Recommendations
Below is a list of general recommendations for operation, applicable to most of our clients. We strongly recommend adhering to them for the best results with Cloaking Master.
Domain names and hosting
1. Do not use domain names in cheap zones like .site, .club, .world, etc., as they attract more scrutiny from verifiers, as well as antivirus and scoring companies. Such domain names are effectively “on watch” from the moment they are registered. Use only .org, .net, and .com domain zones, in order of preference.
Tip: You can check a domain’s status on Facebook using developer tools.
2. Do not use domain names containing dubious or stop words like "sex", "xxx", "win", "diet", "health", "meet", "date", etc. Get creative and come up with domain names that sound like brands.
3. Always use Cloudflare to hide your server IPs. Many ad networks remember the IPs of domains in blocked accounts, but they will never block the IP addresses of one of the largest CDN companies serving 10% of the entire Internet. Cloaking Master fully supports Cloudflare in proxy mode.
4. Do not use technical domain names from hosting companies. They look suspicious and uniquely identify individual servers.
5. Do not use Namecheap’s virtual hosting. It includes a WAF (web application firewall) that blocks POST requests by default, which our system relies on, causing 403 Forbidden errors. If you use Ukraine.com.ua hosting, you will need to disable ModSecurity.
6. Do not name content or blank page files index.html, as they will likely take priority over our index.php file when processing requests where the filename is not explicitly specified in the URL, causing the Adspect filter page to be opened instead of the actual content. Always use unique file names for content and blank pages.
7. Always check that your blank pages do not contain broken links, missing images, or scripts with errors. You can check this using the browser’s developer tools under the Console and Network tabs—potential issues will be displayed in red.
8. Do not use external web resources (images, styles, scripts) unless they are from well-known CDNs like jQuery, Bootstrap, Font Awesome, Google Fonts, etc. Download the external files and host them locally.
9. Always configure HTTPS for your pages. Cloudflare offers free SSL/TLS certificates for domain names in proxy mode. Let’s Encrypt also provides infrastructure for managing free SSL/TLS certificates.
10. It is recommended to use hosting close to your target audience, ideally in the same country. This is especially important when working with the popunder format.
Cloaking recommendations
The cloaking service is just one element of the system. For successful cloaking, you need to strictly adhere to many other conditions, which may vary depending on the traffic source.
1. Never reuse domain names, creatives, or landing pages after being banned by the same ad network without making changes. Register new domain names for new accounts, and make your creatives and landing pages unique.
2. Always use the strictest manual filters for country, OS, browser, and language. Set them to mirror the targeting of your ad campaigns.
3. Always use the display mode for blank pages without redirect, if possible. This is a requirement for Facebook, Google Ads, TikTok, Bing, Gemini (among others) when using PHP integration!
4. Always ensure that your blank pages look convincing and realistic, and that the content matches your ad campaigns (creatives, languages, targeting). Never use a redirect to Google or other obviously non-targeted resources as a blank page.
5. Always use your own blank pages instead of website builders (Shopify, Wix, Tilda, etc.) when working with Facebook and Google Ads, as these ad platforms have recently started preemptively banning campaigns that lead to sites built with website builders due to their frequent use for cloaking.
6. Include links to credible terms of use, privacy policy, and cookies policy on blank pages when working with more strict ad networks like Facebook, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, etc. The European Cookie law also requires sites to explicitly ask for permission to use cookies.
7. Add robots.txt and sitemap.xml files to the root directory of your domain, especially when working with search engine ads (Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Yandex, Yahoo Native, etc.).
8. Do not use copied landing pages without changes; always make them unique in some way. This will help bypass potential page signature blocks.
9. Do not use copyrighted materials on blank pages, as they may be detected and rejected by moderation.
10. Do not use overly simple, single-page, broken (in terms of layout and functionality), unoptimized for mobile devices, or just low-quality blank pages. Always remember that a blank page should look like a credible and useful website with authentic content.
11. Do not use landing pages from supposedly "white" offers as blank pages—ad networks’ concept of "white" content can differ significantly from yours.
12. Never use direct affiliate links as blank pages.
13. Do not change blank pages in running campaigns. Stricter ad networks can detect even minor changes like adding <script> tags and initiate a campaign or account review process.
14. Use one stream for each ad campaign. This rule helps us detect suspicious visitors using statistical methods. It also helps us better analyze traffic when blocks occur, as the traffic from different campaigns does not mix in a single stream. We cannot review your traffic if you mix multiple campaigns in one stream!
15. Always submit campaigns for moderation with the corresponding streams in "Moderation" mode. Do not launch campaigns in "Cloaking" mode!
Do not stand out!
Most ad networks routinely recheck all ad campaigns from time to time. Apart from helping to pass initial moderation when launching a new campaign, the primary task of any cloaking service is to protect already running campaigns from these recurring background checks. Cloaking Master does this very effectively, as proven by many successful campaigns in various ad networks.
But there is one "but": if your advertising activity stands out from other advertisers in the eyes of a specific network, it will sooner or later attract the attention of their moderators, who will start scrutinizing your campaigns "with prejudice", inevitably "breaking the cloak" and applying administrative sanctions. We can guarantee solid protection from routine checks, but no service can protect you from a special investigation into possible violations of rules.
Remember: do not stand out! If you are careless and attract attention from the network staff, you will be exposed. There will be no turning back. Here’s a list of recommendations to avoid this.:
Do not send too much traffic from one account. Large volumes usually imply stable profits and thus attract interest in the nature of your campaigns.
Do not create too many campaigns in one account. The more there are, the more material there is for checks, which happen proportionally more often, increasing your chances of running into trouble.
Always use a tracker. Long-running affiliate campaigns without a tracker make observers wonder how the advertiser manages to maintain profitability.
Always use tracking parameters and macros in your links. This recommendation is similar to the previous one and is especially relevant for campaigns with broad targeting settings.
Use postback functionality if supported by the ad network.
Avoid redirects!
We strongly recommend keeping redirect chains as short as possible. Host landing pages on your own server and use the file mechanism to display them instead of redirecting to external links. Place the tracker either before or after the index.php file in the traffic stream, but not on both sides. If possible, choose hosting for the tracker that is geographically closest to your target country or region.