Affiliate Program Lingo Dictionary

Below, Webmaster-Affiliates.net has compiled a list of terms that is common to the affiliate marketing industry. This should be especially useful to those unfamiliar with selling advertising on their site(s) and are facing the daunting task of creating a successful revenue plan for their website. If you would like to use any of the information below on your website please e-mail us. We have no problem letting other people use this information as long as they give proper credit and a link to Webmaster-Affiliates.net.

Affiliate Program
A mutually beneficial relationship between a website and a company. The company seeks to either generate more web traffic, sell more products, or seek out potential customers through leads. The website seeks to make a profit by selling ad revenue on the site. Affiliate programs come in many shapes and forms.

Affiliate Network
This is by far the quickest and easiest way to begin selling advertising on your website. A secondary company called an affiliate network acts as a liaison between the advertiser and your website. The affiliate network sells ad space on your site and then takes a cut of the profit generated from this advertising. This can be an especially good method for small sites or people just starting in the advertising market because it is extremely difficult to find individual advertisers on your own. In addition, the hardware and software needed to run and track an advertising campaign is all taken care of by the affiliate network.

Banner Ads
This is most common and tends to be the most effective method of selling advertising. Common sizes include 468x60 pixels, 120x60 pixels, and 88x31 pixels. Many affiliate programs tend to offer many different sizes and designs. The most effective tend to be animated, but a good static banner can be very effective. When designing and placing banner ads it is important to take file size into consideration as a large banner ad can quickly drag down the speed of your site.

Contextual Advertising
This is quickly becoming a hot form of advertising. In its most basic form an advertiser serves dynamic ads (usually text based) to your website that are targeted to the content on that specifc page. For contextual ad networks, click here.

Click Thru
This is a common reporting statistic showing how many clicks from unique viewers your ad has received.

CPA (Cost Per Action)
This term refers to pay per lead and pay per sale affiliate programs.

CPC (Cost Per Click)
The cost an advertiser pays per click. While less common than the CPM method of selling advertising it is still somewhat common.

CPL (Cost Per Lead)
The cost an advertiser pays per lead. This is a very common method of selling advertising. A lead can be anything from an e-mail address for a newsletter to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit. CPL prices can range greatly depending on the program.

CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
The cost an advertiser pays per 1,000 impressions. This is one of the most common methods of selling advertising. General prices per thousand impressions can range anywhere from $3.00 - $25.00, depending on the ad campaign and site on which they are being displayed.

CPS (Cost Per Sale)
The cost an advertiser pays per sale. This is a very common method of selling advertising. You receive a credit for a sale when a web surfer clicks on one of the ads on your site and ends up buying something from your advertiser's site. A sale does not always occur directly after the click as most advertisers will have a certain time during which both the sale and click thru must occur in order to receive credit. This time period is often called the 'cookie duration'. The revenue you receive for CPS programs tends to be a fixed percentage of the overall sale. This is not always the case as many pay a fixed dollar amount per sale.

Creatives
This is a general marketing term used for the material used to generate leads and sell advertising. It can include banner ads, text links, interstitials (pop-ups), e-mail ads, and many other items.

CTR (Click Thru Rate)
This is the ratio (percentage) of click thrus to impressions. To calculate your CTR divide your total click thrus by the number of impressions. This statistic is a good way to judge the effectiveness of your ad campaign because it shows you what percentage of people seeing your ads are actually clicking them.

EPM (Earnings Per Thousand Impression)
This statistic is calculated by dividing your total number of impressions by 1,000 and then taking your total earnings and dividing it by this number. This statistic is a good way to judge how effective your ad campaign is.

EPC (Earnings Per Click)
This statistic is calculated by dividing your total number of clicks by your total earnings. This statistic is a good way to judge how effective your ad campaign is. It helps to show what percentage of clicks are actually converting into sales and leads.

IMPS (Impressions)
This statistic is the actual number of times your advertising has been viewed. At times this statistic is given in unique impressions or 'hits'.

Interstitials (Pop Ups)
While often being considered quite annoying, an interstitial or 'pop-up' is a highly effective method to generate ad revenue. Interstitials often receive much higher click thru rates. There are many options when dealing with interstitials including size, frequency, opening up initially on visiting the site, while leaving, or after a certain period of time. Use these ads sparingly as they can often turn off your visitors.

Lead
A lead can be anything from an e-mail address for a mailing list to a complete survey that needs to be completely filled out and verified in order to get credit. The requirements to be considered a bona fide lead can vary greatly from program to program. This is a very common method of selling advertising on your website. Click Here for specific programs.

Pay For Performance
This is a term that many affiliate networks use to classify themselves. It basically means that they offer pay per lead and pay per sale programs. Click Here for specific programs.

Pay Per Lead (PPL)
This is a type of affiliate program that pays on a per lead basis. Click Here for specific programs.

Pay Per Sale (PPS)
This is a type of affiliate program that pays on a per sale basis. Click Here for specific programs.

Pay Per Click (PPC)
This is a type of affiliate program that pays on a per click basis. Click Here for specific programs.

Pay Per Impression (PPI)
This is a type of affiliate program that pays on a per impression basis. Click Here for specific programs.

Return on Investment (ROI)
This is a a ratio or percentage of how much you invested versus how much you profited. It is used especially in pay per click marketing to determine the value of your marketing efforts.

Sale
You receive a credit for a sale when a web surfer clicks one of the ads on your site and ends up buying something from your advertiser's site. A sale does not always occur directly after the click as most advertisers will have certain time window during which both a sale and click thru must occur in order to receive credit. This time period is often called the 'cookie duration'. Click Here for specific programs.