Reference
A plain-English glossary of affiliate, performance and ad-marketing terminology — from CPA and EPC to postback tracking, cookie windows and compliance.
58 terms
The brand whose products are promoted and that pays the commissions.
The portal where affiliates get links, creatives and performance reports.
A unique URL that attributes traffic and conversions to a specific affiliate.
A platform connecting many advertisers and affiliates with shared tracking.
A single advertiser's own partnership scheme for affiliates.
The average amount spent per order from referred customers.
A programmatic interface for pulling offers, links and stats automatically.
A commission reversed because the underlying sale was refunded or disputed.
Generating fake or invalid clicks to inflate metrics or steal budget.
Showing reviewers a different page than real users — usually a policy violation.
The completion of the action a program pays out on.
The percentage of clicks or visits that result in a conversion.
Dropping affiliate cookies without a genuine click to steal commissions.
How long after a click an affiliate can still earn credit for a conversion.
Attribution methods that work without third-party browser cookies.
A fixed payout earned each time a referred user completes a defined action.
A payout earned for each valid click sent to the advertiser.
A payout earned when a referral submits valid lead information.
A payout per one thousand ad impressions.
A commission paid as a percentage of, or flat fee on, each completed sale.
The percentage of impressions or views that result in a click.
Identifying a device by its characteristics to match clicks to conversions.
Crediting the conversion to the first affiliate click in the journey.
A clear, conspicuous notice that content contains paid affiliate links.
The destination page where referred traffic is converted.
Crediting the conversion entirely to the final click before purchase.
The total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their lifetime.
Paid placements styled to match the surrounding editorial content.
When a negative balance rolls into the next period instead of resetting.
The delay between a conversion locking and the commission being paid out.
A focused topic or audience segment an affiliate builds authority around.
A snippet fired on a confirmation page to record a conversion in the browser.
Server-to-server conversion tracking that fires without browser cookies.
Buying paid clicks (search or display) to drive affiliate conversions.
An intermediate page that warms traffic up before the main offer.
The party that promotes offers and earns commission — i.e. the affiliate.
Commission paid on every renewal a referred subscriber makes.
An ongoing percentage of the revenue generated by referred customers.
The share of tracked conversions later cancelled or rejected.
Revenue generated for every unit of currency spent on advertising.
Net profit expressed as a percentage of the amount invested.
An affiliate program for subscription software, often with recurring payouts.
Earning commissions from organic search traffic to content.
A single link that routes each click to the best-matching offer automatically.
A custom parameter appended to links to track granular traffic sources.