Search For Affiliate Marketing Glossary
This glossary serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding the terminology essential to the affiliate marketing industry. Within this dynamic business model, individuals or businesses earn commissions by promoting the products or services of others. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced affiliate marketer, this glossary will provide clear definitions for navigating the field effectively.
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A
Affiliate
An individual or business that promotes products or services for a merchant in exchange for a commission on sales or leads generated.
Affiliate Agreement
A contract outlining the terms and conditions between an affiliate and a merchant.
Affiliate ID
A unique identifier that allows companies to track the source of traffic or sales in an affiliate program
Affiliate Fraud
Fraudulent attempts to generate commissions through illegitimate means.
Affiliate Link
A unique URL that tracks the referral of traffic or sales from an affiliate to a merchant's website.
Affiliate Manager (AM)
A person responsible for managing an affiliate program and supporting affiliates.
Affiliate Marketing
A performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates for generating sales or leads.
Affiliate Agreement
A contract outlining the terms and conditions between an affiliate and a merchant.
Affiliate Network
A platform that connects affiliates with merchants, providing tracking and payment services.
Affiliate Program
A promotional strategy where a merchant pays commissions to affiliates for referring new customers or sales.
B
Banner Ad
A form of online advertising that embeds a graphic image or animation within a web page to attract traffic to a website.
Blog
A regularly updated website or web page, typically run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style
Browser
A software application used to locate, retrieve, and display content on the World Wide Web, including webpages, images, video, and other files
Business-to-Business (B2B)
This term refers to businesses that sell products or services to other businesses
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
This term refers to businesses that sell products or services directly to consumers
C
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of users who click on a specific link out of the total users who view a page, email, or advertisement.
Commission Rate
The percentage or fixed payment associated with a particular affiliate action, such as a sale or lead.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.
Cookie Duration
The amount of time a cookie remains active, allowing affiliates to earn credit for sales made within that period.
Content
The textual, visual, or aural content that is encountered as part of the user experience on websites. It may include text, images, sounds, videos, and animations
Cost Per Action (CPA)
An online advertising payment model where payment is based upon qualifying actions such as sales or registrations
Cost Per Click (CPC)
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per click-through
Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
The cost or cost-equivalent paid per thousand impressions
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The cost associated with acquiring a new customer
D
Disclosure
A statement that affiliates use to inform their audience of their relationship with the merchant and the potential for earning commissions.
Data Feed
A file containing a list of products and their attributes offered by an online store to affiliate marketers
Deep Linking
The practice of linking to a specific, generally searchable or indexed, piece of web content on a website (e.g., “http://example.com/path/page”), rather than the website's home page (e.g., “http://example.com/”).
Display Ad
A form of online advertising where an advertiser's message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Every domain name consists of one or more labels that are conventionally concatenated, and delimited by dots, such as example.com
E
Earnings Per Click (EPC)
The average amount earned each time someone clicks on an affiliate link.
Email Marketing
The promotion of products or services via email.
E-commerce
The buying and selling of goods and services, or the transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet
F
Flat Fee
A predetermined amount paid to affiliates, regardless of the sale or lead value
Frequency Cap
Restrictions on the number of times a specific visitor is shown a particular advertisement
Funnel
The set of steps a visitor needs to go through before they can reach the conversion
G
Geo-Targeting
A method of detecting a website visitor's location to serve location-based content or advertisements
Google AdSense
A program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience
Google AdWords
Google's advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google's search results
Graphic Banner
A combination of several graphic images that are sequenced together to create a changeable advertising banner
H
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
A markup language used for creating web pages and other information viewable in a browser
HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
The protocol used to transfer information on the World Wide Web
I
Impression
A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed
Inbound Link
A link from a site outside of your site
Interstitial Ad
An advertisement that loads between two content pages
J
JavaScript
A scripting language developed by Netscape and used to create interactive Web sites
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
A commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography
K
Keyword
A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Many websites offer advertising targeted by keywords
Keyword Marketing
Putting your message in front of people who are searching using particular keywords and keyphrases
L
Landing Page
A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign.
Last Click
A commission model where the last affiliate who referred a visitor to a merchant's website receives the commission if that visitor makes a purchase.
Link
An element on a web page that can be clicked on by a user and that will direct the user to another web page
Link Building
The process of establishing relevant, inbound links to your website which help your website achieve higher ranking with the major search engines and drive targeted traffic to your site
M
Merchant
A business that sells products or services and offers an affiliate program.
Meta Description
An HTML element that describes a webpage to search engines.
Meta Title
A title given to a webpage within the meta tags for search engine optimization.
Meta Tags
Information placed in the HTML header of a web page, providing information that is not visible to browsers. The most common meta tags are those for keywords and description.
Mobile Advertising
Advertising that appears on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that have wireless connections.
