Affiliate Marketing Glossary

A

• Abandonment: When a website visitor leaves an item in an online shopping cart without completing the transaction.
• Account Balance: Money that a publisher has earned through its advertisers’ publisher programs that has not yet been rolled into a payment. Also refers to an advertiser’s account balance based on the funding they have provided to Affiliate, less any publisher commissions that have been earned and the corresponding Affiliate transaction fees.
• Action: An event (sale or lead) on an advertiser’s website for which an advertiser pays a commission to a referring publisher.
• Action ID: Commission Junction-assigned number that identifies an action and the associated commission and tracking settings. The action type displays in Network include: Simple sale, simple lead, etc.
• Action Lifecycle: The number of days a transaction can be corrected. Either Standard Lifecycle (actions are locked on the 10th of the month unless you extend them) or Custom Lifecycle (actions are locked after a specified number of days – select a number between 7 and 60 days in the drop-down menu).
• Action Referral Period: The time period during which an advertiser allows their cookies to remain active to credit publishers for their referrals. Action referral periods are determined by the visitor’s last click-through to an advertiser’s website and must be between 1 and 120 days.
• Active Publisher: Refers to a publisher account that has generated impressions and/or click-throughs within a certain period; a traffic-generating publisher.
• Ad Blocker: Software-based programs that prevent online advertisements from displaying.
• Ad Display/Ad Delivered: When an ad is successfully displayed on the user’s computer screen.
• Ad Network Publisher: Publisher whose promotional method focuses on working with third-party agencies and other affiliate marketing companies to earn commissions.
• Ad Stream: The series of ads displayed to the user during a single visit to a website (also impression stream).
• Advanced Links: Create interaction beyond a simple click, allowing for advertisers to capture more information about the user. Search fields and drop-down menus are examples of the interaction you create with advanced links. Use advanced links to create other types of links, including: dynamic links, pop-ups/pop-unders, flash-compatible links.
• Advertiser: A company that sells a product or service, accepts payments, and fulfills orders online. Advertisers partner with publishers to help promote their products and services. Publishers place an advertiser’s ad, text links, or product links on their website or include them in email campaigns and search listings in exchange for commissions on leads or sales. Also known in affiliate marketing as a “merchant.”
• Advertiser Advisory Board (AAB): A forum of market-leading advertisers and members of the Network who serve as the voice for their community. Affiliate consults with these industry leaders to identify strategic opportunities and challenges and solicits their input.
• Advertiser CID (Company ID): The unique identifying number for an advertiser’s program. This number appears at the top of each advertiser Account Manager page.
• Advertiser Order Form (AOF): Advertisers receive or manually generate this form to find out how much they owe or need to fund their accounts to avoid temporary deactivation (standard advertiser).
• Advertiser Service Agreement (ASA): Legal agreement an advertiser signs when joining Affiliate.
• Affiliate Customer Insights: Performance data reporting at the customer and publisher level available to affiliate-managed advertisers. Proprietary reports measure affiliate vs. non-affiliate activities and behaviors, including online and offline transactions.
• Affiliate Marketing: Any type of revenue-sharing program in which a publisher receives a commission for generating online actions (such as leads or sales) for an advertiser; also called performance-based marketing, partner marketing, CPA, associate program, or pay-for-performance program.
• Affiliate Solution Provider: A third-party vendor that provides the software and services to administer an affiliate program, including ad serving and tracking, payment and reporting; also called affiliate marketing network.
• Affinity Marketing: Targeting customers based on their established buying patterns.
• Aggregator Site: Website dedicated to gathering content from other third-party websites or from user submissions.
• AID (Ad ID): Tag parameter, 4-10 characters in length, that is uniquely assigned to a link in the Account Manager. When a publisher generates HTML link code, the AID appears in the link code to help identify the link.
• Alternative Message for Link (Alt Tag): Provides advertisers with an opportunity to write in text that would display as a text link should the image for the link not load on the publisher’s website. Also known as “alt tag.”
• Analyzer: Account Manager user type allowing view, access, and edit privileges to the account but cannot change SuperUser settings.
• Anonymizer: Software or website that blocks a user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address from being displayed.
• Applet: A small, self-contained software application that is most often used by browsers to automatically display animation and/or to perform database queries requested by the user.
• Application Programming Interface (API): A programming format/interface that a website or a piece of software uses, such as web services via Account Manager, to allow other websites or software to interact with it.
• Archived Link: This is creative that an advertiser has removed from their active links, meaning the advertiser no longer wants its publishers to use this link to promote its brand.
• Attribution: Marketing and data analysis method used to track an entire sales process from introducer to closer, and across multiple channels (both online and offline).
• Average Order Value (AOV): A metric that describes the average amount of a purchase. It is calculated by dividing the total value of all purchases by the total number of purchasers over a given time period.

