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Affiliate marketing glossary

Affiliate marketing and paid traffic terms in plain English: payment models, metrics, traffic sources and the slang media buyers use. Open to everyone.

Terms starting with A

  • Account farming

    Creating and warming up ad accounts and profiles on Meta, Google or TikTok so they survive review and spend, for campaigns that platforms would otherwise reject. A farmer is the team member who does it.

  • Ad campaign

    A set of ads run together for one goal and one audience: one offer, one GEO, one source, a group of creatives and a budget. Platforms structure spend as campaigns, ad sets and ads.

  • Ad network

    A platform that sells ad placements across many sites and apps at once: it collects publishers, sets formats and prices, takes the advertiser's money and shares it with the publishers. Push, native, pop and banner networks are the affiliate's daily sources.

  • Adult

    Offers and traffic sources with sexual or explicit content: adult dating, cam sites, enhancement products, adult sites as placements. Mainstream platforms ban it; specialized networks live on it.

  • Affiliate

    The person or company that sends traffic to an offer and is paid for the results. Affiliates own an audience or buy traffic; networks and advertisers are their counterparties.

  • Affiliate manager

    Your contact at a network or advertiser: opens offers, raises caps and payouts, explains what counts as a lead, chases the finance team when a payment is late. Worth keeping close.

  • Affiliate marketing

    Advertising where the advertiser pays partners (affiliates) for results: a sale, a lead, an install or a deposit. The affiliate finds the traffic, the advertiser pays a fixed rate or a share of revenue.

  • Affiliate network

    A platform that connects advertisers with affiliates: it hosts offers, tracks clicks and conversions, holds and checks leads, and pays out. Many run their own call centers and in-house media buying.

  • Antidetect browser

    A browser that runs many isolated profiles, each with its own fingerprint, cookies and proxy, so a platform sees separate people instead of one person with many accounts. The standard tool for running several ad accounts.

  • Approval rate

    The share of your leads the advertiser accepts and pays for. A 30% approval rate on 100 cash-on-delivery leads means 30 confirmed orders. Low approval means bad traffic, a bad offer, a bad call center, or shaving.

Terms starting with B

  • Ban

    The platform closing an ad account, a profile or a page for breaking its rules, often with the balance frozen. The everyday cost of grey traffic; teams count banned accounts as a line in the budget.

  • Banner

    An image ad in a fixed size (300×250, 728×90, 320×50) placed in a slot on a page or in an app, with a headline, a call to action and a link. The oldest display format; bought per thousand impressions or per click.

  • Banner network

    An ad network that sells banner placements across its publishers, by impression or by click, with targeting by GEO, device and category. Cheap volume in Tier-2 and Tier-3; adult and mainstream networks run separately.

  • Betting

    Bookmaker offers: sports bets, esports, virtual sports. Paid like casino offers, per first deposit or as RevShare, with the calendar of matches setting the rhythm. Licensed and advertised openly in many GEOs, banned in others.

  • Bid

    The most you are willing to pay for a click or a thousand impressions in an auction-based source. A higher bid buys better placements and more volume; the right bid is the one that keeps the campaign profitable.

  • Black offer

    An offer built to deceive: fake cures for serious diseases, phishing for card details, fake investment schemes, hidden subscriptions. Illegal in the GEOs it runs in, and a reputational and legal risk for everyone in the chain.

  • Blacklist

    The list of placements, sites, zones or apps a campaign excludes because they do not convert or are fraudulent. Built from tracker data as the campaign runs; the first optimization on push, native, pop and in-app traffic.

  • Budget forecast

    An estimate of what a campaign will cost over a period, built from the expected bid, click volume, conversion rate and the offer's cap. It sets the test budget and tells you when to stop.

Terms starting with C

  • Call center

    Operators who phone the people who left an order and confirm it, upsell extras and handle support. In cash-on-delivery offers the call center decides which of your leads become approved sales.

  • Call to action

    The button or line that tells the visitor what to do next: Order now, Get the bonus, Install. The CTA is where the ad or the page converts, and its wording, colour and position are worth testing on their own.

  • Canonical URL

    The address a site declares as the main version of a page, using the rel="canonical" link tag. Copies and parameter variants point to it, so search engines index one page instead of many.

