Glossary
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.
Also called: performance marketing, CPA marketing.
In affiliate marketing an advertiser publishes an offer, a network or program tracks who sent each visitor, and the affiliate is paid only when the visitor does what the offer asks. The rules of the offer say what counts: an order confirmed by a call center, a first deposit, a registration, an app install.
Affiliates come in two kinds. Publishers monetize an audience they already own: a site, a channel, a newsletter. Media buyers buy traffic from ad platforms and send it to offers, earning on the difference between what the traffic costs and what the offer pays.
This magazine is about the second kind: paid traffic, ad networks, creatives and the numbers behind them.
Related terms: Media buying, Offer, Affiliate network, CPA.