B

• Banner: A clickable (hyperlinked) advertising graphic, and is the most common type of web advertisement. Banners are graphics of all shapes and sizes; however, Affiliate offers some standard shapes and sizes.
• Base Rate: Standard commission rate for a given program term.
• Batch: One of two tracking methods used in the Network of retrieving advertiser transaction information. Also see conversion tag and tracking method.
• Behavioral Targeting: A technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns. Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual‘s web browsing behavior such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made to select which advertisements to be displayed to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be influenced by them.
• Beta: A test version of a product or software.
• Billboard: A form of promotion in the Account Manager that is available to advertisers for a fee. A Billboard displays at the top of a category page with the intent of drawing attention to that advertiser’s program.
• Black Hat: Phrase used to describe unethical practice of SEO, such as link scheming. Network Compliance department looks for this type of activity and regularly removes publishers who conduct such activity.
• Blog: A website featuring regular posts and encourages user comments, linking and interaction. Short for “Web log.”
• Bonus: Monies paid to a publisher above their standard/initial commission rate. It may be connected with a performance incentive or discretionary (manual transaction).
• Branded Sign-up: A branded, customized application form that an advertiser may provide in order for publishers to apply to its program.
• Business-to-Business (B2B): Refers to commerce conducted between two businesses.

C

• Category: A classification that defines the purpose or content of a publisher’s promotional method or an advertiser’s business vertical. A publisher website may be categorized to indicate the type of website or content it manages. In the Network, an advertiser can classify its program within a primary category. A publisher classifies itself into one primary category and up to three general categories.
• CID (Company ID): Unique number which differentiates an advertiser/publisher from other accounts. (NOTE: A CID is never used in your link code.) In the context of image pixel tracking, the CID tag parameter is paired with the advertiser’s enterprise ID (the ID that enables a single integration across multiple Affiliate products).
• Account Manager: The user interface for an advertiser or publisher within the Network.
• Network: An open, online marketplace to which participating advertisers may upload offers that can be used by participating publishers on their websites.
• Click: When a user presses on a computer mouse or trackpad. As in “click save.”
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of “clicks” for the number of advertising impressions displayed.
• Click-Through, Click-Throughs: A way of measuring how many people click a link online to see its destination website. Click-throughs are often used to set advertising rates.
• Code of Conduct (COC): Contract describing acceptable and unacceptable publisher and advertiser practices that must be accepted before joining a network.
• Commission: The incentive a publisher receives from an advertiser for generating leads or sales through its website.
• Commission Rate: The dollar amount or percentage that an advertiser offers its publishers as commission.
• Container Tag ID: The unique identifier for the tracking conversion tag.
• Content & Community Publisher: Type of publisher whose promotional method focuses on the fundamental process of generating traffic and revenue through the content that they share on their website. Content websites feature information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in a specific context.
• Content Link: Content links have the same underlying technical functionality as advanced links, but are unique in the way they present content to users. Use this type of link to provide your publishers with compelling content that looks more like an e-zine article than a standard ad. Content links may also contain other link types, such as text, banner, and interactive links, or can even be complete web pages with heavy SEO saturation in the text; can also be useful for search publishers bidding SEO or if their advertisers require them to use landing pages to drive traffic.
• Conversion: An event that occurs when a visitor click-throughs a link and makes a purchase from or generates a lead for an advertiser. Publishers earn commissions when conversions occur.
