PPI Help - Tips to help each other :)

Hope everyone is doing great!

I am looking into PPI and how it works from quite a bit now but have a lot of doubts.

I see how people do the silent installs on people's computers doing bundle installation and then using that .exe silent install to advertise.

What i don't understand is how do people manage this so called "Silent Install" .exe file?
After the installation, how is it controlled to advertise?
How do we know that the installation is being done on real computers and not virtual computers?

How is this silent install developed?

Also, even if this silent installation is done - Would this .exe file work EVERYTIME the user goes online? On any website? Or would that be only happening on a non-ssl(Http Only) websites?

Let's have a healthy discussion to help all of us here

Please reply with your input & knowledge...will be appreciated

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Discussion of totally silent installs is not allowed on this forum since it is illegal activity if the end user has no idea something is being installed or isn't given a fair chance to opt-out of it.
When you hear people talking about silent installations here at BHW, they are basically referring to a program/offer which can be integrated silently into a custom installation package that the promoter creates using his/her own accept/decline buttons and the necessary EULA-License agreement, etc.
This creates a more seamless integration into their own software and increases conversions. You have no doubt seen such offers while installing some free apps. Skype, uTorrent, and Java are a few examples of companies using custom-integrated offers, presented to the end user in hopes it will convert into a paid installation. A lot of freeware/shareware applications use this method to monetize their free programs and cover costs of development.

tomtechy said:

how do people manage this so called "Silent Install" .exe file?

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by "manage"...or "people" in this question
...the promoter incorporates this silent.exe into his own software setup process and delivers the content/notification to end user at the time of the initial install.

tomtechy said:

After the installation, how is it controlled to advertise?

Click to expand...

This is mostly in the realm of the advertiser and will not be any real concern to the publisher/promoter. The advertisers manage this in numerous ways depending upon the marketing strategy of that particular campaign. The running software will perform callbacks, updates, nag screens, and host of other actions intended to assist/produce conversions into sales/subscriptions, clicks, views, ad-serving, data-mining and a host of other things depending on the particular monetization strategy.

tomtechy said:

How do we know that the installation is being done on real computers and not virtual computers?

Click to expand...

The advertisers take this point very seriously and have advanced measures to prevent install fraud. The installed software will read detailed information from the host computer to create a "fingerprint identity" consisting of things like IP/MAC address, hardware ID, screen resolution, registry settings etc. A publisher is less inclined to consider that his users are real people or bots as it is their traffic and they should know where it is coming from. The promoter can protect himself from "shaving", ( when a company falsely reports fewer installs than were actually made), by incorporating a callback feature into his own application, which is a good idea if you can implement it.

tomtechy said:

How is this silent install developed?

Click to expand...

...?..you develop your own install package and you develop your own method for sending this package out to prospective users. The advertiser develops their own offer.exe and it's list of functions for monetizing. You create the installs for their offer.exe and they "pay-per-install" or share a percentage of the resulting revenue if the platform is "rev-share".

tomtechy said:

Like how does one go about creating such a package?

Click to expand...

I suggest magic spells and potions .... if you don't have those then you must roll up your sleeves and code it..or hire someone to code it for you at a cost.

tomtechy said:

"...Would this .exe file work EVERYTIME the user goes online? On any website? Or would that be only happening on a non-ssl(Http Only) websites?

Click to expand...

This is specific to the installed offer and how it performs it's functions. In general, yes, the installed software will continue running and doing stuff to make the advertiser money or the opportunity to make money as long as the end user leaves it installed or it is not tagged as a "PUP" (Potentially Unwanted Program) and removed by AntiVirus.

Hope this helps clear some things up..feel free to ask more if you like

Nickel said:

Discussion of totally silent installs is not allowed on this forum since it is illegal activity if the end user has no idea something is being installed or isn't given a fair chance to opt-out of it.
When you hear people talking about silent installations here at BHW, they are basically referring to a program/offer which can be integrated silently into a custom installation package that the promoter creates using his/her own accept/decline buttons and the necessary EULA-License agreement, etc.
This creates a more seamless integration into their own software and increases conversions. You have no doubt seen such offers while installing some free apps. Skype, uTorrent, and Java are a few examples of companies using custom-integrated offers, presented to the end user in hopes it will convert into a paid installation. A lot of freeware/shareware applications use this method to monetize their free programs and cover costs of development.


Not sure what you mean by "manage"...or "people" in this question
...the promoter incorporates this silent.exe into his own software setup process and delivers the content/notification to end user at the time of the initial install.

This is mostly in the realm of the advertiser and will not be any real concern to the publisher/promoter. The advertisers manage this in numerous ways depending upon the marketing strategy of that particular campaign. The running software will perform callbacks, updates, nag screens, and host of other actions intended to assist/produce conversions into sales/subscriptions, clicks, views, ad-serving, data-mining and a host of other things depending on the particular monetization strategy.

The advertisers take this point very seriously and have advanced measures to prevent install fraud. The installed software will read detailed information from the host computer to create a "fingerprint identity" consisting of things like IP/MAC address, hardware ID, screen resolution, registry settings etc. A publisher is less inclined to consider that his users are real people or bots as it is their traffic and they should know where it is coming from. The promoter can protect himself from "shaving", ( when a company falsely reports fewer installs than were actually made), by incorporating a callback feature into his own application, which is a good idea if you can implement it.
...?..you develop your own install package and you develop your own method for sending this package out to prospective users. The advertiser develops their own offer.exe and it's list of functions for monetizing. You create the installs for their offer.exe and they "pay-per-install" or share a percentage of the resulting revenue if the platform is "rev-share".
I suggest magic spells and potions .... if you don't have those then you must roll up your sleeves and code it..or hire someone to code it for you at a cost.


This is specific to the installed offer and how it performs it's functions. In general, yes, the installed software will continue running and doing stuff to make the advertiser money or the opportunity to make money as long as the end user leaves it installed or it is not tagged as a "PUP" (Potentially Unwanted Program) and removed by AntiVirus.

Hope this helps clear some things up..feel free to ask more if you like

Click to expand...

Wow! I am really thankful to you for replying with such a detailed explanation! Thank you so much however, have a few more questions now after reading your reply.

If it's a silent install or not, how do we choose the software that we bundle it up with? Like as you mentioned, Skype etc. Do we get our offer exe bundled with the software ourselves? Or is it done by the network/individual getting us installs?

Thanks