Glossary
Affiliate Marketing & Media Buying Glossary
Clear definitions of the terms, metrics and acronyms every affiliate and media buyer should know.
A
ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale)
Ad spend divided by revenue, expressed as a percentage. It is the inverse of ROAS; lower is better.
Affiliate Marketing
A performance model where affiliates earn a commission for driving conversions to an advertiser through their own traffic.
AOV (Average Order Value)
The average amount spent per order, calculated as total revenue divided by the number of orders.
Attribution
The rules that decide which touchpoint gets credit for a conversion, such as last-click or first-click attribution.
B
C
Cap
A limit on the number of conversions an advertiser will accept for an offer within a period, often daily or monthly.
Chargeback
A reversed transaction, for example a refund or disputed payment, which can claw back a previously credited commission.
Conversion Rate (CR)
The share of clicks or visitors that complete a desired action, calculated as conversions divided by clicks.
CPA (Cost per Acquisition)
The average cost to generate one conversion, calculated as total ad spend divided by the number of conversions.
CPA Payout
A fixed commission paid each time a referred user completes a specified action, such as a sale or sign-up.
CPC (Cost per Click)
The average price paid for each click on an ad, calculated as ad spend divided by clicks.
CPL (Cost per Lead)
The cost to acquire a single lead, such as a form submission or sign-up. Same formula as CPA but applied to leads rather than sales.
CPM (Cost per Mille)
The cost of one thousand ad impressions. A pricing model common in display and awareness campaigns.
Creative
The ad asset shown to users, including images, video, headlines and copy. Testing creatives is central to media buying.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The share of people who click an ad after seeing it, calculated as clicks divided by impressions.
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M
N
P
Pop Traffic
Low-cost, high-volume traffic served as pop-up or pop-under windows, often used for broad testing.
Postback (S2S)
A server-to-server call that reports a conversion back to the tracker without relying on browser cookies or pixels.
Prelander
A bridge page shown before the offer that warms up and qualifies traffic to lift conversion rate.
Push Traffic
Traffic from browser or in-page push notifications that users opted into, delivering ads as clickable alerts.
R
RevShare (Revenue Share)
A payout model where the affiliate earns an ongoing percentage of the revenue a referred customer generates.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Revenue divided by ad spend, shown as a multiple. A ROAS of 4x means four units of revenue for every unit spent on ads.
ROI (Return on Investment)
The profit a campaign returns for every unit of money invested, calculated as (revenue minus cost) divided by cost. It is the core measure of whether a campaign makes money.