• Conversion Rate (CR): The percentage of visits to a publisher’s website that convert to a sale or lead. For example, if one in every hundred visitors to your site makes a purchase, then your conversion rate is 1:100, or 1 percent.
• Cookie: A small file stored on a consumer’s computer that records information about that consumer. Cookies work with a consumer’s web browser to store user preferences, login or registration information, and shopping cart information for websites the consumer has visited. In affiliate marketing, cookies are used to track the link or ad the consumer clicks from a publisher’s site to an advertiser’s website. Cookies can also store the date and time of the click for purposes of tracking the time elapsed between a click and a conversion to a sale or lead. Please note that the cookie must live at least as long as the action referral period.
• Coremetrics: Coremetrics is an online marketing solution that allows advertisers to track, report, and analyze transactions made from their website.
• Correction: A correction reflects the amount of the adjustment entered by an advertiser, with no itemization. Advertisers may enter a full correction or a partial correction.
• Correction Data File: A correction data file contains the monetary amounts to reverse for specific transactions. Sending this information to Affiliate via a file offsets the time and effort it takes to adjust transactions manually via the Account Manager.
• Cost-Per-Action, Cost Per Action (CPA): A metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every action that is taken by a user. Examples of cost-per-action (CPA) transactions are cost per click, cost per lead, and cost per sale.
• Cost-Per-Click, Cost Per Click (CPC): A commission structure in which an advertiser pays its publishers a flat amount every time a visitor clicks through a link on the publisher’s website and is redirected to the advertiser’s site. See also pay-per-click.
• Cost-Per-Lead, Cost Per Lead (CPL): A commission structure in which an advertiser pays its publishers a flat amount for every qualified customer lead generated from a link on the publisher’s site. See also pay-per-lead.
• Cost-Per-Order, Cost Per Order (CPO): A metric that determines the number of orders generated relative to the cost of running the advertisement.
• Cost-Per-Sale, Cost Per Sale (CPS): A commission structure in which an advertiser pays its publishers a percentage of each completed sales transaction made through its links. See also pay-per-sale.
• Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions, Cost Per Thousand (CPM): A commission method traditionally used in the advertising world in which an advertiser pays a set amount for every 1000 impressions served. For example, a website charges $1,000 per ad and reports 100,000 visits have a CPM of $10. Also referred to as “cost-per-mille.”
• Creative: Promotional materials advertisers use to attract consumers to their websites or products. These include text links, banner ads, buttons, email copy, and videos, among others.

D

• Data Transfer: Advertisers may transfer a file that contains data for actions, corrections, accepted transactions, extended transactions, etc.
• Database: A large collection of data stored in rows and columns to allow for fast retrieval.
• Decline: Indicates that an advertiser has not accepted a publisher application.
• Deep Link: Allows a publisher to hyperlink directly to a specific product or service webpage on the advertiser’s website, which can cut out the step of going to the publisher’s page/website first. Also known as “direct link.”
• Deep Link Automation: Publishers may opt to add one line of script to their website to automatically monetize all linked content on the site.
• Deep Link Generator: Publishers use a bookmarklet to generate affiliate deep links directly from product pages as content is being created.
• Default URL: Advertiser’s target URL link where the user will arrive after clicking on a link from a publisher’s website.
• Deleted Publisher: A publisher account that has been deleted from the Account Manager system.
• Deposit: When an advertiser transfers funds into its Account Manager account to cover Affiliate fees and publisher payments. New advertisers signing up with Affiliate have a minimum $3,000 deposit when signing up.
• Down Tracking: Refers to any instance of tracking irregularities limited to the advertiser’s own website implementation of tracking.
• Drop-Down: A field that allows users to select an option by clicking a down-arrow in the field and choosing from a list of options.
• Dynamic Link: A link type that may contain many different elements in any rich media format and allows advertisers to change link content on a real-time basis.

