Common Affiliate Terms

Above The Fold

Used to describe the area of a website that is visible to the user without scrolling. This is considered to be the most valuable area of a website.

Affiliate

AKA: Associate

One that earns a commission from a merchant for referring customers via clicks, leads or sales.

Affiliate Manager

The individual responsible for the day to day operations of a merchant's affiliate program. Duties may include affiliate support, recruiting and the creation of marketing materials.

Affiliate Marketing

The act of promoting a merchants products in order to receive a share of the revenue generated through clicks, leads or sales.

Affiliate Network

A collection of affiliate programs under the control of a separate entity. This third party receives a fee or percentage in exchange for acting as the affiliate manager for these programs.

Affiliate Program

AKA: Associate Program

A program in which an affiliate is offered a commission or incentive for generating leads or sales of a merchant's products.

Affiliate Tracking

The method by which an affiliate's leads or sales are registered with the merchant.

Banner Ad

An advertisement that is in the form of a graphic, animated or otherwise.

Click

AKA: Click-Through

The act of a visitor following a link generated by the affiliate leading to the merchant's website.

Click Fraud

The act of generating invalid clicks to a merchant's website in order to inflate the affiliate's PPC ( pay per click ) earnings.

Click-Through Ratio

AKA: CTR

The ratio consisting of the number of impressions versus the number of click-throughs.

Co-branding

An arrangement in which the affiliate is able to add their logo or site colors to their landing page on the merchant's website.

Commission

The fee paid to an affiliate for generating a sale or lead on the merchant's website.

Contextual Advertising

Advertising that is directly related to the content of the webpage that it is placed on.

Conversion

The act of a visitor becoming a commissionable sale.

Cookie

A snippet of code sent to a user's browser and stored on the user's computer containing information pertinent to the website that set it. This is often used to track affiliate activity.

Impression

The displaying of an advertisement.

In House Affiliate Program

An affiliate program that is completely managed by the merchant.

Landing Page

A page specifically designed to be an entry point of a website. This page would be highly optimized to generate sales.

Lifetime Commissions

Commissions that are paid for all future sales generated from the lead provided by the affiliate.

Merchant

A business offering marketable goods or services.

Niche Marketing

The act of focusing your marketing efforts on a specific market segment or niche.

Pay Per Click

AKA: PPC

An advertising model in which an affiliate is paid for each click-through to the merchant's website.

Pay Per Lead

AKA: PPL

An advertising model in which an affiliate is paid a commission for each sales lead generated.

Pay Per Sale

AKA: PPS

A program in which an affiliate is paid for each sale that they generate.

Recurring Commission

A commission on subscription based services. Each renewal is rewarded with a new commission.

Residual Earnings

Earnings that encompass the life of the customer. Not only is the initial commission paid, but an affiliate receives commissions on all subsequent sales to the customer.

Super Affiliates

The top performing 1% to 2% of affiliates. It is estimated that these super affiliates generate nearly 90% of an affiliate program's sales.

Tracking URL

A URL used for affiliate tracking that is specifically designed to contain your affiliate code.

Two-teir Affiliate Program

AKA: Second Teir

An affiliate model in which you are not only paid for your conversions, but also the conversions of any new affiliates you refer to the program.