Partnerships

Partnerships

Ad network

a company that connects publishers (niche website, bloggers) to advertisers (brands and merchants).

Advertiser

a brand or a merchant who pays publishers to promote its products, services or brand as a whole.

Adware

also referred to as “spyware”. Usually unwanted programs users download without knowing they are part of the deal. They track the user’s behavior and place unwanted ads in their workspace.

Affiliate Network

a company that powers affiliate relationships, connecting advertisers and publishers. Typically, an affiliate network’s fee structure is based on a percentage of revenue generated (or of payouts to publishers), rather than a fixed cost.

Affiliate Program

an arrangement through which the merchant pays a fee to the affiliate publisher for generating leads, clicks or sales from affiliate links. These programs can also be known as partner, associate, or referral programs

Alexa Rank

a platform which ranks and estimates websites based on the user’s browsing habits. Its sample contains all internet users and websites.

API

Application Programming Interface that has a set of rules, routines and protocols that are used for building software with graphical user interface components. APIs allow businesses to access data in an automated fashion.

Attribution

The process of identifying a set of user actions (“events”) ?that contribute in some manner to a desired outcome, and then assigning a value to each of these events. Marketing attribution provides a level of understanding of what combination of events influence individuals to engage in a desired behavior, typically referred to as a conversion.

In general, marketers and agencies will use attribution to determine how to distribute credit for a conversion event based on the kinds of exposures and engagement a specific user has gone through in their customer journey on the way to conversion

Attribution, First Click

first-click attribution is when an advertiser credits a conversion to the first click in a conversion path.

Attribution, Last Click

last-click attribution is when an advertiser credits a conversion to the last click in a conversion path.

Attribution, Last-to-Cart

last-to-cart attribution is when an advertiser credits a conversion to the last click in a conversion path before the consumer places an item in their shopping cart.

Attribution, Multi-Touch

multi-touch attribution is when an advertiser attributes partial credit to each “touch” in a conversion path, rather than giving all the credit to the first, last, or last-to-cart click.

Auto-Download Offers

When a site visitor clicks a banner, the content is downloaded automatically without the user’s consent.

B2B

Business-to-business exchange of products or services

B2C

Business-to-consumer exchange of products or services

Banner Ad

A static, animated, or rich media image that partners use to advertise a given product on their webpage.

Chargeback

A product that is returned or a sale that falls through. The commission made through sale is deducted from the partner’s payout.

Click Fraud

Clicks feigned or spoofed to fool advertiser KPIs, defraud CPC campaigns, or steal attribution for a payable event.

Click-Through Rate

The ratio of clicks to impressions, usually displayed as a percentage.

Closer

A partner who “closes the sale“, causing a consumer to convert. Examples include coupon, deal, loyalty, toolbar, and cart abandonment partners. See also: “Introducer“ and “Contributor“.

Commission

Also known as a referral fee and the income the publisher receives for referring a lead to the advertiser’s website.

Content Farm

A website that create huge amounts of low-value content to generate clicks and create ad revenue.

Content Publisher

A partner who promotes an advertiser’s goods and services through written content. This can range from an individual blogger to a traditional media company or magazine.

Contributor

A partner who pushes consumers toward conversion, driving value in the middle of the conversion path. Examples can include content blogs and comparison partners. See also: “Introducer“ and “Closer“.

Conversion

Conversions refer to success events — they represent actions that marketers want to their audiences to do. There are online conversions — success events that happen on the digital channel, and offline conversions — success events that happen in the physical world. When a user successfully checks out of the advertiser’s e-commerce site, then that’s an example of an online conversion. Another user may go to the advertiser’s brick & mortar location and buy something — an excellent example of offline conversion.

Conversion Path

The list of “touch points“ leading up to a conversion. This includes each time an advertiser “touches“ the consumer through one of their own marketing channels (such as a display ad or an email) or through one of their partners.

Conversion Rate

A rate of the number of times a tracking link has lead to a sale vs. the number of times the link has been clicked on, shown in percentage. To calculate this rate, take the amount of sales a banner has generated and divide it by the number of clicks. Multiply by 100 and the answer you get is the conversion rate.

Cookie Stuffing

A type of attribution fraud in which a site visitor receives a third-party cookie unbeknownst to him or her.

Cookies

Information that your computer stores in your web browser when you visit a website or click on a link. It allows websites to keep track of your visits and activity, as well as attribute referrals to the relevant partners. Cookies are considered “first party“ if the cookie’s domain matches the site the user is on, and “third party“ if the domains do not match.

Coupon Publisher

A type of affiliate that generates sales for an advertiser by offering discount codes (also called voucher codes or coupon codes) to their users.

CPA

CPA, or Cost per Acquisition or Cost per Action, is a metric that is tracked in many direct response and performance campaigns, particularly in verticals that are tracking user conversions — whether that conversion represents a sale or a form submission, depending on what the advertiser decides. This is why it’s also often referred to as Cost per Conversion.

