Affiliate Marketing Terms

Welcome to our Affiliate Marketing Terms page. On this page you can find out all the necessary terms related to affiliate networks. Affiliate Networks frequently use these terms to describe what kind of services they offer and various other factors related to affiliate marketing. So, having a clear understanding of these terms is necessary if you want to use any affiliate network. Moreover, since Tod Review is an affiliate network directory and review website, so, i will also use these terms frequently on our website. So, i think its better to create a post about these terms for the ease of our visitors.

Affiliate Marketing Terms

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What is an Affiliate Network ?

An Affiliate Network is a mediator between the affiliates and the online merchants. Affiliate Networks allow website publishers/affiliates to find affiliate programs more easily that are suitable for their websites, whereas to online merchants these networks help them to easily reach the targeted audience by promoting their products and services on potential publishers websites.

Who are Affiliates ?

An affiliate could be an individual or company, who participates in an affiliate program and wish to promote affiliate/third party products and services to earn commission.

Who are Online Merchants ?

Online Merchants are similar regular merchants that you find on stores. The only difference is, online merchants sell their product or services online through various means like websites, apps etc.

What are Leads ?

Leads are generally generated on the accomplishment of any task. In simple word, suppose you are trying to sell any affiliate product on your website, so, whenever a visitor of your website purchases that product a lead is generated and you get paid your commission.

What is CPA ?

CPA stands for Cost Per Action. It is an advertising model where advertisers pay publishers for completion of any task or action by the visitors of publishers websites. These actions could be sale of a product, download of a software, registration on advertiser’s website, liking his/her social page etc.

What is CPL ?

The acronym CPL stands for Cost Per Lead. This advertising model is a variant of CPA. In this form of advertising, advertisers pay affiliates for generating leads. CPL guarantees return on investment done by advertisers on advertisements of their products and services.

CPL is also called CPI (Cost Per Inquiry), where advertisers pay for explicit sign up from consumers interested in the advertisers offers.

What is CPS ?

CPS stands for Cost Per Sale. In this advertising model advertisers pay affiliates for the sale of their product and services. It is also a variant of CPA but the only difference is, here the offers are only sale based. This advertising model is mostly used by the eCommerce websites.

What is CPI ?

CPI stands for Cost Per Install. This advertising model is specific to mobile applications. In this form of advertising advertisers pay affiliates for installation of their software’s, apps or any other utility.

What is CPC ?

CPC stands for Cost Per Click. CPC is mainly used by ad networks where they pay for clicks on their advertisement rather than completion of any task or action.

In more simple words, its an advertising model where advertiser pays publisher for clicks on his/her ads by the visitors of publisher’s website. Here advertiser have nothing to do with conversions. Even if clicks don’t convert, he will have to pay publishers for the clicks made on his ads.

CPC is different from EPC, you will find it out later in this article.

What is CPM ?

CPM stands for Cost Per Mille. This is another very popular advertising model used mainly by ad networks where they pay publishers for impressions rather than for clicks or action. The word ‘Mille’ stands for thousand which means a specific amount is set by the advertiser for 1000 impressions.

For Example: If an advertiser is offering 1$ for 1000 impressions, it means that publisher will have to deliver 1000 impressions on advertiser’s ad to earn 1$. Mainly this advertising model is not used by affiliate networks.

What is CR ?

The acronym CR stands for Conversion Rate. CR is calculated by taking the number of times an offer coverts and then dividing it by the number of times it was clicked.

What is EPC ?

EPC stands for Earnings Per Click. It can be calculated by dividing the commission earned by total number of clicks. This way you can calculate how much you are earning per click.

For Example: Suppose you delivered 100 clicks to an offer and out of which you generated 1 sale for 100$ then your EPC will be 1$ per click.

EPC is a great way to know how well an offer is performing.

Unique Clicks Vs Raw Clicks:

Some people get confused about raw and unique clicks. Raw and unique clicks are totally different things. Let me explain this with an example:

Suppose you are displaying an ad on your website and if a visitor clicks on it then this click will be counted as unique click. But, if the same ad is clicked by the same visitor one more time then the second click will be counted as raw click.

It simply means the first click will be counted as the unique click whereas any number of clicks made after the first click by same visitor will be counted as raw clicks.

Some CPC model based companies pay only for unique clicks whereas some pay for both unique and raw clicks. However, the rates for unique clicks are high as compare to raw clicks.

CTR:

The Acronym CTR stands for Click Through Rate. CTR is the rate at which viewers click on an advertisement. It is the ratio of clicks and impressions multiplied by 100.

CTR is a widely used method to measure the success of a campaign.

Incent Offers:

In simple words, incent offers are those offers for which you can give rewards to your visitors. For example: You are running an incent offer of an app installation, so, you can give some reward to your visitors for installing the app. This simply means you are encouraging them to install the app by giving some rewards. Some affiliate networks offer this kind of offers whereas some avoid it.

Non-incent Offers:

These are the offers for which you are not allowed to encourage your visitors by giving them any kind of rewards. In simple word here your visitors choose to install app by his/her personal interest.

Final Words:

In this article i have tried to define all the necessary terms related to affiliate marketing. If still you have any doubts or suggestions then feel free to leave a comment. Also, make sure to subscribe to our website, it updates on regular basis with new affiliate networks and reviews.