Stand-Down Policy Compliance
Overview
Affiliate networks (where Wildfire's merchant partners come from) require that affiliates respect when a user has previously been “affiliated” and not market to those users. The spirit of this policy is to avoid confusing a user who may think that they can activate cashback through multiple products. For example, if a user has multiple Chrome extensions installed, the user may think that they can activate cashback in both extensions and earn double cashback. Similarly, if a user clicks through a blog's affiliate link to a product, that user is already “affiliated” and a Chrome extension should not pop a notification to ask the user if they want to earn cashback on that product. Doing so would cause the Chrome extension to steal the credit from the blog that brought the user to the product.
The good news is that Wildfire Systems' products already include compliance with networks' stand-down policies. By starting with either the Chrome Extension Template or the MCA SDK for Android, you will automatically be in compliance with the networks' stand-down policies.
How stand-down policy works
Each affiliate network has a different policy regarding stand-down, but the simplest way to comply is to take the following two actions:
- First, look for a few URL parameters and avoid marketing when those URL parameters are present. The following URL parameters will indicate that a user is already affiliated:
- afsrc=1
- affsource=1
- foid (set to any value)
- Second, some publishers use methods to link to merchants that don't involve URL parameters. To account for this case, your software should also look for any redirect sequences that go through one of the following URLs:
- www.anrdoezrs.net
- www.commission-junction.com
- www.dpbolvw.net
- www.apmebf.com
- www.jdoqocy.com
- www.kqzyfj.com
- www.qksrv.net
- www.tkqlhce.com
- www.qksz.net
- www.emjcd.com
- www.afcyhf.com
- www.awltovhc.com
- www.ftjcfx.com
- www.lduhtrp.net
- www.tqlkg.com
- www.awxibrm.com
- www.cualbr.com
- www.rnsfpw.net
- www.vofzpwh.com
- www.yceml.net
- www.cj-dotomi.com
Note: You may use the Getting to know the Wildfire JSON Data Feeds provided by Wildfire to reference a list of these query parameters and domains rather than hardcoding them in your software.
IMPORTANT: In addition to not marketing when these URL parameters or domains are part of a redirect sequence, your product should not market to the user for the duration of that user's session. In our conversations with networks, we've found that a one-hour window is a reasonable approximation for a user's session. Setting a cookie (or similar client-side storage) to track this one-hour timeout before you're able to market to the previously-affiliate user should comply with this policy.
What does it mean to market to a user?
Marketing to an already-affiliated user is generally defined as trying to “get the user's attention” with the intent to have them activate an affiliate link. Some networks simply say that you can't pop up any dialog box that has a call-to-action of activating cashback. Others describe that you also cannot animate your Chrome extension icon (highlighting the icon to show that the merchant is eligible is okay, though). We recommend taking a conservative approach and complying with the most restrictive policy for all networks. To comply with the stand-down policy, if a user is already affiliated, as described above, your product should follow these guidelines:
- Don't pop a modal asking the user to activate cashback.
- Don't animate or otherwise decorate your Chrome extension icon beyond color-filling.
Note: You may show the Chrome extension icon as available (changing the color of the icon is okay)
Other helpful resources to reference