E

• E-commerce: An electronic exchange of value between a business and its partners, suppliers, and customers.
• Earnings: The amount of money a publisher has earned through an advertiser’s program.
• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT): Any transfer of funds that occurs electronically rather than by check or cash, including fund transfers initiated through an electronic terminal, telephone, computer, or magnetic tape.
• Email Campaign: In the Network, advertisers can use member messaging to send email campaigns to joined or not-joined publishers.
• Engagement Time: The amount of time a visitor actually spends interacting on the content based on mouse moves, clicks, hovers, and scrolls.
• Enterprise Tracking ID: ID that enables a single integration across multiple Affiliate products. This value must be provided for the CID tag parameter in your tracking code.
• EPC (Average Earnings Per 100 Clicks): Defined as the average earnings per 100 clicks, a relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert click-throughs into commissions as related to the Network.
• EPC 3-month: Your EPC (Average Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks) is a relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions. For more information on EPC, visit [Support Center].
• EPC 7-day: Your EPC (Average Earnings Per One Hundred Clicks) is a relative rating that illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions. For more information on EPC, visit [Support Center].
• Event Date: The date a transaction occurs on an advertiser’s site.
• Expire: Refers to when an advertiser or publisher ends their relationship.

F

• Field: Refers to a text box, drop-down, or other element on a page.
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP): Standard method used to send/receive files from a web server. One way an advertiser can post their product catalog feed to the servers is via FTP.
• Flash Link: Unlike advanced links (which can also use Flash), Flash links are hosted on Affiliate’s servers. Max file size: 1MB.
• Frequency: The average number of times a user was exposed to an ad over a period of time.
• Full Program Management: Top-tier account an advertiser can sign up for when joining the Network.

G

• Gateway Integration, Gateway Advertiser: A client who does not display or track every transaction occurring on their domain through Affiliate rather, this client implements a Gateway. A Gateway is defined as a unique URL string and/or name within a URL string designed to trigger Affiliate’s tracking cookie. Gateway advertisers can only utilize banner, flash, and text links. Once a user lands on this page, it is the advertiser’s responsibility to drop their own cookie (active for their action referral period or longer ‐ minimum 24 hours) on the user’s computer.
• Geo-Targeting: Selective advertising in which a publisher can choose what geographical areas they want the ad to appear in. For example, if a publisher’s website focuses on umbrellas and rain apparel, they may just want a certain ad to appear in places where it frequently rains.

H

• Home Page: The “front” main page of a website.
• HyperText Markup Language (HTML), .html: The code that is used to create hypertext documents for use on the World Wide Web. With the HTML language, users can specify that a block of text, or a word, is linked to another file on the Internet. HTML files are meant to be viewed using a Web browser.
• HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP): The protocol for rendering hypertext files across the internet. Requires an HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end.

I

• IFRAME, iframe: HTML tag supporting an inline frame, allowing the inclusion of external objects, including other HTML documents or webpages. Tracking solution utilizes an IFRAME tag.
• Image Pixel: The standard tracking method for Marketplace advertisers if referencing the pixel within the code on an advertiser’s order confirmation page. Image pixels are also included within link code and are used to track impressions. Also see conversion tag.
• Image Size: The dimensions of an image in pixels.
• Impression, Impressions: Occurs every time a link appears in a visitor’s browser. It represents an opportunity to buy an online advertiser’s products or services. Analyzing the number of impressions served, in conjunction with other data, allows publishers and advertisers to assess the effectiveness of the links.
• Inactive Publisher: A publisher account with no impressions or click-throughs.
• Increased Commission Rate: Performance based incentive that increases the commission rate by a desired percentage.
• Increased Payout: Offering publishers more commissions as an incentive.
• Integration: Advertisers have two integration options to incorporate the tracking cookie on their website’s conversion page: standard conversion tracking integration and advanced conversion tracking integration.
• Integration Date: The date an advertiser’s tracking cookie was integrated and “went live” in the Affiliate network.
• Integration Methods: Advertisers have four integration methods to choose from: Standard, Gateway, Gateway with Redirect, Custom Parameters Gateway (recommended).
• Internet: A decentralized, worldwide network of computers that can communicate with each other.
• Item Lists: Feature in Account Manager that allows an advertiser to offer multiple commission rates for different items (products, leads, etc.) they support in their programs.
• Item-Based Commissions (IBC): Advanced commission setting that enables advertisers to set custom commission rates for specific items (individual products/services, leads, etc.) associated with actions in their program. Available only with advanced conversion tracking integration.

