Log in
Earning

Affiliate Marketing and Media Buying Glossary

Affiliate marketing and media buying glossary

An affiliate marketing glossary decodes the words media buyers use in chats, case studies, affiliate network terms and ad accounts. Much of the vocabulary is shorthand, so a newcomer can struggle even to read an offer description. The terms below are grouped by topic: participants, offers, pages and creatives, payout models, metrics, tools and slang. Where to begin in the field is covered in what traffic arbitrage is and how to start from scratch.

Participants

  • Traffic arbitrage — buying ads and earning on the advertiser’s payouts for actions of the users you bring;
  • Advertiser — a company that pays for results;
  • Webmaster, publisher, affiliate — whoever brings the traffic. Originally these were site owners with organic traffic; today the words are often used interchangeably with “media buyer”;
  • Affiliate program — the terms on which an advertiser pays for referred customers, or the network where such terms are collected;
  • Owner — the owner of an affiliate network or a service.

Offers and verticals

  • Offer — an advertiser’s proposition with its terms: what to promote, which action is paid, which countries and traffic sources are allowed;
  • Vertical — the offer’s niche: finance, nutra, dating, gaming, mobile apps;
  • Nutra — health and beauty products: supplements, vitamins, cosmetics;
  • Dating — dating sites and apps;
  • Adult — products and services for adults. Most ad platforms do not accept such ads;
  • White offer — an offer that passes ad platform moderation as it is;
  • Grey offer — an offer that is legal but does not pass platform moderation. Running it breaks platform rules and costs ad accounts;
  • Private offer — a closed offer or rate available only to selected affiliates;
  • Tier-1 GEOs — the wealthiest markets with the highest payouts, mostly English-speaking countries and Western Europe.

Pages and creatives

  • Creative — an ad image or video with its text;
  • Landing page, lander — the page a user reaches after the click, where the action happens;
  • Pre-lander — an intermediate page before the lander: an article, a review or a quiz that warms up interest;
  • CTA (Call to Action) — a button or phrase such as “get a quote” or “install”;
  • Teaser — a short ad with an image and an intriguing headline in native and teaser networks;
  • Deeplink — a link that leads straight to a specific product or app screen rather than the home page;
  • Domain parking — pointing your own domain at an affiliate network’s lander or at a tracker;
  • Cloaking — a script that shows moderators one page and users another. Ad platforms forbid it outright and ban accounts for it.

Payout models

  • CPA (Cost Per Action) — payment per action: a lead, a sign-up, an install;
  • CPL (Cost Per Lead) — payment per lead or contact;
  • PPL (Pay Per Lead) — the same as CPL, seen from the advertiser’s side;
  • CPS (Cost Per Sale) — payment per sale;
  • CPC (Cost Per Click) — payment per click;
  • PPV (Pay Per View) — payment per impression or view;
  • RevShare (Revenue Share) — a share of the advertiser’s revenue from the referred customer, often for life.

Metrics

  • Traffic — the flow of visitors that ads bring;
  • Reach — how many people saw the ad;
  • CTR (Click Through Rate) — clicks as a share of impressions;
  • Conversion rate, CR — the share of visitors who completed the target action;
  • Lead — a user who submitted a form or completed an action;
  • Approval rate — the share of leads the advertiser confirmed and paid for;
  • Trash — junk leads: wrong numbers, duplicates, instant refusals on the first call. They are not paid;
  • ROI (Return On Investment) — (payouts − spend) / spend × 100%;
  • ROMI (Return On Marketing Investment) — the return on advertising spend specifically;
  • ARPU, RPU (Average Revenue Per User) — the average revenue from one user;
  • Profit — what is left after costs.

Tools

  • Tracker — a system that records clicks, conversions and spend for every ad;
  • SubID — a tag in the link that tells the tracker which ad or placement a user came from;
  • TDS (Traffic Distribution System) — a system that routes traffic by rules: country, device, source;
  • API (Application Programming Interface) — how services exchange data, for example a tracker and an affiliate network;
  • Targeting — audience settings in the ad account: country, age, interests, device;
  • Spy tool — a database of other advertisers’ ads for competitor research;
  • Anti-detect browser — a browser where each ad account has its own profile with its own fingerprint;
  • Proxy — a separate IP address for an ad account. Ad accounts are run through mobile addresses in the right country — more in proxies for target marketers;
  • Warm-up — calm activity of a new account and address before ads go live, see IP warm-up before launching ads.

Slang

  • To run traffic — to launch campaigns on an offer: “running nutra in Tier-1”;
  • Bundle, setup — a working combination of traffic source, creative, lander and offer;
  • Case study — a breakdown of a campaign with numbers: what was done, how much was spent and earned.

Summary

This affiliate marketing glossary covers about fifty terms you need to read an offer or a case study. Learn the payout models and metrics first: they decide whether ads pay off. The infrastructure — separate profiles, IPs and a careful warm-up — decides whether ad accounts survive long enough to get results. Mobile channels for ad accounts are in the LTESpace plans.

More on this topic