Home | Affiliate marketing | Glossary of Affiliate Marketing Terms
Affiliate marketing: Glossary of Popular Terms
Above the fold
Refers to the section of the screen a user can see when a webpage or email first loads.
Adsense
Adsense is a service run by Google that enables website owners to embed google links (advertisements and search boxes) into their website.
Affiliate
A company that has a minority interest, or is related to another company. E.g. a website owner hosting advertisements that link directly to a merchants site, in an attempt to earn a commission for each person directed via their own website.
Affiliate Directory
A directory of affiliate programmes, supplying affiliates with information about programmes they can sign up to.
Affiliate Fraud
Illegal activity taking place within affiliate schemes, e.g. scripts that automatically generate fake sales or clicks etc, by mimicking customers.
Affiliate Link
A hyperlink provided by a website with the purpose of directing traffic towards another company, in the interest of gaining a commission.
Affiliate Network
A website run by a company/agency that enables merchants to provide a list of available programmes to their potential affiliates
Affiliate Programme
A scheme/programme that allows Proprietors of a website to market the products of a merchant or direct customers their way, in order to make a commission.
Associate
Often used synonomously with the term affiliate, to describe a company which another company has a minority interest.
Backlinks
The number of links pointing towards a particular webpage. Often used in metrics for calculating a website's popularity. Also refered to as incoming links, inbound links, inlinks, and inward links.
Banner Ad
A form of website advertising, in the form of a clickable image that affiliates may use to direct traffic towards merchants.
Charge Back
A "chargeback" or "countercharge" is a reversal of a payment made on a customers credit card, and is the result of a customer disputing transaction(s) on their credit card. Usually the merchant will be involved with the dispute.
Click Reference
A unique reference used to identify sales that have come from a particular point.
Click Through
The action whereby a user has clicked on a link destined for the merchants website.
Click-Through Ratio (CTR)
The percentage of website users who click the merchant link on an affiliates website.
Closed networks
Refers to a marketing programme where the merchant has no contact with their affiliates, the relationship is established entirely through the network.
Co-branding
Where an affiliate has a custom branding on their website but directs a customer to only the services of the merchant.
Commission
The amount of money payable to the affiliate for directing a customer through to a merchants website either for a sale, lead or simply a click through.
Contextual Linking
Where an affiliate places links to merchants products in context, e.g. putting relevant adverts with relevant products.
Conversion Rate / Ratio (CR)
The percentage of webpage visitors who take a desired action e.g. a sale or lead.
Cookie
A temporary file stored on website users' computers which was created the website, usually to store preferences which can be restored when the user next visits the page. In affiliate marketing the cookies are also used in the process of tracking sales etc.
Cookieless Tracking
The process of tracking a user between affiliates/networks without the use of cookies.
CPA
Refers to the payment model whereby payment for the affiliate is based only upon actions made by the webpage user/customer e.g. sales etc.
CPC
CPC refers to the amount a merchant will pay each time a user clicks their advertisement.
CPM
CPM refers to the amount a merchant will pay an affiliate when their banner has been shown 1000 times.
CR
Abbreviation for Conversion Rate, refers to the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action e.g. sales or leads.
Creatives
The banner or image that a user may click before being directed to the merchants website.
CTR
The percentage of website users who click the merchant link on an affiliates website.
Data Feed
A full product listing offered by a merchant for affiliates to use to populate their own websites.
Drop Shipping
Drop shipping refers to a method utilised by many website owners whereby upon the sale of a product through their website, they transfer the order details over to a wholesalers, therefore making a profit based upon the difference in the net sale amount and the wholesale amount.
E-mail Link
An affiliate link stored in an email, possibly a newsletter or signature etc.
EPC
EPC refers to an affiliates average earnings per a set amount of clicks. This is often calculated by taking the total amount of commission earned, dividing it by the total number of clicks, then multiplying by 100.
Google Adsense
Adsense is a service run by Google that enables website owners to embed google links (advertisements and search boxes) into their website.
Google Adwords
Adwords is a service run by Google that can promote a company to a user when the user is actively searching for relevent search terms. Adword advertisements usually appear to the right hand side of search results on google.
Impression
Each page containing an online advertisement that is viewed by a user.
Lead Gens
Lead Generation refers to the process of finding people with a genuine interest in a product. For this reason good lead gen affiliate sites usually direct their users towards websites relevent to their own theme.
Lifetime Commissions
From the first sale, if the same customer buys products in the future then the commission will be paid to the original affiliate.
Merchant
A website selling products, in affiliate marketing a merchant is the entity offering programs to affiliates.
Network Override
An additional charge to merchants on top of commission payments.
Open Networks
Refers to a marketing programme where a merchant has direct communication with their affiliates, although the network provides the framework in which they do so.
PPC Affiliate
Website propriators on a Pay Per Click scheme pay for each time a search engine directs traffic towards their website. See Google AdWords.
Pay-Per-Click
Website propriators on a Pay Per Click scheme pay for each time a search engine directs traffic towards their website. See Google AdWords.
Pay-Per-Lead
Pay per lead affiliates are paid for each time a customer is directed to a merchants website and performs a desired action such as signing up for a service.
Pay-Per-Sale
Pay Per Sale refers to the scheme whereby an affiliate is paid for each time a customer is directed to the merchant's site and makes a purchase.
PPC
Website propriators on a Pay Per Click scheme pay for each time a search engine directs traffic towards their website. See Google AdWords.
Product Feed
A product feed is a list of merchant products which the merchant supplies to affiliates in order for them to populate their own websites with the products, and also update their records so that the correct amount of stock shows etc.
Publisher
Synonym of Affiliate, a company that has a minority interest, or is related to another company. E.g. a website owner hosting advertisements that link directly to a merchants site, in an attempt to earn a commission for each person directed via their own website.
Residual Earnings
Residual earnings refer to the income generated in subsequent transactions made by a customer that was originally refered by a specific affiliate.
Reversal
When a merchant removes sales commissions earned by an affiliate, this is usually due to returned goods, declined cards or fraud.
Sales Page
Sales Pages are the pages in which affiliates host their banners, and intend to gather the attention of potential customers/members.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is the process whereby keywords are placed effectively within pages in order to ensure pages rank well in the results when searched upon.
Scumware
Software that modifies a users websites so that they display more advertisements.
SkyScraper
A large advertising banner.
SPAM
Unwanted commercial email of little value.
Super Affiliate
Affiliates are often refered to as super-affiliates if the generate a significant amount of a merchants web-traffic.
Targeted Marketing
The process of actively distinguishing between different groups of the market, in order to market the items differently.
Text Link
A web link appearing as text (not an image such as a banner advertisement).
Tiered Commission
Variable commision rates based on the types of item being sold.
Tracking Method
The method that a network uses to track a users movements between an affiliate and a merchant.
Two Tier Affiliate Programme
Two-Tier refers to a structure whereby an affiliate recieves commission not only from conversions but also on any new affiliates that are referred.
Two-tier
Two-Tier refers to a structure whereby an affiliate recieves commission not only from conversions but also on any new affiliates that are referred.
Unique Visitor (UV)
A unique user on the website, this is usually an indicator of good website traffic.
White Label Solution / Site (See Also Co-branding)
Where an affiliate has a custom branding on their website but directs a customer to only the services of the merchant.
Affiliate networks?
What are affiliate networks? and what do they do? ... read more
What is affiliate marketing?
What it is? and why your company should be doing it ... read more
Got A Question
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