  • Cap

    The maximum number of conversions an advertiser accepts from an affiliate or an offer per day, week or month. Leads over the cap are not paid. Caps are raised for good traffic and are the first thing to ask about before scaling.

  • Carrier billing

    Subscriptions charged to the user's mobile phone bill: the user on a carrier's mobile network taps a button and is subscribed, sometimes with a PIN. Paid per subscription; runs on mobile traffic identified by carrier in Tier-2 and Tier-3.

  • Case study

    A written account of a campaign: source, offer, GEO, creatives, landers, the numbers and the result. Published cases show what worked; the working setups are usually kept private until they stop paying.

  • Cash on delivery

    The customer pays the courier when the parcel arrives, not at checkout. The dominant model for physical goods and nutra in Tier-2 and Tier-3 GEOs, where card payment online is not the habit. Converts well, gets refused at the door.

  • CC submit

    A conversion that requires the user to enter card details, usually for a free trial, a sample or a sweepstake entry. High payouts, strict traffic rules, and a subscription behind most of them.

  • Clickunder

    A script that opens the advertiser's page in a new tab on the user's first click anywhere on the publisher's page. The same traffic as popunder with a different trigger; sold per thousand by pop networks.

  • Cloaking

    Showing one page to the platform's reviewers and bots and another to real visitors, so an ad for a grey offer passes review. Done by a tracker or a dedicated cloaking service that filters by IP, device, referrer and behaviour. Against every platform's rules.

  • Content locker

    A script that hides a page, a file or a video until the visitor completes an action: fills a form, installs an app, submits a phone number. The action is a CPA offer; the locker is the monetization.

  • Contextual advertising

    Ads matched to what the person is looking at or searching for: search ads on keywords, and display ads placed by page topic or by the user's recent interest. Intent-driven, expensive, and strict about what it allows.

  • Conversion rate

    The share of visitors who did the target action: CR = conversions / visitors × 100%. Lander CR, offer CR and approval rate are different steps of the same funnel and are measured separately.

  • Cookie stuffing

    Setting an affiliate cookie on a visitor's browser without a real click, through a hidden iframe, an image or a script, so that if they later buy from the merchant the affiliate is credited. Fraud in every affiliate program's terms.

  • CPA

    Both a payment model and a metric. As a model: the advertiser pays a fixed amount per action (sale, deposit, registration). As a metric: what an action cost you, CPA = spend / actions.

  • CPA network

    An affiliate network that pays per action: sale, lead, install, deposit. It aggregates offers from many advertisers, tracks conversions and pays affiliates on a schedule.

  • CPC

    The price of one click on your ad. As a buying model: you pay per click, not per impression. As a metric: CPC = spend / clicks. The starting point of every campaign's economics.

  • CPI

    Payment per app install: the user installs the app, the install is attributed to your click, you are paid. As a metric, CPI = spend / installs. The model of mobile app offers and a step in many iGaming funnels.

  • CPL

    Payment for a lead: a form, a registration, a sign-up, without waiting for a sale. As a metric, CPL = spend / leads. Popular in finance, dating, iGaming registrations and any offer that sells data.

  • CPM

    The price of a thousand ad impressions. Display, video, push and pop traffic is mostly sold this way. CPM = spend / impressions × 1000. Your creatives decide how many of those impressions become clicks.

  • CPO

    A fixed payout per confirmed order: the call center approves it, the affiliate is paid, whether or not the parcel is delivered and paid for. The usual model of cash-on-delivery goods and nutra.

  • CPS

    Payment per completed sale, usually as a percentage of the order value: 10% of every purchase, 40% of a subscription. As a metric, CPS = spend / sales. The model of e-commerce and software offers.

  • Creative

    The ad itself: the image or video, the headline and text, the call to action. Creatives are made for a specific offer, GEO and source, and are the first thing to test and the first thing that burns out.

  • CRO

    Raising the share of visitors who convert, by testing changes to the page or the funnel: headlines, forms, offers, page speed. Done with split tests, one change at a time.

  • CTR

    The share of impressions that turn into clicks: CTR = clicks / impressions × 100%. It measures the creative and the targeting, not the offer. A push ad at 1% CTR is doing well; a native teaser at 0.2% is normal.

Terms starting with D

  • Dating

    Offers of dating sites and apps, mainstream or adult, paid per registration (SOI or DOI), per confirmed profile or per subscription. One of the largest and oldest verticals, with traffic on every source that allows it.

