<img src="https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/543ab9df-445b-44f7-a676-168c54031746?size=2" nborder="0" align="left" hspace="5" vspace="5" title="555.jpg" alt="FirstPromoter"/>VILNIUS, Lithuania, July 29, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AI made fake publishers cheap to build and made ChatGPT a sales channel nobody tracks. FirstPromoter's 2026 report shows what that means for affiliate programs, and why most are behind on both. Affiliate budgets are leaking in two directions at once. Manufactured publishers are passing vetting checks and collecting commissions, while the publishers who actually influence purchases, the ones ChatGPT and Google's AI cite when recommending products, go unrewarded and unrecruited because their conversions never register a click. According to a new 2026 report from FirstPromoter, an affiliate, referral and influencer management platform for subscription businesses, the programs that learn to reward these publishers first will recruit partners nobody else can. The report draws on first-party research, which found that buyers trust AI-generated product recommendations as much as credible expert review sites and on fraud monitoring data from the first quarter of 2026. The full analysis is available as a free download at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=6Gso-0SzGNfLcS2UYOGQZQJRp1aXtQRrdsiIQRTu9sLmkzxCMMZ5m360UeC-ZfUQ7N5ILKtyPVzLAHqfepI-Z6dLFEFEBbWlf55MCPn0VOLbJkZd1pUogWU_aIyTmaxv8qxqjIspk1DyZAoGFauY03aHP7tNJpcic38NXUWWtWy344AxeIrAtqAohkvUM6zU" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="">firstpromoter.com/resources/affiliate-marketing-ebook</a> The typical vetting check hasn't changed in years: a look at followers, a traffic estimate, a scroll through the content. What changed is that all of it can now be faked cheaply and convincingly. Meanwhile, AI created a publisher worth chasing. Sites and creators that tools like ChatGPT cite when recommending products influence buyers directly. The report covers both problems, and its warning is blunt: the window to act on the second one is open now and won't stay open. <img alt="While You're Paying Fake Affiliates, Your Competitors Are Recruiting the Publishers ChatGPT Trusts: FirstPromoter 2026 Report" height="335" src="https://ml.globenewswire.com/Resource/Download/935d1f95-ff9e-4b02-ae86-0c19c0c8d79f/555.jpg" width="600" data-dpi="120" data-caption="While You&apos;re Paying Fake Affiliates, Your Competitors Are Recruiting the Publishers ChatGPT Trusts: FirstPromoter 2026 Report " data-filename="555.jpg" /> A publisher presence that takes an afternoon to fake The numbers affiliate managers have relied on for years no longer prove a publisher is real. A website with clean design, backlinks, and a month of decent traffic can be built in days with AI-generated content and purchased links. A YouTube channel with 80,000 subscribers, steady views, and comments that mention specific video moments can pass a standard check without a single real follower. "To this day, I still see affiliate programs that have no vetting process whatsoever. They basically just allow everyone in," said Tautvydas Vasiliauskas. This is not a fringe problem. Q1 2026 monitoring places the US, UK, Canada and Germany, the markets with the biggest affiliate budgets, among those with the most detected affiliate hijacking, fraud that intercepts commissions from traffic a program never actually lost. A small number of operators can generate tens of thousands of fraudulent ad appearances against a single brand in one month. A framework for telling real publishers from fake The report sorts publisher channels into three groups, because each one needs a different kind of check. YouTube channels, websites, and most social accounts can be faked, but enough performance history usually reveals it. Newsletters, podcasts, and Discord communities offer no outside way to verify the numbers at all: everything comes from the publisher's own dashboard. TikTok is its own case, because real viral spikes there look exactly like