J

• JavaScript™: A client-side scripting language developed by Netscape Communications that brings interactivity to the World Wide Web. Its functionality is primarily aimed at enhanced forms, simple Web database front-ends, navigation enhancements and allows for dynamic updating via servers vs. hard code updates like HTML requires.
• Joined, Not Joined: Indicates state of the relationship between advertisers and publishers. Joined means that a publisher is in an advertiser’s program, and not joined means that they are not yet affiliated.
• Jpg (Joint Photographic Experts Group): Compressed image format commonly used for digital photos. Supports up to 24-bit color.

K

• Keyword: A word that users can enter to search a specific data set. Keywords are also used in search engine marketing as the word or phrase that visitors enter to search for results.
• Keyword Links: Keyword links enable publishers to promote an advertiser using paid placement. When publishers bid on their advertiser’s keywords, they use the information in the keyword link to determine the preferred marketing message and tracking URL for search. This information also provides advertiser keywords and the associated bidding rules for those keywords.

L

• Landing Page: A simple, one-page website.
• Last-Click Model: Attribution model used in affiliate marketing that credits a publisher who was responsible for directing an action. There are variations within the last-click model, that include last non-direct click and last paid click, for example.
• Lead: A type of action in which a consumer registers, signs up for, or downloads something from an advertiser’s website. A prospective customer filling out a form on an advertiser’s website is also a type of lead.
• Lifetime Value (LTV): The total amount that a customer will spend with a particular company during his or her lifetime.
• Link: A link is a form of advertising (an icon, a picture, or a highlighted string of text) on a website, in an email, or in an online newsletter, that, when clicked, refers a consumer to an advertiser’s landing page or website. In the world of affiliate marketing, the link is provided by an advertiser to allow for publisher’s to earn commission.
• Link Code: The HTML code that publishers use to create the link to an advertiser’s website. When publishers generate these tags and paste the code into their sites, they create links to the advertiser’s website.
• Link Name: Name assigned to link in Account Manager (by advertiser), usually something that lets the advertiser and publisher know what the link’s offer or promotion is (e.g., free shipping link, buy one get one free link, logo link, etc).
• Listing: In search engine marketing, the information submitted to a search engine to support part of paid placement and paid inclusion services. Each listing is comprised of a keyword, title, description, and destination URL. See also placement.
• Login, Log In, Logon, Log On, Logoff, Log Off: To supply a username or e-mail address and password to gain or prevent access to a system.
• Loyalty & Rewards Publisher: Type of publisher who “rewards” consumers with gifts or cash back in the form of alternative payment systems, incentive or virtual currency.

M

• Managed Accounts: Advertisers who are enrolled in Network in Recruiting & Optimization Management or Full Program Management service levels.
• Message Joined, Not-Joined Publishers: In the Network, advertisers can send email messages to publishers that have joined or have not joined the advertiser’s program. Publishers can opt in or out of receiving recruitment messages based on categories within the Network.
• Minimum EPC (Minimum Earnings Per Click): Optional guarantee an advertiser may specify for publishers for the duration of the program terms.
• Minimum Monthly Fee (MMF): The Minimum Monthly Fee (MMF) is the minimum amount an advertiser must pay Affiliate each month. Advertisers pay the greater amount of either the total amount of fees generated on commissions or the MMF. The MMF does not include any flat-rate fees for Value-Added Services.
• Monthly Active Users (MAU): The number of active users on a website each month.

N

• Network Access: Standard, non-managed account an advertiser can sign up for when joining the Network.
• Network Earnings: How an advertiser compares with other advertisers in the Network based on the volume of commissions paid. See also “network rank.”
• Network Integration Fee (NIF): A one-time charge for advertisers joining the Network.
• Network Rank: Bar ranking system within the Network that rates advertisers and publishers with others in the network based on commissions paid out. See also “network earnings.”
• New Account Setup: 4-phase process an advertiser goes through when signing up with Affiliate: 1. Payment, 2. Account Development, 3. Testing, 4. Activation
• New To File Report: Part of the Affiliate Customer Insights offering. New To File compares the affiliate channel to all other marketing channels as it relates to new customer acquisition.
• No Corrections: Account level functionality that allows the advertiser to create Program Terms that do not support any corrections. Commissions for any publisher that is associated with a “No Corrections” program term would be locked immediately.

