Tales of Advertising Abuse: Affiliate Brand Bidding

This report analyzes a large-scale ad-fraud campaign called affiliate brand bidding, where affiliates place Google Ads using brand names to capture organic traffic and earn commissions; the study examined 605 brands and ~33K ads (6.9% identified as brand-bidding) and finds the abuse widespread across tech, e-commerce, and marketing sectors, often enabled by verified accounts and account sub-leasing, and provides mitigation steps such as contract changes, trademark registration, and active monitoring.