Approved conversions, and why they get reversed

Most networks do not approve a conversion the moment it happens. They approve it after a window in which the advertiser can check it against their own records. A conversion that looks fine on Monday can be reversed on Friday, and the reason is almost always one of a small number of things.

Why a reversal happens

• The action did not complete. A trial was cancelled inside the free period, a form was filled in with details that do not belong to a real person, a purchase was refunded.
• The action was not real. Duplicate entries, automated submissions, and traffic that arrives from a device farm all get caught, usually late.
• The action came from somebody the campaign excludes. Advertisers often set the countries they want, and the reasons are usually commercial rather than personal.
• The traffic broke a campaign rule. Incentivising a sign-up, or telling people what to type into a form, is banned on most campaigns because it produces actions that do not hold.
• The advertiser simply declined it. They have the final say, and they do not always explain it.

What a reversal does to your balance

Every cent that moves through Campflow is written to a ledger, and nothing in that ledger is ever edited or deleted. A reversal adds a new entry that is negative, exactly equal to the creator share that was credited. The conversion itself is not removed; its status changes and the reason is kept.

That has two consequences worth understanding.

• If the conversion had not been paid out yet, the negative entry cancels it, and your pending balance simply goes down.
• If it had already been paid out, the negative entry stays on the ledger and nets off your next payout. You are never asked to send money back.

This is the reason pending commission and payable commission are shown as separate figures. A pending conversion is money the network has not approved yet. It is not yours, and it might not become yours. You can read the full rules on reversals if you want the contractual wording.

Reducing the chance of one

You cannot eliminate reversals, because you do not control the advertiser. You can make them rare:

1. Read the campaign rules before you plan anything, and take the banned methods seriously. Most rules exist because somebody abused them once.
2. Send traffic from a source the campaign allows. A well-performing placement on a channel the campaign excludes will be reversed, not forgiven.
3. Describe the offer honestly. People who arrive expecting something else behave in ways that get reversed.
4. Never fill anything in on someone else’s behalf, and never test a conversion form with fake details.
5. Watch your own numbers. A placement with a high click count and a sudden cluster of reversals is telling you something.

The FAQ covers the questions people ask most often about reversals, and choosing campaigns is worth reading if you would rather pick campaigns that reverse less often in the first place.

Where to go next

• How rand payouts work
• Choosing campaigns your audience actually wants
• Apply to join the programme
• All guides