I've always thought "shaving" could be possible. Otherwise, how do networks make money if it's like this?: Advertiser -> Direct Lead To Publisher
I never took the time to think about that but I always had thoughts that they could potentially be taking some leads from their publishers with high traffic, but never was sure about this. I've always had the mentality where for example if I had 50 clicks, I should have 5 to 6 leads at the very least which seems somewhat fair. But I always wondered why it was like this (since I got used to the pattern) why can't 50 clicks convert to 30 leads? I've also had many complaints and comments through support saying that they completed the offers/surveys and showed proof, but I realized I never received the lead.
I am currently with 2 networks. At one I receive around 5000 clicks per month. Unfortunately however, I touch around $2,000 from these statistics. Where as normally, if it was 5000 clicks, I should be averaging around $5,000 to $6,000 in revenue. It may be something from my side, the network shaving, or the same offer becoming saturated (this does happen from time to time unfortunately) it may be due to many factors as to why this happens.
I always try to stay ahead of the game and change my website or landing page from time to time (I actually do this every day) - including the offers, etc, but I came to realize that it may always be like this.
Unless you create your own network or offer and you are your own advertiser (meaning that you would get 100% revenue and control of your traffic and clicks) which would ultimately be better. I've thought about doing this but the thought always seemed too complicated or more on the unrealistic side since you would be having to do it yourself.
My next conclusion based on not receiving as many leads as you should be, for example: (5,000 clicks at XCPANETWORK = $5,000) could just be facing more towards the publisher's side. Meaning that it may be your fault that it is like that. Because I do see a few publishers results (their stats) and sometimes it's 10 clicks and 7 leads. That's great, right? The network couldn't be shaving him, because that's a VERY GOOD CR that most people don't see. So in my opinion, this is obviously possible, depending if you are original or different enough to accomplish the same. Advertising the same offer, landing page, domain, video, content, etc, for months could result in poor results - more poor over time, if you don't take action to change things.
It's quite complicated to exactly know what is happening behind the scenes of each publisher and if, if, the network or advertisers do in fact shave clicks or leads. This is just what I think. It can be correct for both sides that I shared in my opinion. I'd hope that no network actually shaves because it looks bad if your publishers are paying money out of their own pocket for Facebook Ads and they are just taking advantage of that by shaving leads.