Stop install fraud in your affiliate CPI campaigns
Affiliate CPI campaigns pay publishers for every app install, creating a direct incentive for fraudulent publishers to generate fake installs through device farms, bot scripts, and SDK spoofing. Your CPI spend is consumed by installs that never involved a real user, and your acquisition data is corrupted at its foundation. Tapper detects fraudulent installs before your programme pays out.
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
CPI affiliate fraud generates fake installs that drain your budget without acquiring real users
Cost per install is the most fraud-exposed model in affiliate marketing because the conversion event, an app install, is relatively easy to simulate at scale. Fraudulent publishers use device farms running banks of real or emulated devices, bot scripts that automate install sequences, and SDK spoofing techniques that transmit legitimate-looking install signals directly to your mobile measurement partner without any device involved. Each simulated install triggers a CPI commission payout. Your MMP reports growing install volumes, your affiliate network attributes the conversions to publishers, and real budget leaves your programme, all without a single genuine user downloading your app.
Sophisticated CPI fraud operators do not stop at the install event. To pass quality filters that check for post-install engagement, fraud networks simulate early in-app events, tutorial completions, first sessions, and registration steps. These installs appear engaged in your MMP dashboard, pass your affiliate network's fraud rules, and are paid out as valid CPI conversions. The fraud only becomes visible when your retention data shows these cohorts disappearing after the initial install period, or when your lifetime value projections based on inflated install volumes fail to materialise in revenue.
Tapper analyses the full funnel from click attribution through to post-install behaviour, identifying the technical and behavioural inconsistencies that distinguish fraudulent CPI installs from genuine user acquisitions. Device fingerprint anomalies, click-to-install timing distributions, session behaviour patterns, and post-install event sequences are all evaluated to surface fraud that bypasses standard MMP detection. Publisher-level reporting gives your programme management team actionable intelligence to remove fraud sources before they exhaust your CPI budget.
How Tapper protects your cpi campaigns on Affiliate
Three steps from connection to clean campaign data, no engineering required.
01
Connect your MMP and affiliate CPI tracking
Tapper integrates with your mobile measurement partner, including AppsFlyer, Adjust, Kochava, Singular, and Branch, and your affiliate network, monitoring the full attribution chain from click through to install event and post-install behaviour.
02
Fake installs detected across device, timing, and behavioural signals
Each install is evaluated for device fingerprint consistency, click-to-install timing distributions, session behaviour patterns, and post-install event sequences. Tapper identifies fake installs from device farms, bot scripts, and SDK spoofing operations, including sophisticated variants that simulate early in-app events to bypass standard quality filters.
03
Fraudulent installs rejected before CPI commission payouts
Installs flagged as fraudulent are excluded from commission calculations before payouts are issued, protecting your CPI budget and ensuring your publisher performance rankings are based on genuine user acquisition rather than inflated fraudulent install volumes.
CPI campaigns fraud by the numbers
Data from Tapper's platform analysis and published industry research.
28%
Of mobile app installs are fraudulent globally on average
64%
Of affiliate programmes experience significant fraud
$0
CPI commission paid on fraud-flagged installs with Tapper
Tapper vs Affiliate Network Fraud Detection
See exactly where the gaps are, and why they matter to your campaign performance.
Fake install detection
Full funnel analysis from click to post-install behaviour
Install-level signal matching only
SDK spoofing detection
Statistical and behavioural modelling identifies spoofed install signals
Device signal validation only, bypassed by spoofing
Simulated in-app event detection
Scripted post-install event sequences identified through behavioural analysis
Post-install events not analysed
Device farm identification
Device fingerprint grouping and cluster analysis across installs
IP blocklisting only
MMP compatibility
Works alongside AppsFlyer, Adjust, Kochava, Singular, and Branch
Relies on MMP native detection only
Pre-payout fraud rejection
Fraudulent installs excluded before commission calculated
Dispute process after CPI commission paid
Publisher-level fraud reporting
Per-publisher fake install rate with supporting evidence
Programme-level aggregate alerts only
Detection speed
Real-time fraud scoring per install event
Daily or weekly batch review
Trusted by industry leaders
See how companies are protecting their ad budgets and improving ROI with Tapper.