O

• Offline Impact Report: Part of the Affiliate Customer Insights offering. Offline Impact exposes the level of influence of the affiliate channel across the complete customer journey, leading to an offline purchase.
• OID (Advertiser’s Order ID): A unique identifier supplied by an advertiser, such as an Invoice # or Order ID, that populates into the string dynamically. Include only alphanumeric characters within the OID field to avoid errors.
• Operator: Account Manager user type allowing view and account access, but may not change account settings.
• Opt In (Verb), Opt-In (Adjective), Subscribe: An action a user can take to receive email or messages.
• Opt Out (Verb), Opt-Out (Adjective), Unsubscribe: An action a publisher can take to remove its name from a mailing list.
• Order: A website visitor’s request on an e-commerce page to purchase an item or service.
• Order Inquiry Manager (OIM): Tool in Account Manager interface where advertisers, publishers, or Account Managers can keep track of missing orders. By using this tool, the publisher can enter the information regarding a missing order and report it directly to the advertiser. The advertiser is then able to view the information about the missing orders directly in their Account Manager interface.
• Organic Search: Organic search, also known as search engine optimization (SEO), focuses on optimizing website content, architecture, meta tag development, linking strategies, directory listings, and webpage submissions based on the relevancy algorithms search engines use to index and rank webpages. Organic search methodology is a long-term solution to obtaining search engine exposure without paying the recurring costs associated with pay-per-click advertising models.

P

• Pay Per Call: Product that provides advertisers a simple way to use unique, trackable phone numbers in all forms of media to attribute sales and leads across various channels.
• Pay-for-Performance Marketing: A program in which commissions for marketing services are earned based on performance. Refers to all types of performance-based marketing solutions offered by Affiliate, including affiliate marketing and search marketing.
• Pay-per-Click: Used to describe a pay-per-click program. See cost-per-click.
• Pay-per-Lead: Commission method in which a publisher is paid when an online registration, membership, or subscription is filled out and submitted to an advertiser by a publisher-referred visitor.
• Pay-per-Sale: Commission method in which a publisher is paid when a product or service is purchased on an advertiser’s site by a publisher-referred visitor.
• Performance Incentive (PI): Additional performance-based rewards offered by advertisers to top publishers, paid as a bonus two months after the month the transactions were generated. Three types of PIs: total sales, total commissions, and the number of actions.
• PID (Publisher Website ID): Unique tag parameter that is paired with a website ID (the identifier of the publisher’s website from which the action is referred).
• Pixel 1×1: A tiny, transparent graphic that is placed with each link as a means of tracking link performance. The 1×1 pixel is used to track impressions and is one of two tracking methods used by Affiliate. See also tracking method, conversion tag, and batch.
• Placement: In search engine marketing, a listing becomes a placement when it is submitted to a specific search engine. One listing may become multiple placements, depending on how many search engines receive it. In addition to the listing information, a placement also includes a bid amount and may include other information specific to each search engine.
• PNG (Portable Network Graphic): Uncompressed image format similar to .gifs but without the data limitations. Commonly used for web graphics and can be saved with a transparent background.
• Pop-Under: A smaller browser window or message area that appears behind the main browser window.
• Pop-Up: A smaller browser window or message area that appears in front of the main browser window.
• Product Catalog: A tool that offers to advertisers that enables them to provide their publishers with a full catalog of all their product links in one automated file. The product catalog also offers advertisers a way to easily load in links for all their products through one feed instead of manually adding and changing links in the account Manager interface.
• Product Reporting: Ability to view the SKU’s and product details for items included in individual sales within commission detail reports in Account Manager. Additional performance reporting options allow advertisers to view the sale performance of specific SKUs and the items sold by publisher, publisher group and website. Available with advanced conversion tracking integration only.
• Profile Targeting: Process of targeting consumers based on key characteristics of their profile.
• Program Category: The primary category selected to represent an advertiser’s program to publishers.
• Program Information Page: Page in Account Manager that describes an advertiser’s program.
• Program Listing Option: A set of special formatting and treatment options (logo, bold, billboard) that can be applied to an advertiser name in the Account Manager publisher interface for a fee. The result of these listings is increased exposure of the advertiser’s program to publishers.
• Program Status: Area in Account Manager that displays an advertiser’s account balance and the number of publishers who have joined their program.
• Program Terms: The agreement and relationship between an advertiser and a publisher, including commission rates, program terms, search and marketing policies, and any bonus incentives.
• Promotion, Promotion Link: Option that allows an advertiser to flag their link as a special, time-based promotional link. Flagging a link with a promotion type is how that link gets included in a promotional data feed for publishers.
• Publisher: The owner of a website that chooses to display or promote an advertiser’s products or services. Publishers agree to place ads on their websites or promote an advertiser’s offers via search or other means authorized by the advertiser. In return, publishers can earn commissions, which vary by advertiser, on click-throughs, leads, or purchases made through the links on their websites.
• Publisher Accept/Decline Method: Rules advertisers can apply to streamline the publisher approval process. Methods include: auto-approve (by country, network rank, and publisher category), auto-decline, and manually approve.
• Publisher Advisory Board (PAB): A group of notable established publishers from within the Network who serve as the voice of their community. Affiliate obtains feedback from the PAB regarding successes, opportunities and enhancements.
• Publisher Commissions: Broad term defining any money earned by a publisher.
• Publisher Fraud: Fraudulent behavior by publishers to increase sales or skew numbers. Publisher fraud is covered by the publisher Service Agreement (PSA) and Code of Conduct (COC).
• Publisher Group: Option that allows an advertiser to make a link available to only a select group or groups of their publishers vs. all publishers (the default setting). Keep in mind that if a link is created for a specific group or groups these settings cannot be changed by editing the link-with the exception advertisers can make the link available to all publisher groups.
• Publisher Service Agreement (PSA): Contract all publishers must agree to when signing up.