Some marketers will include “clicks” as a viable action — in those cases, the calculation is essentially equivalent to a CPC (Cost per Click).

A related concept is eCPA, or Effective Cost per Acquisition. This is often calculated by advertisers who pay on another cost basis such as CPM or CPC, but wish to convert it to a Cost per Acquisition in order to optimize their media buying to some Cost per Acquisition target.

It is calculated as follows:

( sum of the relevant media costs / total # of acquisitions )

So, if a display campaign spent $1,000, and garnered 20 conversions, then the the eCPA = $1000 / 20 = $50

CPC

CPC, or Cost per Click, is a metric that is tracked in many branding, direct response and performance campaigns across any vertical. A click often refers to clickthru on an ad that directs them to the advertiser’s website, though many rich media campaigns may count a click on the ad that triggers some engagement (for instance, the user clicks on the ad to start playing a video, or playing a mini-game on the ad unit); in the rich media situation, this can also be referred to as Cost per Engagement (CPE).

A related concept is eCPC, or Effective Cost per Click. This is often calculated by advertisers who pay on another cost basis such as CPM, but wish to convert it to a Cost per Click in order to optimize their media buying to some Cost per Click target.

It is calculated as follows:

( sum of the relevant media costs / total # of clicks )

So, if a display campaign spent $5,000, and garnered 250 clicks, then the the eCPC = $5000 / 250 = $20

CPL

CPL, or Cost per Lead, is essentially a subset of CPA, or Cost per Acquisition, specifically used by verticals that require the audience to complete a form with their contact info. For instance, in the insurance vertical, an interested user may have to enter their personal info in order to request an insurance quote or have a broker contact them.

CPM

CPM, or Cost per Mille, or Cost per thousand impressions (mille is the latin word for thousand) is one of the most common ways to purchase advertising today. Though it is used across many branding and direct response campaigns, it is particularly suited for verticals and campaigns intended to raise awareness.

For instance, if the CPM is priced at $2, and you wish to deliver 1,000,000 impressions, then the cost of the campaign is

(Total # of impressions / 1000) * $2

(1,000,000 impressions / 1000) * $2 = $2,000

Many advertisers running direct response or performance campaigns who pay for media based on CPM will often calculate an eCPC or eCPA as a KPI in order to track their success and to optimize toward lowering that KPI.

CPS

Cost per Sale, or the price an advertiser pays for each referral that ends in a sale. Essentially a subset of CPA, specifically used by verticals that require the audience to complete a sale.

CPV

Cost per View, or the price an advertiser pays for every time their video ad is displayed.

Creative

A promo tool advertisers create to get visitors to click through and take action. Examples include banners, pop-ups, email copy, text links, badges, etc.

Daily Budget

The budget limit for your campaign on a daily basis.

Deep Linking

A link that allows a website visitor to go to a product page directly. A basic tracking link simply goes to the advertiser’s homepage.

Disclosure

A notice on the partner’s website that notifies readers of the fact that the partner is getting paid for any purchases customers make through their links. It is important to have one to be compliant with FTC laws.

Double Opt-In

A two-step subscription system, in which a website visitor voluntarily fills out a form to receive notifications, and then confirms his or her subscription via email.

EPC

Earnings per click (EPC) is a measurement of how much commission partners tend to make on average for each click they generate for an advertiser’s program. This is a way for partners to estimate how much money they will make on a CPA basis, based on their expected click volume.

Gateway Tracking

A legacy tracking method developed by early affiliate networks. In this tracking method, users who click on an affiliate link are routed invisibly through a “gateway“ hosted by the affiliate network, then redirected to the advertiser’s content. As the user passes through the gateway, the network places a tracking cookie in their browser.

Geo Target

Allows advertisers to target a specific country, state, province, city, zip code, postal code, area code, or DMA.

Impression

The number of times a banner ad is viewed by website visitors. One impression means that the ad is displayed only once.

In-House

Advertisers who manage their affiliate program by themselves using an affiliate software or tracking system instead of an affiliate network.

Incentivized Affiliates

Website traffic that is incentivized with actions that will ultimately result in the affiliate earning a commission. Incentives can be prizes, discounts, free subscriptions and others.

Influencer

A social media publisher with a large follower base who promotes brands through social media.

Influencer, Celebrity

Celebrities are often famous because of reasons outside of social media. They can be movie, tv, music or sports stars. Or they can be “cewebrities“ – people who made their fame online, but now are recognized universally. (>1M followers).

Influencer, Macro

These larger influencers have often become popular due to social media. Some may be local celebrities whose renown have been amplified by social tools. Some may be digitally-famous category experts. (10K – 1M followers)

Influencer, Micro

These small influencers are numerous, and are often too fragmented to be managed in a high-touch way. Most of this segment is popular exclusively through social media. (<10K followers)

Influencer, Organic

This is a social influencer of any size who says good things about your brand, despite not being paid for those mentions.

