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Ads Lighthouse

Glossary

Affiliate brand bidding

A plain definition, the context behind it, what Ads Lighthouse can and cannot observe, and the official sources.

Definition
Affiliate brand bidding is an affiliate buying ads on a merchant's brand searches to earn commission on the resulting sales.

Many affiliate programs forbid or limit bidding on the merchant's brand, because those customers were already looking for the merchant. Others allow it under conditions, such as only in some countries or never with the brand in the ad text.

The rules live in the program terms, so the first step is always to check what the specific partner agreed to.

How Ads Lighthouse observes it

If you set your affiliate URL parameter, Ads Lighthouse reads it from the destination of saved ads and shows which affiliate IDs appeared, on which searches and when. Non-compliant affiliates lists IDs whose ads used your brand name on a domain you do not own, as cases to review.

Official sources

Sources checked on .

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