Q

R

• Reach: The number of users exposed to an ad, measured by impressions. Increased reach means an ad is exposed to more potential customers, which may lead to increased awareness.
• Real-time, Real Time: No delay in the processing of requests for information (such as reporting) other than the time necessary for the data to travel over the Internet.
• Recruitment & Optimization Management: Mid-tier managed account level an advertiser can sign up for when joining the Network.
• Redirect Setting: An attribute of a link, not a link type, publishers may enable when creating link code to redirect the default destination URL. For banner links, the image URL may also be redirected.
• Redirected Image URL: URL provided by advertisers who host their images/links on their servers.
• Referral Period: The amount of time an advertiser allows their cookies to remain active on a publisher’s website, allowing crediting the referring publisher for a configurable tracking duration period.
• Referring URL: The URL a consumer came from to reach a website.
• Registered Publisher: Any live publisher account in the Network.
• Response: The data sent back to a user’s browser in response to an HTTP request. This data can be in the form of HTML code, an image, or an error message.
• Return on Investment (ROI): The amount derived from subtracting net revenues from total costs.
• Right-Click: Refers to clicking the secondary or right button on a mouse.

S

• Sale: A type of action in which a consumer makes a purchase from an online advertiser. Also see action.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM): A form of internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by purchasing keywords with the goal of increasing visibility in the search engine result pages.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Any of a number of methods, informal and algorithmic, used to ensure that online content shows up in search engines, thus increasing traffic to the content.
• Search Keywords: Registered advertiser program keywords for publishers to access/search. Must have two or more consonants (e.g. “moo” is invalid).
• Search Policy Guidelines: An advertiser’s policy and guidelines outlining exactly how a publisher is allowed to promote the advertiser’s brand on search engines. Should include recommended keywords, trademark rights, and display URL/direct linking rights.
• Search Publisher: Type of publisher whose promotional method focuses on paid (SEM) or natural search (SEO), as well as domain parking and domain redirection to drive affiliate sales.
• Secondary Language: Additional language in which an advertiser’s website and link will be published. You may specify as many secondary languages as you need.
• Session Duration: The amount of time a visitor spends on a webpage or website they visit.
• Shopping & Promotions Publisher: Type of publisher aiming to create a social shopping experience by offering website visitors coupons, comparisons, and lead generation.
• SID (Shopper ID): Tag parameter often used by publishers for internal tracking purposes. For example, this could be used to determine the page on a site on which tracking took place. This variable should never contain spaces, hyphens, or periods.
• Simple Conversion Tracking Integration: Simple conversation tracking integration enables an advertiser to run a lead and/or sale program via pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale but cannot support added functionality such as product reporting or item-based commissions.
• SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): A unique number that identifies an advertiser’s product. Resubmitting an SKU enables changes to be made to availability, pricing, or other product information. When publishers search for products, the search engine queries this field. In a click URL, the SKU parameter is product_ID.
• Software & Technology Publisher: Publisher category similar to shopping & promotions but focuses more on web-based affiliate marketing solutions like link substitution and browser extensions.
