Glossary
Affiliate marketing and e-commerce glossary
CPA, EPC, CTR, postback and more, in plain words with examples.
Affiliate networkAn affiliate network is an intermediary between advertisers and publishers: it collects offers, counts clicks and conversions and makes payouts.AOVAOV is average order value: how much a shopper pays per order on average.AttributionAttribution is the set of rules that decide which source brought a customer and who should be paid for the conversion.Brand safetyBrand safety is protecting a brand's reputation: ads should not appear next to unsuitable content, and unsuitable ads should not appear on a brand's pages.Cookieless trackingCookieless tracking is a way to link a click and a conversion without third-party cookies: through a click ID in the link and a server postback.CPACPA is an advertising pricing model in which the advertiser pays only for a target action: a purchase, a sign-up or a subscription.CPCCPC is a pricing model in which the advertiser pays for every click on an ad, even if the person does nothing afterward.CPMCPM is the price of a thousand ad impressions: the advertiser pays for the ad being seen, not for clicks or purchases.CRCR is the conversion rate: the share of people who completed the target action out of everyone who arrived.Cross-sellCross-sell is an offer of products that complement the main purchase.CTRCTR is the click-through rate: the share of impressions after which a person clicked the ad or the offer.EPCEPC is average income per click: everything earned on an offer divided by the number of clicks on it.Incentivized trafficIncentivized traffic is visits and actions for which the user receives a reward: a bonus, a discount, a gift or points.LTVLTV is how much money a customer brings a company for as long as they remain a customer.Post-purchasePost-purchase is the stage after an order is paid and every mechanic that works on it: the thank-you page, emails, upsell, partner offers.PostbackA postback is a request from an advertiser's server to the network that says: this click produced a conversion, here is the amount and the status.Revenue shareRevenue share is a model in which income is split between participants in fixed shares.S2SS2S is a way to pass conversion data straight from the advertiser's server to the network's server, with no code in the shopper's browser.Thank-you pageA thank-you page is the confirmation page a shopper sees right after paying for an order.UpsellUpsell is an offer to a shopper to take a more expensive version of a product, or more of it, than they planned.