What is a Chargeback?

A chargeback is a form of consumer protection where the consumer disputes a payment on his account to a card company or bank and the transaction is reversed.  A  chargeback can range from a innocent mistake by the user to a malicious attempt at defrauding the merchant.

In affiliate marketing, the roles are slightly reversed.  The merchant becomes the consumer and the ad network is the new merchant.  A chargeback can be triggered by the merchant when it receives leads from the ad network that it deems to be fraudulent.

Reducing the risk of chargebacks should be a top priority for any affiliate market player.  There are several red flags to look out for.  The biggest giveaway would be if an affiliate has an abnormally high conversion rate.  An extremely high or low bounce rate, a low average session duration, and a disproportionate amount of visitors from a different country from the website’s content are also things to look out for.