Glossary of Marketing and Affiliate Terms

Affiliate Marketing - A system of selling products or services in context over the Internet that allows online merchants to promote their goods or services within the content of tens of thousands of Web sites. Affiliate marketing allows merchants to pay their affiliates based on performance.

Affiliate Sales Channel - The relationship created when merchants and affiliates enter into a joint agreement that allows the individual sites to display the merchant's products or services in exchange for a performance-based commission.

Affiliate Site - Internet location or URL where affiliates place links to a merchant's Web site. An affiliate can have one or more web sites.

Auto-Merchandiser Link - A targeted, dynamic link type that allows merchants to display specific products or services on the affiliate site. Targeted offers are provided to visitors to the affiliate site based on their operating systems, browser types, and by the site categories the affiliate has chosen. The affiliate chooses the size of the Auto-Merchandiser link. The availability of the Auto-Merchandiser links vary by merchant.

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Click Through - Occurs when a site visitor clicks on an affiliate link and is taken to the associated e-commerce site. A purchase may or may not follow.

Commission - The compensation an affiliate receives from a merchant.

Cookies - Very small files that store information about a visitor. A Web site stores cookies on the visitor's browser so that the Web site can remember something about the visitor at a later time. A cookie cannot include any information that the visitor does not provide. Cookies cannot access or read the files on the visitor's hard drive, or be used as viruses. They reduce the amount of work that a visitor would ordinarily have to perform, such as repeatedly entering information into fields.

Cost per Click (CPC) - A billing mechanism that pays an affiliate a set amount of money every time a visitor clicks through a link on the affiliate's site and is brought to the merchant's site.

Cost per Lead (CPL) - A billing mechanism that pays an affiliate a flat rate for every lead generated from a link on the affiliate's site, for example, a set amount for every completed loan application that originated from the affiliate link.

Cost per Sale (CPS) - A billing mechanism that pays an affiliate a percentage of the sale for every completed sales transaction.

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E-commerce - Electronic exchange of value between a business and its partners, suppliers, and customers.

E-commerce Site - A merchant's site where merchandise or services are sold.

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Form Search Link - A link type that provides a search box for affiliates to place on their sites. The visitor enters key words into the search box. This link type is only available from merchants that have a search engine on their e-commerce sites.

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Generated Tag - The HTML code that affiliates use to create the link to a merchant's site. Merchants create these tags and offer them through their Reporting.net pages. When affiliates generate these tags and paste the code into their sites, they create links to the merchant's site. Tag types include Auto-Merchandiser link, page link, text search link, form search link, and storefront link.

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Impression - Occurs every time an affiliate link appears in a visitor's browser. It represents an opportunity to buy an online merchant's products or services. Analyzing the number of impressions served allows affiliates and merchants to assess how effectively products or services are selling.

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Merchant - An online retailer or service provider that partners with affiliates, forming a strategic online sales relationship.

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Page Link - A link type that allows affiliates to place a link on their sites that leads to a page on a merchant's site. For instance, a merchant could offer a page link to its home page, a "what's new" section, or a "project of the week" page.

Page Views - The estimated number of visited pages within a Web site. For example, if a Web site contains 10 pages and an estimated 100 unique visitors per month, the site receives approximately 1000 monthly page views (10X100=1000).

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Returned Sales - The dollar amount of merchandise that is returned after being purchased through an affiliate link.

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Site - An Internet location. See Affiliate Site and E-commerce Site for more information.
Site ID - A unique number identifying the site from which the click originated. Each affiliate site is assigned a unique Site Id.

Site Revenue - Affiliate earnings or commission made from purchases that originated from an affiliate link.

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Tag Generator - The Tag Generator creates HTML tags. These tags create links to selected areas of a merchant's site. They register impressions, click throughs, and sales.

Text Search Links - A link type in which affiliates choose the criteria for the search before they generate the tag. This link type is only available from merchants that support searching on their e-commerce sites.

Transaction - Any process between a visitor and a merchant that involves a purchase request. A transaction can be an order, cancellation, shipment, or return.

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Unique Visitors - The individual visitors that visit a site. A unique visitor may visit a site serveral times a week; however, because it is the same person, it can only count as one unique visitor.

URL - Uniform Resource Locator. The Web address for a specific site, section link, or page.

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WYSIWYG Editors - What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get Web-editing programs are programs that are used to create Web sites. These programs will sometimes alter the generated link code after it is pasted into a page. Altering a generated link can cause tracking problems, which prevent affiliates from receiving proper credit for traffic and sales originating from their sites.


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