How do I verify that ad and affiliate links are legitimate?

The problem

Ad platforms and affiliate networks need to verify that destination URLs are legitimate and not cloaked behind redirects. A bad actor can show one URL in the ad but redirect users to a completely different destination, a malicious page, a competitor, or a dead site.

Dead ad destinations waste budget and frustrate users. Brand impersonation in affiliate links creates legal and reputation risk. Manual review of thousands of links doesn't scale.

How Unphurl solves it

Batch check all ad and affiliate destination URLs. Unphurl follows the full redirect chain (up to 10 hops) and reports the actual final destination. If the TLD changes on redirect, if the chain is excessively long, or if the destination is parked or dead, you know before a single impression is served.

Signals that matter for this use case

• – Excessive redirects (5+) reveal cloaking chains hiding the real destination
• – Chain incomplete means the destination is unreachable
• – Brand impersonation catches fake landing pages mimicking real brands
• – TLD change on redirect flags cloaking (ad claims one domain, lands on another)
• – Parked domain identifies abandoned affiliate or ad destinations

Suggested scoring profile

{
  "name": "ad-verification",
  "weights": {
    "redirects_5": 30,
    "redirects_3": 15,
    "chain_incomplete": 25,
    "brand_impersonation": 20,
    "parked": 15,
    "tld_redirect_change": 10,
    "url_contains_ip": 10
  }
}

What a result looks like

You audit 500 affiliate links in your network:

Cost

Many affiliate and ad URLs point to well-known e-commerce sites and major brands that resolve free. In a batch of 500 URLs, 60-80% may resolve from Tranco or cache. The Standard package ($39 for 500 pipeline checks) covers regular audits.

Get started

# Batch check affiliate links
unphurl --batch affiliate-urls.txt --profile ad-verification

# Via the API
POST /v1/check/batch
{
  "urls": ["https://affiliate-link.xyz/offer1", ...],
  "profile": "ad-verification"
}