bought ones. Alongside the framework, the report includes red flag lists for each channel, a fast-check workflow for teams reviewing many applicants, a decision tree for publishers caught inflating their numbers, and a minimum process for small teams with limited time. The publishers AI is making valuable AI is also creating a new opportunity. When someone asks ChatGPT or Google's AI Overviews which tool to buy, the answer names a shortlist of brands, and that shortlist comes from publisher content. Data cited in the analysis shows that roughly 68% of Google searches in early 2026 ended without a click to any website, up from roughly 60% in 2024. The buying decision increasingly happens inside the AI answer, before anyone clicks a link. "When your brand is mentioned for a specific query, that's not a brand awareness stage, that's a consideration stage," said Tautvydas Vasiliauskas, referencing his own research on how buyers weigh AI recommendations against expert review sites. The problem for affiliate programs: these publishers drive sales that never show up in click tracking. The final section of the report covers how to find these publishers and how to pay them, including flat placement fees, higher commission rates on the clicks that are visible, and co-funded content. Availability The report is published as a free affiliate marketing ebook for affiliate managers, marketing managers, and founders who run partner programs. Download it at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=6Gso-0SzGNfLcS2UYOGQZQJRp1aXtQRrdsiIQRTu9sLmkzxCMMZ5m360UeC-ZfUQ7N5ILKtyPVzLAHqfepI-ZxsRGtXyW-aHPvTJ2ZWdnUrjw8py2BS8c3cGHjhnEkXynSnF1WBpjpsO8586FZM7velkFNUddG7UmlYWXpiRL0EzQ0vu2nqhF_JmPsvWm_5T" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="">firstpromoter.com/resources/affiliate-marketing-ebook</a>. About FirstPromoter The report was authored by Tautvydas Vasiliauskas and Urszula Kamburov-Niepewna. Vasiliauskas, Head of Marketing at FirstPromoter, has managed affiliate programs on both the brand and publisher side, including rebuilding an e-commerce program with hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in commission errors, click fraud, and credit card fraud. FirstPromoter is affiliate, referral and influencer management software for subscription businesses. Commission logic ties directly to billing events across providers including Stripe, Chargebee, Paddle, Recurly and Braintree, so tracking and payouts stay accurate as revenue grows. FirstPromoter has operated for 10 years and serves more than 3,000 customers globally. Learn more at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=6Gso-0SzGNfLcS2UYOGQZWyPQ04ae59l4LVkj9_2xYM2MkZRjQoUKwrnWHbTUwGzIq5zJ0luq_CVPlQvH2bBxSuhK-8iEvIzAJPTe8MzNrQ=" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="">firstpromoter.com</a>. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/Tracker?data=QIeYjU_1pFfFyFk7cDiBwHRqMSCPtvRGbholneqgivmICLAtXPFxa_VuMsE5Pw9Qz0CB1lhtzNcojrBTyVghjoiTp_W8FwgvNrO047kB5lfdFJhl4MjNY4XS9-FbTpZ9BcbrQl7u4aQEKVeGq8G0WLPsWLbWxagNGWmqsWCcpnP8XOTpvm5sTVjsLYNgQYl37fKj6Al9pCQiZfxpQ9duXzbUAozvMr9hpeaKFxPuL9nKLQsY73XtN-p6ViPO3PnfTMmu4qUji-KfT0JUXkcU4A==" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="">https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/935d1f95-ff9e-4b02-ae86-0c19c0c8d79f</a> <pre>CONTACT: Urszula Kamburov-Niepewna,
Content Marketing Manager,
FirstPromoter,
marketing@firstpromoter.com.</pre> <img alt="" src='https://ml.globenewswire.com/media/ZGYxZmI5NTAtMDg2Ni00ZjFjLTk2ODktNjcyYTljODljZjU3LTUwMDE2NTg4MC0yMDI2LTA3LTI5LWVu/tiny/FirstPromoter.png' referrerpolicy='no-referrer-when-downgrade' />

GlobeNewswire Inc.

While You're Paying Fake Affiliates, Your Competitors Are Recruiting the Publishers ChatGPT Trusts: FirstPromoter 2026 Report

Latest news from the world of business and finance – both local and global

MONEY FM 89.3 is Singapore's first and only Business and Personal Finance station, featuring local and international business and financial news.

MONEY FM 89.3

Discover newsletters from our DJs on LinkedIn