Stop fake installs in your affiliate programme
Fraudulent CPI affiliates generate fake app installs through device farms and bot scripts, claiming commission payouts for installs that never involved a real user.
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
Fake installs drain CPI commission budgets without acquiring real users
Cost Per Install affiliate programmes are among the most fraud-exposed models in digital marketing. Fraudulent publishers use device farms, bot scripts, and emulator environments to generate install events that appear legitimate to your MMP and affiliate network. Each fake install triggers a CPI commission payout, but there is no real user behind it. Your cost per loyal user is dramatically higher than your reported CPI suggests, and your user acquisition projections are built on inflated install numbers.
Sophisticated fake install operations go beyond the install event itself. To pass basic fraud filters that only check install quality, fraud networks simulate early in-app events, tutorial completions, first purchases, or registration steps, making installs appear to come from engaged users. These installs pass your MMP's fraud rules, clear your affiliate network's quality checks, and are paid out as valid CPI conversions. Tapper analyses the full session lifecycle, from click to install to post-install behaviour, to identify the inconsistencies that distinguish fake installs from genuine user acquisition.
How Tapper stops fake installs on Affiliate
Three steps from connection to clean data, no engineering required.
01
Connect your MMP and affiliate tracking
Tapper integrates with your mobile measurement partner and affiliate network, monitoring the full attribution chain from click through to install and post-install events.
02
Fake installs detected across the full funnel
Tapper analyses device signals, click-to-install timing, session behaviour, and post-install event patterns to identify fake installs, including sophisticated operations that simulate early in-app events to bypass basic fraud filters.
03
Commission payouts protected at every CPI tier
Fraudulent install attributions are rejected before commission calculations, protecting your CPI budget and ensuring your publisher tier rankings reflect genuine user acquisition performance.
Fake installs by the numbers
Data from Tapper's platform analysis and published industry research.
10-15%
Of affiliate spend lost to fraud on average
28%
Of mobile installs are fraudulent globally on average
64%
Of affiliate programmes experience significant fraud
Tapper vs Affiliate Network Fraud Detection
See exactly where the gaps are, and why they matter to your bottom line.
Fake install detection
Full session lifecycle analysis from click to post-install
Install-level signal matching only
Simulated in-app event detection
Behavioural analysis identifies scripted event sequences
Post-install events not analysed
MMP integration
Compatible with AppsFlyer, Adjust, Kochava, Singular, and Branch
Network-native data only
Pre-payment fraud rejection
Fraudulent installs excluded before commission calculated
Dispute process after payout
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 stopping fake installs on Affiliate.
Fake installs corrupt your user acquisition data at every level. Your reported CPI appears lower than your real cost of acquiring genuine users. Your user cohorts include non-existent users who skew your retention, LTV, and engagement metrics. Publisher rankings based on install volume favour fraudulent sources over legitimate partners who drive real, high-quality users.
MMPs provide a baseline level of install fraud detection, but their detection focuses on known device-signal patterns and CTIT rules. Sophisticated fake install operations using device farms or emulator environments that correctly replicate device signals can bypass MMP detection. Tapper adds a behavioural analysis layer that identifies fraud patterns MMPs are not designed to catch.
Tapper provides per-publisher fraud scoring across all commission tiers. Fraudulent installs are rejected before they are included in any tier's performance metrics, ensuring that commission rates, tier promotions, and publisher rankings are calculated on genuine install data only.
Other fraud types affecting Affiliate
Affiliate campaigns face multiple fraud vectors. Tapper covers them all.
Stop fake installs on Affiliate today
Join advertisers who stopped paying for traffic that was never real. Book a demo and we will show you exactly what Tapper blocks on your account.