Introducer

A partner who “introduces“ a product or service to consumers, driving value early in the conversion path. Examples can include social influencers, content partners, and traditional media publishers like news sites and magazines. See also: “Contributor“ and “Closer“.

Loyalty Affiliates

Similar to incentivized affiliates, in this case users make a longer term commitment to the advertiser and are required to purchase products and participating in activities. Many loyalty affiliates offer cashback to the user in exchange for purchasing from advertisers through their loyalty portal.

Multivariate Testing

A method for optimizing content in which multiple factors are modified, in an attempt to find the optimal combination. See also: “Split Testing“.

Niche Marketing

Targeting advertisements to a specific market segment.

Offer

Any type of content that’s created by advertisers (merchants) and promoted by partners, which are found in affiliate networks.

OPM

Outsourced Program Management (OPM) is a type of agency that will manage an advertiser’s partner program on their behalf.

Outbound Link

A link to a website other than your own.

Paid Search

An advertising model used on many search engines and content sites. In this model, advertisers bid on keywords and phrases that may be relevant to their target, then pay whenever a user clicks on their ad.

Partner

Any individual or business that works with another business for the purposes of promoting that other business’s products or services.

Partnership Development

The practice of discovering and recruiting individuals or businesses who indirectly sell to your target consumer; it also involves marketing to partners in order to incentivize them to take actions that bring in new customers, increase the frequency of repeat customers, and effectively grow your revenue stream outside of traditional sales and marketing channels.

Partnership Lifecycle Management

The complete set of activities used to forge, deepen and optimize an enterprise’s relationship with their partners. The purpose of Partnership Relationship Management is to manage the Partnership Lifecycle.

The five main stages of Partnerships are:

1) Identifying and discovering new partners

2) Engaging and recruiting them,

3) Onboarding them,

4) Activating them to start driving revenue and

5) Growing and cultivating partner relationships – thereby optimizing your partnership program.

Partnership Management

An approach in which a single business unit or department manages all of a businesses partnerships (such as affiliate, social influencer, and strategic partnerships) on a single platform.

Pay-per-post

A payment model often seen among social influencers, in which the advertiser pays the influencer a flat rate for each post or mention, regardless of performance.

Payment Threshold

The amount of commissions partners are required to earn before being able to withdraw them to their bank account.

Payout

Revenue per one sale or conversion.

Performance Marketing

Marketing programs in which the advertiser pays their media partners directly for some desired action like a sale, lead or click.

Performance Reporting

Visual and numerical reporting that shows how an advertiser’s partner program or ad campaigns are performing over time — such as how many sales each partner generated over a selected time period.

PPC

Pay per click model, in which an advertiser pays when their ad is clicked on.

PPL

Pay per lead model, in which an advertiser pays when their site visitor provides their contact information to the advertiser.

PPS

Pay per sale model, in which an advertiser pays the affiliate only when a sale happens.

Product Feed

Also called a product catalog, this is the file that contains a list of all products sold by a given advertiser. Usually includes names, descriptions and prices of the products.

Publisher

Also known as an partner. Owner of a website which hosts tracking links and promotes brands.

Raw Clicks

Total number of clicks that occur on the same affiliate link.

Redirection

Forwarding a URL to another URL.

Referring Domain

The domain from which a user came when they landed on a new domain.

ROI/ROAS

Return on Investment (ROI) or Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) are often used interchangeably in the media and paid marketing world to represent the value generated by specific marketing initiatives. It can be analyzed at a channel or campaign perspective, although channel managers who are managing a specific channel can use ROI/ROAS to optimize at a more granular level for their channel, such as ad groups and keywords for Paid Search managers, or placements and ads for Display and Video managers.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Promoting of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Maximizing the visitor volume to a website by optimizing the site to appear high in the list of search results.

Single Opt-In

The simplest conversion flow, where the site visitor only enters his or her information in the form without confirming it via email.

Split Testing

Also called “A/B testing“. The practice of testing two different versions of content, copy and/or ads to understand which one works best for the target audience. See also “Multivariate Testing“.

Strategic Partnership

Also called a brand-to-brand partnership, B2B partnership, or Business Development/Biz Dev partnership, this is an arrangement in which one advertiser or brand promotes the goods or services of another advertiser or brand.

Super Affiliates

Group of select affiliates who generate most of the affiliate programs’ profits.

Targeted Marketing

Distinguishing between different market segments in a marketing campaign. Groups can be distinguished by location, age, interests, etc.

Tracking Link

A unique linking code that tracks activity of a publisher and publisher’s visitors for a brand. This code is embedded into a text or picture link and helps attribute visitors to the partners who sent them to the advertiser.

Tracking Software

Platforms like MediaRails that track and analyze partner marketing activity in a reliable way.

Traffic

All users that visit a website.

Two-Tier

An affiliate program that allows affiliates to earn commissions from their own sales and from the second-tier affiliates they recruited to participate in the program.

Unique Clicks

A type of reporting that allows you to see how many unique people click on your link or ad. This is different from Raw clicks as it doesn’t include duplicate visitors or clicks.