  • Deposit

    Money a user puts into an account at a casino, a bookmaker or a trading platform. The first deposit (FTD) is the standard payout event of iGaming offers; a minimum deposit amount is part of the terms.

  • Direct advertiser

    The company whose product the offer sells, working with affiliates without a network in between. Direct deals pay more but demand volume, quality and paperwork.

  • Display advertising

    Visual ads: banners, teasers, video and rich media placed on sites and in apps. Bought by the impression or the click, from ad networks or direct from the site owner.

  • DOI

    A conversion counted only after the user confirms: clicks the link in an email, enters an SMS code, completes a second step. Fewer conversions than SOI, cleaner leads, higher payouts.

  • Doorway page

    A page built to rank in search for a set of queries and then send the visitor somewhere else, usually by redirect. A black-hat SEO tactic; search engines penalize it when they find it.

  • Dropshipping

    Selling goods you do not stock: the customer orders from your store, you buy from a supplier who ships directly to them, and you keep the difference. An e-commerce model that runs on paid traffic and thin margins.

Terms starting with E

  • E-commerce

    Selling goods online. As an affiliate vertical it covers store offers paid per order or as a share of the sale, dropshipping and cash-on-delivery goods. Large volumes, small margins, mainstream-friendly creatives.

  • eCPC

    What a click on your link is worth at the network, when you are paid per action: eCPC = payouts / clicks. The number to compare with the CPC you pay for those clicks.

  • Email marketing

    Sending offers to a list of email addresses: your own subscribers, an advertiser's base, or a rented list. A legitimate channel with your own list, spam with a bought one. Deliverability decides everything.

  • EPC

    Average earnings per click on an offer: EPC = payouts / clicks. Networks publish it per offer as a rough guide to what the offer is worth; your own EPC on your traffic is the number that counts.

  • Essay offers

    Offers of services that write essays, papers and theses for students. Paid per order, usually a share of a large first order and of repeat orders. A Tier-1 niche with seasonal demand, search and social traffic, and ethical questions.

Terms starting with F

  • Fake engagement

    Artificial likes, followers, views, clicks or installs bought from farms and bots to make numbers look real. Used to warm accounts and fake social proof; counted as fraud by advertisers and platforms when it reaches their side.

  • Fake guru

    Someone selling affiliate-marketing courses and mentorships on the strength of screenshots, promising income and delivering old or invented setups. The money is in the course, not in the traffic.

  • Finance offers

    Offers from banks, lenders and fintech apps: loans, credit cards, microloans, debit cards, trading and crypto apps. Paid per application, per approved loan or card, or per funded account. High payouts, regulated advertising, strict lead validation.

  • Fraud

    Traffic or leads that are not what they claim: bots, incentive traffic sold as organic, fake leads, installs from farms, traffic from banned sources. The advertiser does not pay for it, and the affiliate who sent it is cut off.

  • Funnel

    The whole path from ad to payout: source, creative, pre-lander, lander, offer, and the tracking between them. A working funnel is what a media buyer sells and protects; a case study is a funnel written down.

Terms starting with G

  • Gambling

    Online casinos, slots, poker and lotteries. Paid per first deposit (CPA), as a share of net gaming revenue (RevShare) or both (hybrid). The highest payouts in affiliate marketing, licensed in some GEOs and banned in others, and a whole industry of apps, cloaking and conferences around it.

  • Gaming offers

    Offers for games on mobile and desktop, paid per install, per registration or per in-game event such as reaching a level or making a purchase. Broad audience, mainstream creatives, tight quality rules after the install.

  • GEO

    The country (sometimes the region or city) a campaign targets and an offer accepts. Written as a two-letter code: US, DE, BR. The same offer pays and converts differently in every GEO.

  • Goods offers

    Mass-market physical products sold from a single-product page at an impulse price and paid on delivery: gadgets, tools, household items, watches, toys. Same funnel as nutra without the medical claims; wide creatives, low payouts, high volume.

  • Grey offer

    An offer that is legal but breaks the ad platforms' rules: nutra with medical claims, iGaming where it is not licensed, crypto, adult dating, some finance. Runs on cloaking and farmed accounts, or on networks that allow it.

