How to Spy on Affiliate Funnels Using AdPlexity

Finding an ad is step one. Understanding the complete funnel behind it - the landing page structure, the offer, the A/B test variants, and how the advertiser scales - is where the real competitive intelligence lives.

This tutorial takes you through the full funnel decode process, step by step.

Step 1: Find the Ad

Use the filter setup from the Find Winning Campaigns tutorial: run duration 30+ days, last-seen within 7 days, sorted by run duration descending. Pick an ad in your target vertical that's been running for 30+ days and has broad publisher distribution (a signal of scale).

Before clicking through to the funnel, document the ad itself:

• Save the creative image (right-click, save as)
• Copy the headline and description text
• Note the network and country
• Note the run duration and publisher count

The ad is your first data point. The image and headline tell you what hook the advertiser is leading with - what pain point or desire they're targeting. This is the angle.

Step 2: Visit the Landing Page (Using AdPlexity's Cached Page Viewer)

Click "Visit Landing Page" (or the equivalent button depending on which AdPlexity plan you're using). This opens AdPlexity's cached HTML snapshot of the landing page.

The cached version is important: visiting the live URL directly would trigger the advertiser's analytics, add you to their retargeting pixel, and potentially flag your IP as a competitor if they're doing any click fraud filtering. The cached version gives you the content without any of those signals.

On the cached landing page, do a systematic pass:

1. Scroll the entire page before analyzing anything. Get the full picture first.
2. Above the fold: What's the headline? What's the visual? What emotion does the first 2 seconds trigger?
3. Page type classification: Advertorial (article-style)? VSL (video sales letter)? Quiz funnel? Direct offer? Long-copy sales letter?
4. CTA placement and copy: Where is the main CTA? What does the button say? Is there one CTA or multiple?
5. Trust elements: What trust signals are present? Reviews, logos, guarantees, certifications?
6. Urgency/scarcity: Countdown timer? "Limited stock"? These are conversion optimization signals.

Step 3: Identify the Offer (CPA Network, Offer Name)

The landing page is usually not the final destination - it's an intermediate page between the ad and the actual offer. Your goal is to identify what the advertiser is actually promoting and who's paying them for conversions.

How to find the offer:

1. Right-click the main CTA button and choose "Inspect" (or "View Page Source"). Look at the href value of the button link.
2. Common affiliate tracking URL patterns:
   • MaxBounty: track.maxbounty.com
   • ClickBank: hop.clickbank.net
   • Commission Junction: pjtra.com or anrdoezrs.net
   • ShareASale: shareasale.com
   • Direct advertiser networks: often recognizable by brand subdomain
3. If the link is obfuscated (link shortener, JS redirect), check the page source for the actual URL or view the network tab in browser DevTools.

Once you identify the network, search that offer in the network's advertiser portal. This tells you: the offer name, payout, allowed traffic sources, and whether it's still open for new affiliates.

Step 4: Map the Funnel Path

A complete affiliate funnel typically looks like:

Ad creative → Pre-lander (LP) → Offer page (network) → Thank you / upsell page

Some funnels add more steps: a quiz, an email capture before the offer, or a multi-step form. Map what you can from AdPlexity's cached data, then manually trace the remaining steps from the live URL if needed.

Document each step in your research spreadsheet:

• Ad creative (image + headline)
• Pre-lander type and angle
• Offer type and network
• Estimated payout (from network if accessible)
• Thank you page / upsell structure (if visible)

Step 5: Find Variations (A/B Test Detection)

The most valuable intelligence isn't a single ad - it's a family of ads testing the same funnel. Go back to the advertiser's profile in AdPlexity and look at all their running campaigns.

Signs of active A/B testing:

• Multiple creatives with different images but the same headline structure
• Same image with multiple headline variants
• Multiple landing pages with small structural differences (different headline, different CTA color, different page length)
• Different angles leading to the same offer (benefit-focused vs fear-focused vs curiosity-focused)

If you see a mature A/B test, look for the surviving winner: the variant with the longest run duration, the broadest publisher distribution, or the highest ad count compared to its siblings. That's the creative and LP combination that outperformed in the advertiser's own testing.

Step 6: Track Over Time

A snapshot of a competitor's funnel is useful. A time-series view is far more valuable. Set a reminder to check key competitors weekly:

• Are they still running? Did they pause?
• Did they add new creative variants?
• Did they change the landing page?
• Did they expand to new countries?
• Did run duration increase (still scaling) or stagnate (performance declining)?

Changes in a competitor's campaign behavior are signals. If a major push buyer suddenly pauses all campaigns in a vertical, that could signal an offer is dead (the CPA network pulled it) or the traffic quality has degraded. If they're expanding to new geos, that vertical is still profitable enough to justify broader testing.

What's Next

You now know how to trace a full funnel. The next level is angle research - understanding not just what funnel structure works, but why specific messaging hooks resonate. That's covered in: