Essential Affiliate Marketing terms
Here are the most important terms you should know:
This guide explains the most important terms you’ll encounter when using affiliate marketing. Understanding these terms will help you set up, manage, and grow your affiliate program with confidence.
🧩 Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model where businesses reward partners for promoting their products or services.
Affiliates earn commissions only when their promotion leads to a successful result, such as a sale, signup, or subscription. This makes affiliate marketing a low-risk and results-driven growth strategy.
🧩 Affiliate
An affiliate is an individual or organization that promotes a merchant’s products or services in exchange for a commission.
Affiliates are often:
Content creators or influencers
Bloggers or website owners
Media buyers
Marketing partners
Affiliates may also be referred to as partners, publishers, or external marketers.
🧩 Affiliate Program
An affiliate program is the system a merchant creates to manage affiliates, commissions, and tracking.
In an affiliate program, the merchant defines:
Commission rates
Eligible products
Tracking rules
Approval and payout conditions
Affiliates join the program and promote products based on these rules.
🧩 Affiliate Link
An affiliate link is a unique tracking link generated automatically by the app when an affiliate joins a campaign.
Affiliates use this link to promote the store. Any order placed through the link is tracked and attributed to the affiliate.
🧩 Affiliate Order (Referral Order)
An affiliate order (also called a referral order) is an order placed by a customer who clicked an affiliate link before purchasing.
These orders are used to:
Calculate commissions
Track affiliate performance
Approve payouts
🧩 Commission
A commission is the reward paid to an affiliate for generating a successful result.
Commissions can be:
A percentage of the sale
A fixed amount per order
Based on specific rules or conditions
Affiliate marketing commissions are always performance-based.
🧩 Affiliate Network (Multi-level Marketing)
An affiliate network (or multi-level marketing) allows affiliates to invite other affiliates into the program.
In this model:
An affiliate can earn commissions from their own sales
They may also earn additional commissions when affiliates they invited generate sales
This helps expand the affiliate program organically.
🧩 Creatives
Creatives are brand assets provided to affiliates to help them promote products effectively.
Common creatives include:
Banners and images
Text links
Promotional content
Providing creatives ensures consistent branding and makes promotion easier for affiliates.
🧩 Landing Page
A landing page is a webpage where affiliates send traffic.
Landing pages are designed to:
Present products clearly
Encourage conversions
Improve affiliate performance
Affiliate links typically direct customers to a landing page or product page.
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