Terms starting with H

  • Hold

    The time between a conversion and its payout, while the advertiser checks the lead: days for cash-on-delivery approval, up to a month or more for deposits, chargebacks and returns. Money on hold is not money yet.

  • Hybrid

    A payout that combines a fixed amount per conversion with a smaller revenue share afterwards: $50 per first deposit plus 20% of net revenue. Common in iGaming for affiliates who bring volume and want both cash flow and upside.

Terms starting with I

  • iFrame

    An HTML element that shows another page inside yours. Affiliates use iframes to show an offer page under their own domain, or to load a tracking pixel. Some networks forbid iframed traffic.

  • iGaming app

    A mobile app, often a thin wrapper around a casino site, used as the landing page for iGaming campaigns on app-install traffic. Rented from app services or built in-house; a core tool of Meta and UAC gambling traffic.

  • In-app advertising

    Ads inside mobile apps: banners, interstitials, rewarded video, playables, sold through mobile ad networks and exchanges. A large source for app installs, games, utilities and iGaming apps.

  • Info products

    Offers that sell knowledge: courses, webinars, e-books, memberships, coaching. Paid per registration for a free event or per sale of the product, often as a share of a high ticket. Runs on native, social and email.

  • Install offers

    Offers paid for installing software or an app: the user downloads, installs and opens, and the affiliate is paid. Mobile apps, browser extensions, utilities, VPNs. Easy to convert, easy to fake, judged by what happens after the install.

  • IVR offers

    Offers where the payout depends on a phone call to an automated or live line: horoscopes, psychics, adult chat, consultations. Paid per call or per minute the caller stays. A pay-per-call niche with its own networks.

Terms starting with K

  • Keywords

    The words people type into search. In search advertising you bid on them; in SEO you build pages around them. In affiliate work, keywords tell you what a buyer wants before they see an ad.

Terms starting with L

  • Landing page

    The page the visitor lands on after the click, built to get one action: an order, a form, a registration. In affiliate funnels the lander is the advertiser's page or the affiliate's own copy of it; the pre-lander comes before it.

  • Lead

    A visitor who did what the offer asks and can now be counted: left contact details, registered, made a deposit. What exactly counts as a lead is written in the offer's terms and decides when you get paid.

  • Lead generation

    Collecting contact details of people interested in a product or service, for the advertiser to sell to: insurance quotes, loan applications, solar, education. Paid per validated lead, judged by what the leads turn into.

  • LTV

    How much a customer is worth over the whole relationship: total deposits minus winnings for a player, total subscription payments for a subscriber. Advertisers set payouts from it; affiliates on RevShare live on it.

Terms starting with M

  • Media buyer

    A specialist who buys paid traffic and runs it to offers: sets up campaigns, tests creatives and landers, watches the numbers and scales what pays. Works alone or inside a team with a shared budget.

  • Media buying

    Buying ad impressions or clicks from platforms and networks and sending that traffic to offers, so that the payouts exceed the ad spend. The affiliate side of media buying lives on the margin between the two.

  • Media buying team

    A company of media buyers running paid traffic at scale: buyers, a team lead, designers, a tech person for landers and cloaking, a farmer for accounts, and often its own apps and account shops.

  • Messenger traffic

    Visitors from messaging apps: Telegram channels and ads, WhatsApp broadcasts, Viber, Discord communities. Small, engaged audiences; ads by channel owners or through the platform's own ad system.

  • Misleading

    Creatives or pages that promise what the product does not deliver: a free phone, a cure, a celebrity's endorsement. Produces clicks, trash leads and complaints, and is grounds for rejection on every platform and at most networks.

  • Mixed traffic

    Traffic sold without targeting: all GEOs, devices and placements together, often the remnant a network could not sell otherwise. Cheap, unpredictable and mostly useful for smartlinks and testing.

Terms starting with N

  • Native advertising

    Ads that look like the content around them: recommended-article widgets under news stories, sponsored posts in feeds, a paid article in a blog. Bought from native networks per click; runs on advertorial pre-landers.

  • Nutra

    Health and beauty products sold with a story: weight loss, joint pain, potency, skin, diabetes supplements, detox. The biggest cash-on-delivery vertical in Tier-2 and Tier-3 and a trial vertical in Tier-1. Grey by nature: medical claims are banned in ads.

