Welcome to the wonderful world of brandbidding - and yes, you facilitated the scam by using coupon codes (hint: by 2013, they do you a major UX disservice for t

Welcome to the wonderful world of brandbidding - and yes, you facilitated the scam by using coupon codes (hint: by 2013, they do you a major UX disservice for the reasons everyone is mentioning). It's been out there for a decade, but networks still do a horrible job at explaining the situation for you, as they're cashing in as well. Affiliate marketing is no more of a "free lunch" than all the other marketing methods out there. You got to either know your shit to protect yourself from fraud or pay someone to do it for you. Either way, you need to actively manage your publishers and watch out for the metrics you presented for all of the channels you're employing. If you're handing out free money without looking after what you are getting out of it, be sure that there will be someone to claim it. Wisely used and managed, affiliate marketing can definitely be another valuable tool in your marketing chain, but the total costs will be comparable to anything else.