traffic coming to the site is targeted. I obviously don't know the entire story behind your particular situation, so some of the things I've said may not be completely accurate, but generally speaking, it seems to me that an affiliate company has every right to deny you payment if you have not followed their TOS. I wouldn't pay for leads that weren't targeted.
You Got it Wrong. Traffic was not driven to their website . It was two campaigns that i did run . One was Ellis among them . And i did no wrong in driving traffic . I went according to the terms of the campaign . Before i started running campaigns i clearly mentioned them that i will be driving traffic from Search .While i did run the campaign the affiliate manager was happy with it and when it came to payment, they made me sad. You can check this thread for more information http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=184579
If you were serious about taking legal action, you wouldn't announce it on a public forum. Do you know that by saying that, they could actually come after you?
Its not a matter of 100$ or 200$ . I am loosing my 5000$ . My time which is even more important . I am Serious Regarding this . CPAcampaigns CEO has emailed me . I just replied him . I am hoping for a positive reply as i made no mistake for sure. Well i am here to let other publishers and affiliates know about it and not to loose money like me after driving traffic.
I'm a bit confused. Is it true that the terms and conditions say that " if the lead is incomplete or invalid, it can't and won't be paid for" ? If that is true, and people coming from your site were filling in bogus information in the forms (and if you were paying incentives for people to sign up I wouldn't be surprised), you may be SoL, since they weren't looking for traffic, they were looking for leads. Or did you only pay incentives to people after you had verified that they had entered legitimate information into the form?
He said he wasnt paying incentives... He had no direct contact with the people, because they were coming straight from search engine ads. But I agree about the leads bit, but I guess it depends entirely on the TOS. After looking at the signup page, I'm not seeing a TOS, but it might be further in the signup process, or like the OP stated, it isn't there at all.
Did you read what he even wrote? He was running a adwords(or similar) campaign. So how is it he could even make a kickback type of agreement? It appears he was straight ripped off, or the company has such a liberal policy in favor of the advertisers that they can basically get away with not paying for something that is completely out of the hands of the referrer.
You do realize you can use a search campaign with an affiliate ad campaign. This is STANDARD practice.
I want to make it perfectly clear to you that the report we received from the advertiser for the Ellis leads you supplied depicts incomplete information, only email addresses that are undeliverable and disconnected telephone numbers. As a result of these circumstances the advertiser determined that the leads were obviously bogus and so far as refused to pay for them. If you can supply a legitimate reason why all of the leads supplied present with these discrepancies I am happy to take this to the advertiser. Pursuant to our Terms and Conditions that you agreed to at the time of signup, the onus is on you to substantiate bona fide results. This situation has already cost us much wasted time both during the campaign and now continuing. I would prefer to resolve this matter without further delays, accordingly please forward the above information immediately and I'll see what can be done. I would have also preferred you had contacted me before expressing your venom in the affiliate forums with inaccurate information. Bill Tait CEO CPA Campaigns, LLC Office: (866) 855-4354 ext. 706 FAX: (877) 489-4810 wtait@cpacampaigns.com AIM - billcpacampaigns
What sort of system do you have in place to verify the claims of the advertisers? Or are you just going by their word? If the OP conducted search engine ad campaigns, and has proof of such, it stands to reason that he obviously had no direct contact with the users being led to the advertiser's site. They were all coming directly from search engines... So how would he have any control over what information they are entering? I also find it hard to believe that every user he led there supplied completely fake information. I can imagine a few doing it, but every single one? That's just unbelievable, and the fact that you aren't investigating this further on the advertiser's end proves that affiliates shouldn't do business with your company. Up until you replied, I was giving your company the benefit of the doubt, because I assumed there were extenuating circumstances that were the result of payment not being made. But you just clarified the exact reasons and they don't seem to hold water. There is absolutely no way that leads generated by a search engine campaign could be faked to the extent you and your advertisers are claiming. It doesn't make sense. So why don't you bone up and confront the advertiser to get this straightened out before your company gets even more of a blackeye? No one wants to be an affiliate of a company that screws their affiliates over.
Oh please, put the pitchforks and torches away people. There are two sides to this story and the 100% truth is that we don't know which side is telling the truth here so to take one side over the other is ridiculous.
True, two sides, and it appears both have had their say IN THIS FORUM. I'm siding with the affiliate. Adwords traffic can't be faked.
So you are claiming that he did not have a conversation with someone representing your company? Or are you claiming that he lied about running the adwords campaigns? What are you claiming is inaccurate?
I haven't read the TOS but if they're even called CPACampaigns, it would seem like they pay for leads, not hits. If that conversation was real, then I don't like the rep's attitude, on the other hand p;