Terms starting with O

  • Offer

    A product or service an advertiser pays affiliates to promote, with the terms attached: the action that is paid, the payout, the GEOs, the allowed traffic, the cap. An affiliate chooses offers the way a store chooses stock.

  • Offer reselling

    A network taking an offer from another network or advertiser and listing it under its own name with a lower payout. Common and not necessarily bad, but every layer takes a margin, adds hold and adds a place where leads can be lost.

  • Offer wall

    A page that looks like a news site or a store and links to dozens of offers at once. Used as a pre-lander for teaser and pop traffic, and as the monetization layer of content lockers. Networks supply ready-made ones.

  • Organic traffic

    Visitors who found you without a paid placement: from search results, a shared link, a profile, a channel. Free per visit but expensive in time; the traffic of publishers and content affiliates.

  • Overlay ad

    An ad layer that opens on top of the page and blocks it until closed or acted on. Used for exit offers, subscriptions and content locking. Aggressive, cheap, and banned on the platforms that care about experience.

Terms starting with P

  • Paid traffic

    Visitors you pay for by the click, the impression or the action: social ads, search ads, push, native, pops, in-app. The traffic of media buyers; fast to test, scalable, and gone the moment you stop paying.

  • Pay per call

    Payment for a qualified phone call: the visitor calls a tracked number and stays on the line long enough for the advertiser's rules. Used for insurance, legal, home services, rehab, real estate. Serious money per call, strict quality.

  • Pay per minute

    Payment for the length of a phone call rather than for the call itself: an IVR line, a psychic hotline, a consultation. The longer the caller stays, the more the affiliate earns.

  • Payout

    What the offer pays per approved conversion, or the money the network sends you on payday. Payouts are set per offer and GEO, negotiated up with volume, and paid on a schedule after the hold.

  • Pharma offers

    Prescription-type medicines sold online without the prescription: erectile dysfunction, weight-loss drugs, painkillers. High payouts because almost no source allows the ads; runs on email, search in some GEOs and adult traffic.

  • Pin submit

    A mobile offer where the user enters their phone number and confirms a PIN by SMS, subscribing to a content service billed by the carrier. Paid per confirmed subscription; runs on mobile carrier traffic in Tier-2 and Tier-3.

  • Pixel

    A piece of code on a page that reports events to an ad platform or a tracker: a view, a lead, a purchase. The platform uses it to optimize delivery and build audiences; the affiliate uses it to feed conversions back to the algorithm.

  • Popunder

    A full page that opens in a new tab or window behind the one the user is looking at, discovered when they close the current one. The cheapest large-volume traffic there is, sold per thousand by pop networks.

  • Popup

    A window or layer that opens in front of the page, on load, on a timer or when the visitor tries to leave. Used for offers, discounts, subscriptions and exit intent. Blocked by most browsers when it is a real new window.

  • Postback

    A request the network's server sends to your tracker when a conversion happens, carrying the click ID and the payout. It ties every lead back to the click, creative and placement that produced it, without cookies or pixels.

  • PPC

    Advertising you pay for by the click, and the name of search advertising as a discipline (Google Ads, Bing Ads). As an affiliate payout model it is rare: some push-subscription offers pay per click the subscriber makes on the ads they later receive.

  • Pre-lander

    A page between the ad and the landing page that warms the visitor up: a story, a quiz, an advertorial, a comparison. It raises the conversion rate of the lander and gets grey creatives through review.

  • Pre-roll

    A video ad shown before the video the user chose, usually five to twenty seconds, skippable after five. YouTube's main format; also sold by video networks. Bought per view or per thousand.

  • Private offers

    Offers a network does not list publicly: the ones its in-house team runs, exclusive advertiser deals, or listed offers with better terms for affiliates who proved their traffic. Access comes through the manager.

  • Profit

    Revenue from the network minus the cost of traffic and tools. The number a media buyer optimizes for. Profit = payouts × approved conversions − ad spend − costs.

  • Proxy

    An IP address you route a browser profile through, so a platform sees a user in the right country on a normal connection. Residential and mobile proxies look like real people; data-center IPs are flagged. Bought per IP, per GB or per port.

  • Publisher

    An affiliate who monetizes an audience they own: a content site, a YouTube channel, a newsletter, a Telegram channel. Publishers place ads and affiliate links; media buyers buy traffic.

