Every year, the rules of large advertising platforms are becoming stricter, more and more difficult to comply with, and almost impossible to circumvent. Impossible without special tools. One of the advanced promotion techniques is cloaking. Today we will get acquainted with this complex but effective system.
What is cloaking?
Cloaking service allows you to hide the actual landing page during promotion from anti-fraud systems. When you work with this system, you will be able to show the offer page to the site guests and a white page to the moderators.
This is some kind of deception of various traffic sources done for the sake of promoting the page. Working with this tool, you will be able to bypass moderators not only on small sites, but also on large platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook, Instagram.
Why use cloaking in traffic arbitrage?
Working with black or gray offers, it is almost impossible to promote a page without cloaking. The most vivid example – casino advertising on the expanses of Facebook. Despite the fact that the platform sharply negative attitude to gambling and its advertising, skillful use of cloaking allows you to bypass the moderation of bots. They see a clean page with authorized content, but the user sees gambling ads. This is just one possible example.
Another important task that can be accomplished with this technique is the regulation of advertising traffic. The lion’s share of the advertising budget is eaten by competitors’ scripts, bots.
The third reason to use cloaking in traffic arbitrage is to protect creatives that bring profit from being stolen by competitors. The service also provides other types of protection, for example, from spice services.
How does cloaking work?
Cloaking services are based on software scripts that calculate the source of a web request and offer the appropriate solution. That is, the cloaking service “sees” who addressed the site, whether it is a moderator or users, and offers this or that page to view.
To make such filtering possible, UA script was used earlier. It checks the user’s name and look for matches in its database. If matches are found, the “perfect” page is shown. Everyone else gets access to the real product. Today, this technique is becoming obsolete as bots and moderators are learning their way around such a cloaca.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s time to give up. In improved versions, user identification is not by name, but by IP address. This reduces the ability of bots and moderators to bypass the calculation system. This is currently a very effective technique. Its usefulness will decrease only when moderators will buy expensive equipment for permanent address change. This is unlikely to happen, because no one wants to incur exorbitant excessive costs.
Methods of using cloaking in arbitrage
Above we have already raised the question of what cloaking services can be used for. Now let’s discuss what methods of working with services there are. For today we can distinguish two main ones – splitting the traffic flow and using a transit page.
Separation of traffic flow
The most popular method of working with the server is the separation of the flow. Its essence is to create separate pages, and output to show the necessary. For the method to be effective, it is necessary to set the correct parameters:
- user agent /HTTP refer.
- Enter data about the provider.
- Set the addresses of users, moderators and bots.
Thus cloaca traffic will redistribute, effectively use reliable mobile proxies, redirect the user to third-party pages if necessary.
Transit page
Prelending can also be used. It acts as a kind of door to the main page. The user gets to the prelanding, and from there to the main page. In turn, the bot sees only the transit page. There are several manipulations that need to be done to bypass moderators and bots.
- Create a trusted domain.
- Make sure that the site is included in the relinking.
Tip: The older the domain, the more trustworthy it is.
Types of cloaking
You may get the impression that cloaking is something illegal. However, it is not. It is only a tool that helps to promote legal Internet products. It is difficult to divide the procedure by its goals or methods, since it is a complex work. However, we can distinguish three types, according to the openness of the procedure.
White cloaking
This is a way to sort the flow, screening out requests that do not bring profit, but only eat up the advertising budget. In this case, the site pages are the same for both bots and users.
Gray cloaking
In the gray method of using services, only the policy of specifically taken services is violated. This is a kind of trickery that allows you to effectively promote the product. With this method, moderators see one page, people see another. Their content may differ, but always remains legal. Gray cloaking service allows you to quickly pass moderation, promote a legal product, to which these or those sites are not friendly.
Black cloaking
Here we are already talking about breaking the law, which we categorically do not advise. Services will let you deceive moderators and visitors, get a quick profit t promote traffic. However, unlike gray, black cloaking is scrupulously monitored. In case of disclosure you may face criminal liability.
Services to help with cloaking
As you can see, cloaking in arbitrage can fulfill completely different roles, but it is always an important part of working with a site. You can choose for yourself what benefit to get from the service, how to use it, what risks to take. Our task is to help you understand the complex but effective system. In order to do it effectively, we have collected the top services that can help you.
Cloak IT
Cloak IT is based on a Machine Learning algorithm. It is updated and improved on a constant basis, which allows you to perform the work in the most efficient way. This service is most suitable for working with large sites, such as Facebook, Google, Tic Toc, Instagram. A pleasant bonus will be a system of discounts and promo codes to reduce the cost of working with the service.
The service provides three subscription options:
- Start $100 / month
- Basic $200 / month
- Premium $240 / month
This product integrates with various website builders, as well as PHP, JavaScript, Android, WordPress.
Among the features of the product are worth highlighting:
- Ability to create your own blacklist
- Protection from spy services.
- Ability to connect Webview applications.
- Access to premium GEO data base.
NoIPFraud
The second place in our personal top cloaking services is occupied by the well-known NoIPfraud. In addition to cloaking, the service provides fraud protection. It has a wide range of features, which makes the product very popular. Among the advantages we can highlight:
- The ability to track traffic in real time.
- The number of domains and companies is not limited.
- Payment for blocked traffic is not charged.
