Affiliate marketing glossary
Chargeback
In one sentence
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.
A chargeback is distinct from a return. A return is the customer using the merchant's own process; a chargeback bypasses the merchant entirely and is often associated with fraud or a disputed transaction. Both reverse commission, but chargebacks arrive later and with no warning.
For an affiliate, chargebacks are rare enough to be noise in most categories and concentrated enough in a few, high-value electronics especially, to matter. Persistent chargebacks traced to one traffic source are treated as a quality signal rather than bad luck.
Common questions
Chargeback, answered
What is the difference between a chargeback and a return?
A return is the customer using the merchant's process. A chargeback bypasses the merchant entirely: the cardholder disputes the payment with their bank and the bank forcibly reverses it. Both remove your commission, but chargebacks arrive later and without notice.
Do chargebacks affect my affiliate account?
A handful is noise and is expected in any category. A pattern traced to one traffic source is treated as a quality signal rather than bad luck, because it usually indicates fraud somewhere upstream in that traffic rather than ordinary buyer's remorse.
Can I do anything about a chargeback?
Not directly. The dispute is between the cardholder, their bank and the merchant, and you are not a party to it. What you can influence is the traffic you send, which is what a concentration of chargebacks is actually measuring.
Keep reading
More from the glossary
Every term here is written to answer one question completely, then point at the next one worth asking.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Attribution
Attribution is the process of determining which marketing touchpoint receives credit for a conversion, and therefore which affiliate is paid.
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