30 terms
Affiliate marketing glossary
Most affiliate glossaries define terms without explaining why they matter. Every entry here says what the term means and what it does to your earnings.
A
4- Affiliate network
- An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers running affiliate programs with publishers who promote them, handling tracking, reporting and payment between the two.
- Attribution
- Attribution is the process of determining which marketing touchpoint receives credit for a conversion, and therefore which affiliate is paid.
- Average order value (AOV)
- Average order value is the mean value of an order placed through a program, and it determines how much a given commission percentage is actually worth.
- Advertiser
- An advertiser, also called a merchant, is the brand that runs an affiliate program and pays commission for the sales or leads that affiliates generate.
C
11- Cookie window
- The cookie window is the length of time after a click during which a resulting purchase is still credited to the affiliate, commonly ranging from 24 hours to 90 days.
- Cross-device tracking
- Cross-device tracking links a click on one device to a purchase on another, so an affiliate is credited when a customer discovers a product on mobile and buys on desktop.
- Commission
- Commission is the amount an advertiser pays an affiliate for a qualifying action, expressed either as a percentage of order value or as a flat amount per action.
- CPS (cost per sale)
- CPS is a commission model in which the affiliate is paid only when a sale completes, usually as a percentage of the order value.
- CPL (cost per lead)
- CPL is a commission model in which the affiliate is paid for a qualified lead, a completed form, a trial signup, a quote request, rather than a purchase.
- CPA (cost per action)
- CPA is a commission model in which the affiliate is paid for a specific defined action, which may be a sale, a signup, an install or any other event the advertiser chooses.
- Conversion rate
- Conversion rate is the percentage of clicks on an affiliate link that result in a qualifying sale or action.
- Clawback
- A clawback is the reversal of commission already credited to an affiliate, applied when the underlying order is returned, cancelled or found to be fraudulent.
- Creator monetization
- Creator monetization is the set of methods a content creator uses to earn money from an audience, including affiliate commission, brand sponsorship, platform payouts, subscriptions and product sales.
- Chargeback
- A chargeback is a forced reversal of a completed card payment initiated by the cardholder's bank, which removes the sale and any affiliate commission attached to it.
- Conversion window
- A conversion window is the period an advertiser allows between a tracked click and a completed action for that action still to count, and on most retail programs it is the same as the cookie window.
D
2- Deep link
- A deep link is a tracked affiliate link that points to a specific product or category page on an advertiser's site rather than to its homepage.
- Deal site
- A deal site is a publisher whose content is organized around discounts, voucher codes and time-limited offers rather than around editorial recommendation.
E
1- EPC (earnings per click)
- EPC is the average commission earned per click sent to an advertiser, calculated as total commission divided by total clicks over a given period.
H
1- Hold period
- The hold period is the interval between a sale being recorded and the commission becoming available for payout, allowing time for returns and validation.
I
1- Incentivised traffic
- Incentivised traffic is traffic driven by offering the user a reward, cashback, points, entries or credit, for completing the advertiser's action, and it is restricted or banned on most retail programs.
L
1- Last-click attribution
- Last-click attribution credits the entire commission to the final affiliate link clicked before a purchase, which is the default model across almost all affiliate networks.
P
3- Payment threshold
- The payment threshold is the minimum validated balance an affiliate must accumulate before a payout is issued.
- Publisher
- A publisher is any party that promotes an advertiser's products in exchange for commission, including content sites, comparison sites, email lists, apps and increasingly individual creators.
- Product feed
- A product feed is a structured file an advertiser publishes listing its catalogue, product names, prices, images, availability and deep link URLs, which publishers use to build comparison tables, widgets and automated content.
R
1- Revenue share
- In a sub-affiliate context, revenue share is the proportion of the commission received from an advertiser that the network passes on to the partner who generated the sale.
S
3- Sub-affiliate network
- A sub-affiliate network is a company that holds approved relationships with affiliate programs on major networks and lets smaller publishers and creators promote those programs under its account, sharing the commission it receives.
- Sub-ID
- A sub-ID is a custom parameter appended to an affiliate link that lets a partner segment their reporting by campaign, platform, post or placement.
- Self-referral
- Self-referral is an affiliate using their own tracking link to buy for themselves, which is prohibited on effectively every affiliate program and is grounds for account termination.
T
1- Trademark bidding
- Trademark bidding is the practice of buying paid search ads on an advertiser's brand name, and it is prohibited by the large majority of affiliate programs.
V
1- Validated commission
- Validated commission is commission the advertiser has confirmed as payable after checking for returns, cancellations and fraud, as distinct from pending commission, which may still be reversed.
Put it to use
Every program page states these numbers
Commission, cookie window and average order value appear on every listing in the directory, so you can apply this the moment you finish reading.
Know the terms. Now use them.
Join free and see the commission rate, cookie window and revenue share on every program before you generate a link.