“Tapper played a key role in improving the efficiency of Du's performance marketing activity by addressing traffic quality issues within campaigns. Following implementation, Du achieved a 13% reduction in CPA and an 8.6% increase in order rate, demonstrating a clear improvement in conversion quality and overall campaign effectiveness.”
Joseph Elbcherrawy
Client Leadership Director, Mindshare, a WPP Media Brand
“During our Tapper trial for INFINITI, we uncovered low-quality traffic that wasn't visible inside the platforms. Removing it delivered a 14% uplift in conversions and an 11.4% reduction in CPA - a meaningful efficiency gain for INFINITI's 2026 growth plans.”
David Barnes
Data & Technology Lead, Omnicom Group
“With Tapper's protection we were able to identify and block invalid clicks in real time. The impact was immediate as our cost per acquisition dropped by 30% and ROAS improved significantly. More importantly, Tapper gives us the confidence that our campaigns are reaching genuine customers, which makes it truly invaluable.”
Dimitris Bakas
Senior Performance Marketing, Public Group
“We started using Tapper to get better visibility on where our clicks were coming from, and ended up cutting wasted spend by over 12%. The performance uplift was clear, and for the first time, we could trust the numbers we were seeing. It's a total game-changer for campaign integrity.”
Stuart Parkin
Director of Operations, Regit
“Tapper's blocking technology purifies our paid media traffic which roughly equates to a 36x return against its subscription costs. It's certainly one of the easiest-to-implement tools in our entire marketing stack.”
Reno Mindemann
Head of Growth, Kama Capital
“We've been using Tapper for over a year now, and it has become a core part of how we run paid media. Invalid traffic was always something we knew existed but couldn't really act on. Tapper changed that. We're now saving up to $50K per year, and on PureSquare specifically, we saw around a 20% decrease in CPA. Based on these results, we decided to roll it out across other ventures under Disrupt as well.”
Nurkan Kirkan
GTM Consultant / Paid Growth, Disrupt.com
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about protecting your cpi campaigns on Affiliate.
Common indicators include unusually high install volumes from specific publishers that do not translate into downstream engagement or revenue, very short click-to-install times that fall outside normal user behaviour distributions, install cohorts with near-zero retention rates after the initial session, and geographic concentrations that do not match your target market. Tapper monitors all of these signals continuously and surfaces fraud patterns without requiring manual analysis.
MMPs provide a baseline level of install fraud protection focused on known device signals and click-to-install timing rules. Sophisticated fraud operations, particularly device farms using real handsets and SDK spoofing attacks that replicate legitimate device signals, are designed to bypass MMP detection. Tapper adds a complementary layer of behavioural and statistical analysis that catches fraud patterns MMPs are not designed to identify.
Fake installs corrupt your acquisition data at every level. Your reported CPI appears lower than your true cost of acquiring genuine users. Publisher rankings based on install volume favour fraudulent sources over legitimate partners who drive real, engaged users. Your retention metrics, LTV projections, and revenue forecasts are all built on inflated install numbers that do not correspond to real user behaviour, leading to inaccurate business planning and misallocated budget.
Yes. Tapper's fraud analysis operates at the individual install level and provides fraud attribution across publisher and sub-publisher hierarchies. If a fraudulent sub-publisher is operating beneath a legitimate publisher account, Tapper surfaces the fraud at the sub-publisher level so your programme management team can take targeted action without penalising the broader publisher relationship.
Each flagged install includes a detailed fraud report covering the specific signals that triggered the fraud decision: device fingerprint analysis, click-to-install timing data, session behaviour scores, post-install event sequence analysis, and comparison against known SDK spoofing or device farm patterns. This evidence supports commission rejection before payout and can be submitted to your affiliate network as documentation for publisher suspension or removal.
Yes. Emulator-based install fraud generates distinctive device fingerprint characteristics and session behaviour patterns that differ from genuine physical devices. Tapper's device analysis identifies emulator signals including inconsistencies in sensor data, screen resolution patterns, and hardware identifier anomalies that real devices do not produce. These signals are combined with behavioural analysis to identify emulator-based fraud even when individual data points appear plausible.
Other campaign types on Affiliate
Each campaign type has its own fraud patterns. Tapper covers them all on Affiliate.
Stop paying for fraud on Affiliate cpi campaigns
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