  • Push network

    An ad network that sells clicks on push notifications, from a subscriber base its publishers collected. Auction pricing, targeting by GEO, device, OS and subscriber age, a low minimum deposit. Where many media buyers start.

  • Push notifications

    Short messages delivered to a phone or desktop by a site the user once allowed, with an icon, a title and one line of text. Sold as ad traffic by push networks per click; converts on sweepstakes, dating, finance, iGaming and nutra.

  • Push subscription

    The permission a user gives a site to send notifications. As a traffic source, a base of subscribers to monetize; as an offer, a payout for every subscriber you collect, or a share of the ad clicks they generate later.

Terms starting with Q

  • Qualification

    A payout that requires the user to do more than convert once: deposit a minimum amount, place a few bets, trade a set volume. Common in iGaming, forex and crypto offers, to filter out one-time deposits.

  • Qualified click

    A click from someone who matches the offer: the right GEO, device and intent. Unqualified clicks cost the same and convert worse, which is why sources and placements are filtered.

  • Qualified visitor

    A visitor who could realistically convert: in the offer's GEO, on a supported device, with an interest in the product. Targeting exists to buy more of these and fewer of everyone else.

Terms starting with R

  • Real-time bidding

    Buying ad impressions one at a time in an auction that runs while the page loads. A demand-side platform bids for each user based on data; the highest bid shows its ad. Most display and native traffic is sold this way.

  • Rebill

    A repeat charge on a customer's card or phone bill after the first purchase: the next month of a subscription, the next delivery of a trial product. Offers built on rebills pay the affiliate more for customers who stay and claw back when they cancel or charge back.

  • Redirect

    Sending a visitor from one URL to another automatically. Trackers use redirects to record a click before passing it on; some ad formats use them to move a visitor off a page without a click.

  • Retargeting

    Showing ads to people who already visited your page or interacted with your ad, using a pixel or an audience list. Cheaper and better converting than cold traffic; limited by the size of the audience you can collect.

  • RevShare

    Payment as a percentage of what the advertiser earns from your users, for as long as they stay: 30–50% of a casino's net revenue from your players, a share of subscription payments. Slow to start, and can pay for years.

  • ROI

    Profit as a share of what was spent: ROI = (revenue − spend) / spend × 100%. Spend $1,000, earn $1,500 back, and the ROI is 50%. The standard way media buyers compare campaigns of different sizes.

  • Run traffic

    To send paid visitors through your tracking link to an offer. A media buyer runs traffic to an offer, on a GEO, from a source: for example Meta traffic to a nutra offer in Italy.

Terms starting with S

  • Scam network

    A network that collects traffic and does not pay: it delays, invents rejections, then closes. The worst outcome for an affiliate and the reason payment reputation is the first thing to check. This site marks such companies with a scam warning and switches their links off.

  • Scraper

    A tool that collects data from sites and apps automatically: contacts, prices, members of a community, competitors' pages, comments. Used for audiences, research and copying landers; against the terms of most platforms.

  • Shaving

    A network or advertiser hiding some of your valid conversions and not paying for them. Hard to prove, easy to suspect when the approval rate drops for no reason. The tracker and a test lead now and then are the ways to catch it.

  • Shock content

    Creatives built to disgust or alarm: parasites, wounds, skin conditions, disaster. They stop the scroll and drive clicks to nutra and health offers, and are banned everywhere except teaser networks and some push networks.

  • Smartlink

    One link that sends each visitor to the best-paying offer for their GEO, device, carrier and time, chosen automatically by the network. No testing, no targeting: all the traffic goes to one URL. The way to monetize mixed and remnant traffic.

  • SMS traffic

    Sending offers by text message to a phone list. Works for local services, finance and e-commerce with your own opt-in base; spam and often illegal with a bought one. Regulated in most GEOs.

  • Social traffic

    Visitors from social platforms, paid or organic: Meta, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, Reddit, Pinterest, and the communities and channels on them. The largest audiences and the strictest ad reviews.

  • SOI

    A conversion counted when the user submits a form once, with no confirmation step. Easy to convert, easy to fake, so SOI offers pay less and watch quality after the fact.

  • Split test

    Sending traffic to two or more versions of a creative, a pre-lander, a lander or an offer at the same time and keeping the one with the better numbers. The core method of media buying; the tracker does the splitting.

