What is cloaking in arbitrage: cloaking in SEO, Google Ads and links
- levidkerington
- Sep 7
- 6 min read
Cloaking in traffic arbitrage
Cloaking is one of the most controversial tools in digital marketing. It is used when conventional methods do not allow you to advertise the desired offer, and moderation ruthlessly stops any attempt at promotion. This is especially true for those who need native traffic sources, where direct access to the audience is limited or even blocked.
This method allows you to bypass the system and show ads only to those to whom they are really intended. However, each click carries not only a potential conversion but also the risk of a ban. To understand exactly how clickbait works, where it is used, and how it differs from SEO, Google Ads, or links, it is worth diving deeper into the technical details.
Cloaking in arbitration is: how cloaking works and what is shown with it
Cloaking in arbitration is not about dirty tools, as it may seem at first glance, but about the technical disguise of content. The term comes from the English "to cloak", which means "to disguise" or "to hide". In digital marketing, cloaking is a way of distributing traffic to show different content to different audiences. The system automatically recognises whether a real person or a moderator has visited the page and shows the appropriate version of the landing page. This approach allows you to work even with those offers that are not subject to the rules of the platforms, such as Facebook Ads, Google Ads, where the content of ads is strictly controlled. For example, a moderator will see a legitimate page about cosmetics, while a user will see a creative that leads to dietary supplements.
But cloaking is not just about bypassing moderation. It is also used to filter out irrelevant traffic: bots, spyware, competitors, users from insolvent countries or VPNs. Thanks to this, the advertising budget is not wasted, and native traffic goes exactly where it converts. Webmasters create several versions of the same page: one for the desired user and another for the unwanted one. In addition, cloaking protects against copy-paste – it hides the HTML code and makes it difficult to collect content. It also adapts the page to the client's language, GEO, and interests, ensuring that it hits the target audience accurately.
SEO cloaking vs cloaking ads: what's the difference
SEO cloaking is the display of one content to search bots and another to visitors. For example, Google sees relevant text with keys, and the user sees a landing page with a minimum of text. This allows you to rank better without compromising on design.
In arbitration, everything works according to a similar principle: cloak and dagger in advertising is about survival in the face of strict moderation. The goal is not SEO positions, but to pass the test on Google Ads or Facebook. Therefore, in this case, other creatives, landing pages, etc. are shown.
Here are the key differences:
Criterion | SEO callbacks | Cloaking in advertising |
Objective | Raising a website in organic search results | Moderation of advertising platforms |
Target audience | Search bots | Moderators of Google Ads, Facebook Ads |
Content type | Showing pages with keywords to bots | Showing people an offer and moderators a "white" page |
Implementation method | Server scripts, redirects | Trackers, antibot systems, JavaScript |
Google cloaker and cloaking Google Ads: how advertisers bypass moderation
Cloaking in Google Ads and Facebook Ads is a daily practice for those who work with offers that are not moderated: from dietary supplements to financial products. Google cloaker is a tool or script that recognises who is viewing a page and replaces content in real time. A moderator sees a fake page about healthy eating, while a real user sees a banner, for example, with a gambling platform. It is important to take into account dozens of technical parameters to prevent the system from suspecting fraud: User-agent, IP, behavioural signals.
This approach is especially effective when an advertising campaign is focused on native traffic sources, such as news websites, ad units on media resources, or contextual advertising on YouTube. There, users expect to see "natural" content, so it is important that the advert looks as legitimate as possible for verification, but leads to the right offer. Examples of moderation bypass methods:
IP filtering. Google and Facebook bots are shown a "white" page, while users from the target regions are shown real creative.
Selection by User-agent. It is used to verify the visitor: if their data is blacklisted, the system shows a "white" page instead of the real creative.
Time filter. The page is active only during hours when the probability of moderation is minimal.
Such techniques allow you to launch offers with minimal chances of being banned. However, each update to Google or Facebook algorithms changes the rules of the game, so advertisers have to constantly adapt their communications and creatives to new challenges.
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Cloaking software and cloaking links: tools and automation overview
Cloaking software is a set of server scripts and services that automatically determine who is viewing your creative: a bot, a moderator, or a real user. After the system analyses the IP address, User-agent and other user parameters, the visitor is shown either the White Page or the main Offer Page. This allows advertisers to successfully pass moderation even with grey offers, especially when it comes to native traffic with strict quality control.
Depending on the platform, cloaking systems can combine filtering methods, tailor content to a specific GEO or traffic source, and provide maximum control over who sees your ad. Classic link cloak solutions are tools that mask or replace links, hiding the real URL or even the source of advertising traffic. This is how cloaking software works:
Incoming request. The user or bot follows the link.
Identification. The system checks IP, User-agent.
Comparison with databases. The script compares the data with the blacklist of moderators and bots.
Decision to display. If a match is found, the White Page is shown, otherwise, the offer is displayed.
Logging. Information about each transition is stored for further analytics.
Automatic updates. IP databases and filters are updated via API or special services.
Modern cloaking solutions like Keitaro allow you to set up everything without deep technical knowledge – just add a URL, specify filtering rules, and launch the campaign. It is important to remember that even the smartest script will not protect creative from being banned if it grossly violates the platform rules. Therefore, the key to the long-term game is competent whitewashing, link testing, and regular adaptation to new verification algorithms.
How to cloak a link: step-by-step with examples
Disguising links means protecting your advertising link from moderation, spyware, and inappropriate traffic. One of the most effective ways to do this is to use the Keitaro tracker. This is a local solution that is installed on your own server and gives you full control over traffic. Keitaro offers a cloak, more than 30 filters, a flexible system of redirects (meta, HTTP, JavaScript, iframe), and a library of IP bots for filtering out moderators.
To set up cloaking in Keitaro, you need to create a campaign with two streams: one for moderation (White page) and the other for real users (Offer page). Then you can add filters based on IP, GEO, or User-agent. As we said, you can set up a cloak even without technical knowledge. Here are simple examples of redirects and filtering:
Redirect by IP (Keitaro). If the IP is 66.102.0.0/20 (Googlebot), then you need to show the White Page, otherwise – the Offer Page.
Redirect via JavaScript. The system checks which browser or bot opened the page by analysing the User-agent. If it is found that the request came from Facebook (for example, FacebookExternalHit – a bot that scans links before publishing), the user is automatically redirected to a "white" page. If it is a regular visitor, an offer is opened.
Filter by country: If the country is the USA or Canada, you can go to the offer, otherwise, you will be redirected to the white page.
This approach allows you to manage traffic as efficiently as possible, avoid bans, and at the same time maintain the quality of your native advertising campaign, gambling, etc. Keitaro also allows you to integrate any traffic source, including Facebook, Google, Propeller Ads, and others, making it a versatile tool for arbitrageurs.
Taboo topic? Cloaking ads in arbitrage: risks and rewards
Cloaking in arbitrage is always a game on the edge. Formally, it is only allowed if it does not deceive the user and does not violate the policies of advertising platforms: for example, filtering traffic by GEO or device type. However, when it comes to substituting content for moderators, even in grey areas (gutters, deception, betting), it is already a violation. Such practices are often used to launch campaigns through native traffic sources when the offer does not pass the standard verification.
The risks are serious: an advertising account ban, domain ban, budget freeze, and loss of traffic. There are cases when Google Ads blocks the entire account with one click of a moderator for black creative, and on Facebook, the advertising account, page, and access to the business manager are lost. All of this makes cloaking a tool not for mass use, but for those who are ready to quickly adapt, test, and regularly replace links in the gut, gambling, finance, etc.
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