• Standard Integration, Standard Advertiser: An advertiser who tracks every transaction occurring on their web domain through Affiliate and also does not have any unique points of entry or use Gateway tracking into their domain to enable tracking for a publisher’s commission payment. Standard advertisers.
• Standard Lifecycle: Actions are locked on the 10th of the following month unless they are extended. Once a transaction occurs and is sent to and processed by tracking servers, it will post in the account with a status of “New.” While the transaction is in a status of “New” you can correct, reverse or extend transactions one time for a 30-day period.
• SuperUser: User status allowing view, access and edit privileges in the Account Manager settings. There can be only one SuperUser.

T

• Tag: An HTML or XML element delimited by opening and closing angle brackets.
• Term Name: Advertiser’s desired name for their program terms.
• Text Link: Text links are simple text-based links (without graphics) with a 150-character limit (including any tags).
• TID (Transaction ID): A unique number assigned by Affiliate to each transaction.
• Time-Decay Model: Popular attribution model that credits events occurring closer to the sale with more credit than other previously recorded touchpoints.
• Tracking Code, Tracking Pixel: A snippet of code that includes a reference to an image pixel hosted on Affiliate servers that enables tracking conversions.
• Tracking Method: The method by which an advertiser sends tracking information to Affiliate. Also see 1×1 pixel and batch.
• Traffic: A metric that measures the number of users that land on an advertiser’s website after clicking on a publisher-generated link.
• Transaction: In Affiliate systems, a financial record of a transfer of money from one account to one or more other accounts. The commission associated with a valid action can become a financial transaction. See also action.
• Transaction Fee: This is the amount that will be paid by the advertiser to Affiliate for each commissioned action.
• Trend Graph: Area in Account Manager homepage that provides a quick snapshot of website performance, including reports for: publisher commissions, number of sales, number of leads, number of clicks, number of impressions, click-through rate, conversion rate and CPM.

U

• Unique Visitors: The individual visitors that visit a website. A visitor may visit a site several times a week; however, because it is the same person, it only counts as one unique visitor.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The address used to locate a specific resource on the World Wide Web, such as an HTML webpage or an image.
• User Interface (UI): The features of a device, program or website that enable control by a human.

V

• Value-Added Service (VAS): Value-Added Services are fee-based services offered to advertisers to assist them in growing and managing their programs within the Network.
• ViewThrough: Tracking on conversions within a defined timeframe after the user sees a display ad but does not click-through on it.
• Visitor: Any user who goes to a particular website. If visitors click-through and purchase products or services from an affiliate publisher’s website, they become customers of the affiliate advertiser whose ad they saw.

W

• Web-Based: Requiring no software to access an online service or application other than a web browser and access to the Internet.
• Webpage: A single page of a website.
• Website: An internet location.
• Widget: An interactive and customizable application that consumers use to interact with a brand, via social network or blog/website integration.
• WWW (World Wide Web): The World Wide Web, like email, is a subset of the Internet. They are not synonymous and should not be used interchangeably in stories.
• WYSIWYG: What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get web-based editor used to update and create web content.

X

• XML (Extensible Markup Language): A subset of a much larger and enormously complex language called SGML. It allows users to define tags and create, in effect, a unique markup language. This markup language enables the separation of presentation format from structured data.

Y

Z