  • Spy tool

    A service that collects other people's ads: creatives, landers, the offers they lead to, how long they ran and where. Buyers use it to see what converts before spending, and to find angles, pre-landers and networks for a vertical.

  • Sticker ads

    Small banner-like images that float over a page, on mobile especially, and can be dismissed. They pass review easily and get past ad blockers; volume is modest and clicks are cheap.

  • Sub ID

    Parameters in a tracking link that carry what you want to know about each click: source, campaign, creative, placement, click ID. Networks pass them back in postbacks and show them in reports, so conversions can be broken down by anything.

  • Sweepstakes

    Offers where the user enters to win a prize (a phone, a gift card, a car) by leaving an email or a phone number, or by entering card details for a trial. Paid per lead (SOI, DOI) or per card submit. The universal offer for cheap traffic.

Terms starting with T

  • Targeting

    Choosing who sees the ad: GEO, city, language, device, OS, browser, carrier, hour, interests, age, placement. Every source has its own targeting; the tighter it matches the offer, the less traffic is wasted.

  • Teaser

    A small image with a provocative headline, built to make the reader curious rather than to show the product. The unit of teaser and native networks: cheap clicks, bold creatives, an advertorial behind them.

  • Teaser network

    An ad network built around teasers: small image-and-headline cards placed in widgets on publisher sites. Cheap clicks, loose moderation, strong in CIS and Tier-3; the ancestor of today's native networks.

  • Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3

    Groups of countries by purchasing power and ad cost. Tier-1: the US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia. Tier-2: Eastern Europe, Latin America, parts of Asia. Tier-3: the rest. Higher tiers pay more per lead and cost more per click.

  • Tracker

    The software between the ad and the offer that records every click, splits traffic between landers and offers, receives postbacks and shows cost and revenue side by side per source, creative, placement and GEO. The media buyer's main tool.

  • Trading offers

    Offers of trading platforms: forex brokers, crypto exchanges and trading apps, and formerly binary options. Paid per registration or per funded account (a first deposit, sometimes with a qualification). High payouts, heavy regulation, a history of scams.

  • Traffic

    Visitors sent to a page or an app. In affiliate marketing traffic is counted in clicks, described by its source, GEO and device, and valued by how well it converts.

  • Traffic monetization

    Turning visitors into revenue: sending them to offers, showing them ads or selling them a product. For a media buyer, monetization is the payout the offer sends back for the traffic bought.

  • Traffic source

    Where the visitors come from: an ad platform (Meta, Google, TikTok), an ad network (push, native, pop), a site, a channel, a mailing list. Every campaign is named by its source and every source has its own rules, prices and audience.

  • Trash lead

    A lead the advertiser could not use: a wrong number, a made-up name, a duplicate, a joke order. Trash is not paid and, if there is a lot of it, gets the affiliate's traffic cut off.

  • Trial

    An offer where the customer gets the product for shipping cost or a token payment and is billed the full price, usually as a subscription, if they do not cancel. Big payouts, chargeback risk, mostly Tier-1 nutra.

Terms starting with U

  • Upsell

    An extra product or a bigger package offered after the customer has decided to buy: a second bottle, a longer course, an accessory. The call center's upsell raises the order value and the advertiser's margin.

  • URL

    The address of a page. In affiliate work every link carries meaning: the tracking link records the click, the offer link identifies the affiliate, and parameters in the URL pass the campaign, creative and placement along.

  • UTM parameters

    Standard URL parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) that tell analytics where a visit came from. Affiliates use them alongside tracker parameters to see which source, campaign and creative sent each click.

Terms starting with V

  • Valid lead

    A lead whose data checks out: a real name, a reachable phone number or email, the right GEO, no duplicate. Some offers pay per valid lead before any sale; that is where quality rules matter most.

  • Vertical

    A category of offers with its own products, audience, traffic sources and rules: nutra, iGaming, betting, dating, finance, e-commerce, sweepstakes, crypto, adult. Buyers, networks and conferences organize themselves by vertical.

Terms starting with W

  • White offer

    An offer that every ad platform allows as it is: real stores, apps in the official stores, software, insurance, education, mainstream services. No cloaking, no account farming, lower payouts and a long life.

  • Whitelist

    The list of placements a campaign runs on and nothing else: the sites, zones and apps that proved they convert. The end state of optimizing a network campaign, and what makes a case study repeatable.