Affiliate Dictionary

Affiliate marketing is a relatively new industry (especially in the Czech Republic) and therefore terms like CPA, lead, etc. are foreign to most people who are new to this field.

We have compiled this glossary of affiliate marketing terms to help you better navigate and understand what the articles are talking about. The basic logic that is required to understand is the definitions and interrelationships between advertiser, manager and affiliate.

Glossary of important affiliate slogans and terms

Ad

From the English advertisement, meaning advert/advertising. Within our industry, this typically refers to an advertising element that partners use to promote a particular advertiser. This typically includes links, banners (see below), CTA elements and more. This is discussed more in the Advertising Elements article.

Affiliate manager / administrator

Manager of the commission program, takes care of affiliates and improving the offer, banners, etc. The content of his work is described in the affiliate management article, you can alternatively contact specific affiliate managers on a freelance basis.

Affiliate network

Affiliate network managing multiple commission programs. The network has a large number of registered affiliates who promote merchant offers.

Affiliate link

A link to a merchant’s site with a parameter that identifies the partner that brought the customer. e.g. www.affilbox.cz?a_box=123 – the a_box parameter identifies to whom the commission will be assigned.

Banner

This is the term for a graphical advertising element – for more information on the different formats, sizes and types of ad banners, please see the specific article.

Cookie

A text file in your browser that is used to store information for later use. In an affiliate, it stores information such as where the customer came from and who recommended them. If the customer closes the browser and buys later, a commission is assigned according to the cookie.

CPA

Cost per Acquisition – Cost per action, this can be an order, contact, form filled, etc.

CPC

Cost per Click.

CPL

Cost per Lead – Price per qualified contact.

CPM

Cost per Mil – Price per 1000 impressions.

CPO

Cost per Order – Price per order.

CPS

Cost per Sale – Price per sale.

CPV

Cost per View – Price per view.

CTR

Click-through – Click-through rate.

EPC

Earnings per click – Amount earned per click.

EPM

Earnings per mile – Earnings per 1,000 impressions.

Fraud

This is the term used to refer to fraud in our industry. This can take many forms – most commonly orders through your own affiliate link, taking over other affiliates’ cookies, creating unrealistic custom orders, …

Impression

The display of an advertising element, usually a banner. The mere display of an advertising element is typically not rewarded in an affiliate, rather it is usually accompanying information for partners. This allows them to calculate how well the ad element can drive visitors to the advertiser.

Conversion Code

The code that is inserted on the thank you page that takes care of recording the conversion. In its basic form, it must contain information about the order identification (typically a variable symbol or other unique ID) and its value. This aggregate amount in a specific currency is usually net of VAT and postage.

Landing page

A special page to which affiliate links lead, designed to maximize conversions. It tends to be in the colours and graphics of the advertiser in order to maximise trust and conversation.

Lead

Qualified contact from a prospect (usually for a service). A contact that has been approved and matches the requirements. Typically this is an email or phone contact.

Customer/advertiser

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In affiliate program terms, this is the owner of the e-store or website that the affiliates link to and where conversions are made. This merchant primarily influences the operation of the program and its settings. Alternatively, he/she delegates this management of the program to the so-called affiliate manager/administrator, who is then a certain point of communication between the merchant and the affiliate.

Partner / publisher / affiliate

This is the most important element in an affiliate – it is the partner who promotes services/products from the advertiser and gets commissions for it (either fixed or dynamic depending on the order amount = this is influenced by the advertiser by setting up the ad campaign). A partner is typically a blog/magazine/forum owner or an experienced online marketing specialist who can drive targeted traffic to a specific advertiser.

Partner Program

An automated marketing tool whereby partners recommend a merchant’s products and earn a commission for the purchases they recommend.

Partner SoftwareIt is a specialized software that allows you to run your own affiliate program – where affiliates register, have an overview of individual campaigns, elements, rewards, statistics, payouts, … The advertiser or administrator also logs into the same interface/software and has an overview of all the performance of the partners in the program. Our AffilBox is one of such software.

PPA

Pay per Acquisition

PPC

Pay per Click.

PPI

Pay per Impression.

PPL

Pay per Lead – Payment per qualified contact.

PPS

Pay per Sale – Payment per sale.

PPV

Pay per View – Payment per page view.

Provision

The percentage of the order value that the partner receives for referring the customer.

Provisional Network

see. Affiliate Network.

ROI

Return of Investment, or ROI. This number reflects how efficiently resources are used to generate a profit. It is therefore a recalculation of the cost that is spent to acquire a certain volume of orders – within Affil, the cost of running the program/license/software, the program manager’s fee, commissions paid to partners, and of course the value of orders from that marketing channel can all be factored into the equation.

Shaving

A rare technique used by marketers to conceal some conversions.

Split testing / AB testing

Testing multiple versions of a single page to improve conversions.

Super affiliate / TOP affiliate

An affiliate that delivers a large number of conversions, hundreds to thousands per month. Such an affiliate needs to be swayed to your side so that he brings as much of his performance to you and not to your competitor. For a TOP affiliate, we are usually talking about a threshold of 50 000-100 000 CZK earned in commissions per calendar month.

Tracking Code

The code that a merchant puts on their site. It is used to store a cookie (and other accompanying tracking techniques) in the user’s browser for later identification.

Tracking Pixel

A tiny image that some partners embed on a merchant’s site to track orders independently so they can prevent fraud and shaving (see above).

Traffic

Users (in other words, traffic) that partners bring to a merchant’s site.