- Self-updating algorithmic filtering.
This is a professional tool that is more intended for marketers. It has a simple interface, convenient payment system, but you need to acquire a number of preliminary skills to work with it.
FraudFilter
This is not only a cloaca service. Here you will be able to fight against scammers, as well as identify low-quality traffic. Thanks to the effective filtering of traffic in real time, the service conducts an inspection of each visitor.
Among the advantages we can highlight:
- Accurate traffic detection, thanks to the simultaneous analysis of dozens of indicators.
- Control over each visitor provides high efficiency.
- Instant results in real time.
Cloaking in arbitrage should be able to quickly adjust to current conditions. This service copes with this perfectly.
Keitaro
Professional cloaking and ad arbitrage service provides direct traffic 302, JS, Meta, CURL and customized solution. The service is activated on a VPS basis. Features include:
- Trials for 14 days.
- Full refund if the service does not meet marketing needs.
- Three subscription levels with prices ranging from $52/month to $137/month.
- Integrates with WordPress, Shopify, Cloudflare Proxy.
- IP bots are blocked at the server level.
- The program provides a detailed report.
- Ability to customize built-in databases.
- Availability of online support.
- Profitable referral programs.
Adspect
A user-friendly platform that can be mastered by a person without much experience. This service is aimed at protecting the site from unwanted traffic, which allows you to maximize profits from the advertising campaign. It contains a number of tools for cloaking, as well as other manipulations. Adspect will allow you to conduct:
- Conduct filtering from bots.
- Protect the site from spy-services.
- Supported split testing.
How to choose the best cloaking service for your needs?
We have introduced you to only a small part of cloaking services. Once you start searching for the right one, you will see how many options the modern market offers. It is important to make the right choice, realizing that sometimes even the best cloaking services can not realize the task at hand, and the choice should be based on your individual needs.
We have highlighted five main selection criteria:
Evaluate the existing business tasks. To select a service to work with, you need to assess the state of the site, its technological features and the tasks you set for the future. Whether you need additional hardware and software, such as OpenVPN for Windows. There are services that have the most complete package. However, sometimes you have to choose. Therefore, it is important to make an initial assessment, the results of which should be compared with the functionality of the service.
Examine the level of support. These are serious services with a complex system of work. Support will become your companion and friend. Most likely you will have to contact them very often. Therefore, it is important to assess the speed of response, the correctness of the advice provided. Even a few minutes of delay in emergency situations can cost you a drain of traffic.
Ease of use of all functions. What for some is a complex maze, for others – a simple and functional interface. Evaluate your skills and knowledge, or consult with the employee to whom you plan to delegate this task.
The cost of the product, like the price of mobile proxies for countries. For a subscription to be really profitable, every feature included in it must be used. Otherwise, it is simply wasted money, which obviously will not bring joy.
Reviews. And finally, it is worth collecting reviews, read reviews on third-party resources, use the trial period on the service (if the company offers it). Do everything to evaluate the product even before the paid period starts.
You can find your own methods of selecting a cloaking service. Perhaps it will be personal sympathy, or recommendations from a reputable source. If your choice turns out to be wrong, you can always disable the service, interrupt the payment, and on some services even return the paid money.
How to set up a cloaca for arbitrage?
To set up a cloaca, you usually use one of two methods:
- Using trackers. In this method, you prescribe links to the advertising landing page, as well as to the whitelist. You need to install the tool beforehand. This way you will get two pages, a clean one, which will be visible only to moderators, and the real one – shown to potential customers.
- You can use third-party platforms that collect a database, will calculate the IP of moderators and bots. This method minimizes manual setup and is suitable for users with minimal experience.
During customization, it is also worth following some rules:
Try to whiten black and gray sentences as much as possible. This will reduce the attention of moderators and bots.
Pay enough attention to developing creatives, because reconfiguring a cloaca is much harder than doing things right away.
Do not stand still. Be in constant search, keep up to date with marketing innovations, follow the latest promotion technologies.
Even if you copy creatives from competitors, make an effort to make them partially or fully unique.
Properly using cloaking services for traffic arbitrage you will get a large stream of quality traffic, which you can easily monetize. However, you should realize that working with these services is very complicated. It is worth studying the topic in detail beforehand, otherwise you can completely ruin the reputation of your site in the eyes of search engines.
Summarize
Summarizing the results it is worth highlighting several important theses that we have considered today:
- Cloaking service is a multifaceted tool that allows you to increase traffic, organize a profitable advertising campaign, bypass personal dislike of advertising platforms for this or that type of content.
- Working with services requires certain skills and knowledge. You can contact a specialist, get a guide to use, discuss work on a particular service with the support team. This will help you master the tools of the service to the maximum and use it 100%.
- Take time to choose the right service. It should meet the technical requirements, the allocated budget, and have the necessary functionality. To do this, you need to conduct an initial assessment of your site and prioritize your business goals.
- Trust proven services that have an established reputation and a technology-driven approach. It is important that the service does not stand still, develop, update.
Master new technologies to develop your business. This will help you bypass personal bans, improve the quality of your advertising campaign, increase the inflow of real customers, and protect your site from scammers. To learn more, stay with us, we will raise interesting and sensitive topics useful for online and offline business owners, as well as for private users.
