We’re proud to present a glossary of terms in the lead generation/affiliate industry. Even if you’re an old hand, the sheer amount of TLA’s (three letter acronyms) can have you confused!
This glossary is for both affiliate publishers (lead sellers) and affiliate advertisers (lead buyers).
First some basic terms we’ll need for reference:
Basic Affiliate Marketing Terms
| Advertisers, lead buyers | The brands who want affiliate marketers to promote them by offering a commission for sales driven by their links. |
| Publishers, affiliate marketers, lead sellers | Affiliate marketers who “publish” the advertisers’ special links on their blogs, social media, etc. |
| Affiliate marketing | Publishers hope to earn commisions from Advertisers for sending through sales and leads. |
| Affiliate network | A marketplace like revJOLT that connects advertisers and publishers |
And now the tricky, three-letter or technical terms.
Further Affiliate Marketing Jargon
| Analytics | Google’s stats program. Helps you see who visits your site. |
| API | Allows programmers and others to plugin to a database and extract useful info. |
| Backlink/Inbound link | A link that comes into your website from another website. See outbound link for the opposite. |
| Banner ads | See display ads |
| Bounty | A set price that advertisers pay per lead or sale |
| Click fraud | Impersonating clicks or other underhanded methods to try to squeeze money out of advertisers – will get you kicked off the program! |
| Content marketing | Using blog posts or web articles to boost site visitor numbers and encourage clicks. |
| Conversion | When a link is clicked and goes on generates a lead or sale – whatever your goal is – it has “converted”. |
| CPA | Cost Per Acquisition – a rate of how much an advertiser has paid for each sale or lead. |
| CPC | Cost Per Click – where advertisers pay commission for each click through to their site. |
| CPL | Cost Per Lead – where advertisers pay commission for each qualified lead. |
| CPM | Cost Per Mille (cost per thousand) a rate of how much an advertiser will pay (usually used for impressions only) |
| CPS | Cost Per Sale – where advertisers pay commission for each qualified sale |
| CPV | Cost Per View, see also CPM |
| Creative | Advertisers supply brand-controlled banners and other assets called “creatives” for marketers to use on their website |
| CSV | Comma Separated Values file format. This is a text file that is used for data purposes. Can be viewed as a text file or imported into Excel. |
| CTR | Click Through Rate – how many times your link was clicked as a ratio against how many times it was shown to people. |
| Deeplinking | Linking to a specific page on the website to offer highly targeted leads. |
| Display ads | Banners, images, and other visual ads that a publisher can put on their website’s pages. |
| EPC | Earnings Per Click – the rate of how much a publisher will earn each time their affiliate link is clicked. |
| EPL | Earnings Per Lead – the amount earned by a publisher divided by how many leads have been forwarded on. Useful metric for offline (e.g. call center) methods |
| IAB | Internet Advertising Bureau – trade association for online marketing |
| Impressions | How many people were shown a banner ad or link |
| Lead generation | How contact details for a potential sale are captured and passed on to buyers. E.g. a form filled out, a call made from a call center. |
| Metrics | Stats you will measure to see how your program is performing. From link clicks to visitor numbers. |
| Outbound link | A link from your website to another website. |
| Pop advertising | Popup or popunder – when a new window or tab is caused to open on someone’s browser either under or on top of the current webpage. |
| PPC | Pay Per Click – advertisers are charged only for actual clicks. Prices usually change depending on the keywords bid for. |
| Product feed | A file which contains data of an advertisers products or services. Can be used to automate ad service. |
| Referral | A lead or customer referred (sent) to an advertiser from a publisher’s site. |
| Referring URL | the website address that the user came from. |
| RTB | Real Time Bidding – advertisers have a kind of auction for display advertising as a page loads. |
| Tracking ref | A reference number added to links or webpages that shows advertisers and publishers who clicked what, and where. |
| Tracking period | How long after a link has been clicked that a sale from the same visitor might still be considered a valid affiliate sale. |
If you’re an affiliate marketer looking for a solid affiliate income or highly qualified lead gen, sign up with revJOLT today!