Glossary

The vocabulary of affiliate marketing, explained

Twenty terms you meet while setting up an affiliate program, defined without jargon and with what they actually imply — not just what they mean.

20 definitions

Tracking and attribution

Attribution

Attribution is the rule that decides which affiliate a sale belongs to. Without it, a purchase preceded by three clicks belongs to no one — or to everyone.

Cookie duration

Cookie duration is how long a sale stays attributed to the affiliate who brought the visitor. Past that window, the purchase earns no commission.

First-party cookie

A first-party cookie is set by the site being visited, not by a third-party domain. It is what lets affiliate tracking survive Safari and ad blockers.

Affiliate link

An affiliate link is a URL that identifies the affiliate who shared it, usually through a parameter such as ?via= or ?ref=.

Referral code

A referral code identifies an affiliate inside a program. It is what appears in every shared link and, often, in the matching coupon.

Tracked coupon

A tracked coupon is a discount code tied to an affiliate: any sale using it is attributed to them, even if nobody ever clicked their link.

Deep link

A deep link is an affiliate link pointing at an internal page — pricing, an article, a feature — rather than the homepage.

Commissions

Recurring commission

A recurring commission is paid on every subscription payment, not just the first. It is the standard model in SaaS affiliate marketing.

Lifetime commission

A lifetime commission keeps paying for as long as the referred customer pays, with no time limit. It is the most generous form of recurring commission.

Multi-tier commission

A multi-tier commission pays an affiliate on the sales of the affiliates they recruited, on top of their own.

Commission approval window

The approval window is the delay between a commission being earned and becoming payable. It exists to cover the refund window.

Refunds and fraud

Clawback

A clawback is the recovery of a commission already paid out, when the matching sale is refunded after the affiliate was paid.

Chargeback

A chargeback is a payment dispute the customer raises with their bank. The money is taken back from the merchant, and the commission has to follow.

Self-referral

Self-referral is placing your own order through your own affiliate link to give yourself a discount. It is the most common fraud in an affiliate program.

Paying affiliates

Affiliate payout

A payout groups several payable commissions for one affiliate into a single payment. It is the last step of the chain, and the most visible one for them.

Payout threshold

The payout threshold is the minimum amount an affiliate must accumulate before a payout is sent to them.

Measurement

EPC (earnings per click)

EPC is the average revenue a click earns the affiliate: commissions earned divided by clicks sent. It is the first number an affiliate looks at.

Affiliate conversion rate

A program's conversion rate is the share of affiliate clicks that end in a sale. It means nothing until you say what counts as a conversion.

Affiliate-driven MRR

Affiliate-driven MRR is the share of monthly recurring revenue brought in by affiliates. It is the number that says whether a program is a channel or a gadget.

Ecosystem

Affiliate marketplace

An affiliate marketplace is a directory where programs and affiliates find each other, without cold outreach. It is the distribution side, not the tooling side.

The rest is learned by doing

The free plan is permanent, with no credit card: you can set a program up and watch these ideas work on your own sales.

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