N
Native Advertising
A type of advertising, usually online but feasibly elsewhere, that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears
Niche
A specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service
O
Offer
An agreement between a marketer and a visitor in which the marketer promises to give a specific benefit to the visitor in return for performing a specific task
Opt-In
A person that has specifically requested to receive e-mail from a site
Organic Search Results
The listings on a search engine results page that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being advertisements
P
Pay Per Click (PPC)
An advertising model where affiliates are paid for each click on their ads.
Publisher
An alternative term for “affiliate”.
Pay Per Lead (PPL)
A type of affiliate marketing where affiliates are paid for each lead they generate, such as a visitor filling out a form or signing up for a service.
Pay Per Sale (PPS)
A type of affiliate marketing where affiliates are paid for each sale made through their affiliate links.
Pixel
The smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a digital display device.
Pop-Up Ad
An ad that displays in a new browser window.
Q
Quality Score
A metric in paid search advertising platforms that influences both the rank and cost per click of ads
Query
The term entered into a search engine by a user
R
Raw Clicks
The total number of clicks on an affiliate link, including multiple clicks from the same use.
Recurring Commission
A commission model where affiliates earn a commission for as long as the customer they referred continues to make purchases or pay for a service.
Referral
The process of directing or redirecting traffic from one web page to another.
Return on Investment (ROI)
A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compare the efficiency of different investments.
Rank
How well a particular web page or website is listed in a search engine results.
Return on Investment (ROI)
The amount of money you receive from an investment relative to the amount of money you have invested.
S
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to a website through organic search engine results.
Super Affiliate
An affiliate who is highly successful and generates a significant portion of an affiliate program's activity.
Sub-Affiliate Network
A large group of sub-affiliates that distribute reward payments. This term is used to describe an affiliate who is networked with other affiliates.
Social Media
Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking
Spam
Unsolicited email, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk email
T
Tracking Code
A unique ID that an affiliate uses to track the source of their traffic or sales.
Traffic
The visitors to a website.
Two-tier Affiliate Marketing
A method where affiliates refer other people to join the affiliate program. Affiliates earn a commission on their own sales as well as on the sales made by the people they referred.
Technical SEO
The process of ensuring search engines can properly crawl and index a website’s content to achieve optimal rankings in organic search results.
Text Ad
An advertisement using text-based hyperlinks.
Text Link
A link that is not accompanied by a graphical image
U
Unique Click
A tracking process that records the number of unique visitors to a site over a given period. It is used to prevent the same individual from being counted multiple times.
Underdelivery
Delivery of fewer impressions, visitors, or conversions than contracted for a specified period of time.
Unique Visitors
Individuals who have visited a website (or network) at least once during a fixed time frame.
Upselling
Trying to persuade shoppers to buy a more expensive product or package than what they were initially considering.
URL
Location of a resource on the Internet.
UTM Codes
A group of Google Analytics tracking parameters added to the end of URLs to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns (UTM = Urchin Tracking Module, from the Urchin analytics software that preceded Google Analytics).
User Experience (UX)
A person's emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service
V
Vertical
A specific niche or category of products that an affiliate promotes.
Vertical Banner
A banner ad measuring 120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall.
View Through Conversion
When a user sees an ad without interacting with it, and later converts within a time period defined as the conversion window.
Viral Marketing
Marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message.
Vlog
A blog that publishes video content.
Viral Marketing
A marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily.
Volume
The amount of visitors or page views that a website receives
W
Whitelist
A list of approved websites where an advertiser allows its ads to be placed.
Web Browser
A software application that allows for the browsing of the World Wide Web.
Web Design
The selection and coordination of available components to create the layout and structure of a website.
Web Directory
Organized, categorized listings of websites.
Web Hosting
The business of providing the storage, connectivity, and services necessary to serve files for a website.
Web Site Traffic
The amount of visitors and visits a website receives.
White Hat SEO
Using tactics to increase organic search traffic that are strictly within the guidelines set by search engines.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
A marketing method that relies on casual social interactions to promote a product or service
Webinar
A seminar or other presentation that takes place on the Internet, allowing participants in different locations to see and hear the presenter, ask questions, and sometimes answer polls.
Website
A location connected to the Internet that maintains one or more pages on the World Wide Web
Widget
A small application with limited functionality that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user
X
XML (eXtensible Markup Language)
A flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere.
Y
Yahoo! Search Marketing
An advertising service that places ads in the Yahoo! search results, or on sites that are part of Yahoo!'s network.
Yield
The amount of money a website earns for every thousand impressions
Z
Zone File
The file on the server that contains DNS records for every domain that the web server controls
Z-Index
A CSS property that sets the stack order of specific elements. An element with greater stack order is always in front of another element with lower stack order
