Affiliate marketing glossary
Every term in plain English, from EPC to two tier.
Every affiliate marketing term you need, in plain English. From EPC and cookie windows to two tier and scrubbing, here is what the jargon actually means, with links to the tools and data that go deeper.
Affiliate marketing terms
AOV. Average order value. The average amount a referred customer spends, which drives how much a percentage commission pays.
Affiliate. A person or company that promotes another business product for a commission on each sale or lead they refer.
Affiliate network. A platform that hosts many affiliate programs with shared tracking and payouts, such as Impact, PartnerStack, CJ, Awin, or ShareASale.
Attribution. The rule that decides which affiliate gets credit for a sale. Last click is the most common, giving credit to the most recent referring link.
Bounty. A flat commission paid per action, such as 65 dollars per hosting signup, rather than a percentage of the sale.
CPA. Cost per action. A commission paid when a referred user completes a specific action, such as a signup or a funded account.
CPL. Cost per lead. A commission paid for a qualified lead, such as a free trial or a form submission.
CPS. Cost per sale. A commission paid as a percentage or flat amount when a referred user makes a purchase.
Chargeback. When a customer disputes a payment and the funds are reversed, which usually reverses the affiliate commission too.
Conversion rate. The share of clicks that turn into the desired action, usually a sale or a signup.
Cookie. A small file that records a referral so the affiliate gets credit if the customer buys within the cookie window.
Cookie window. How long after a click the affiliate can still earn credit, commonly 30 to 90 days. Longer is better.
Creative. The banners, links, and assets a program gives affiliates to promote with.
Deep link. A tracked link that points to a specific product or page rather than the home page.
Disclosure. A clear notice that a link is an affiliate link, required by the FTC. A simple label like the hashtag ad works.
EPC. Earnings per click. Total commission divided by clicks. The best single number for comparing offers.
First click. An attribution rule that credits the first affiliate a customer clicked, less common than last click.
Invalid traffic. Clicks or conversions from bots or fraud that networks filter out so they do not pay commission on them.
Lifetime commission. A commission that keeps paying for the entire time a referred customer stays a customer.
Minimum payout. The balance you must reach before a network releases your money, often 10 to 100 dollars.
Net 30. A payout term where commissions are paid roughly 30 days after they are approved. Net 60 and net 90 are slower.
Payout threshold. Another name for the minimum payout you must reach before getting paid.
Postback. A server to server signal that reports a conversion back to the tracking platform, also called S2S.
Recurring commission. A commission that pays again every billing cycle the customer stays subscribed, common in SaaS.
Revenue share. A commission set as a percentage of the sale or the ongoing revenue, also called revshare.
Reversal. When an approved commission is cancelled, usually because of a refund or a cancelled order.
Scrubbing. When a network or advertiser quietly removes valid commissions, a red flag for reliability.
Sub affiliate. An affiliate you referred to a program. In a two tier program you earn a share of their commissions.
Trust Layer Metric. Our 0 to 100 score for how reliably an affiliate network pays. See the Reliability and Trust Index.
Two tier. A program that pays you a percentage of the commissions earned by affiliates you referred.