Affiliate Marketing Glossary

An affiliate agreement is the contract between a brand and an affiliate that sets commissions, payment terms, permitted traffic, compliance and termination.

Brand bidding is when an affiliate buys paid-search ads on a brand's name or trademarked keywords to capture searchers already looking for that brand.

A btag is a tracking parameter in iGaming affiliate links that carries the affiliate's ID so a player's deposits and revenue are credited to the right partner.

A chargeback is the reversal of a card payment after a cardholder dispute is decided in their favor, returning the funds and withdrawing them from the merchant.

Click fraud is the generation of fake or invalid clicks by bots, scripts or paid humans to inflate traffic, CPC earnings or attribution.

A unique identifier generated for each click on a tracking link or ad, used to match later conversions back to that exact click.

A commission reversal cancels or deducts an affiliate commission after the underlying sale or action is refunded, charged back, invalid or fraudulent.

Conversion rate (CR) is the percentage of clicks or visitors that complete a tracked action, such as a sale, lead, registration or first deposit.

A server-side interface for sending conversion events from an advertiser's server directly to an ad platform, best known from Meta's Conversions API.

The window after a click during which a conversion can still be credited to the referring affiliate, also called cookie life or attribution window.

Cookie stuffing is affiliate fraud in which tracking cookies are set in a user's browser without a real click, so the fraudster is credited for later sales.

Country blocking is a campaign rule that rejects or flags clicks from countries a brand does not accept, based on the visitor's IP geolocation.

A payout model in which the advertiser pays a fixed amount for each qualifying action, such as a sale, sign-up, or first deposit.

A payout model in which the advertiser pays a fixed amount for each qualified lead, such as a completed form, quote request, or free sign-up.

A payout model in which the affiliate earns a commission only when a referred customer completes a purchase, usually a percentage of the sale.

A tracking link that sends the visitor to a specific page or in-app screen rather than the default landing page, while keeping attribution.

EPC (earnings per click) is the average commission an affiliate earns for each click sent to an offer, calculated as total commissions divided by clicks.

A fraud score is a numeric risk rating for a click or conversion that combines signals such as IP reputation, device fingerprint and click velocity.

A referred player's first real-money deposit with an operator, the event most iGaming and trading CPA deals use as the qualifying action.

The amount players stake minus the winnings paid back to them, measured before bonuses, fees, taxes, and other operating costs.

A hold period is the time commissions stay pending after a conversion so the brand can catch refunds, cancellations, chargebacks and fraud before paying.

An affiliate commission structure that combines a one-time CPA payment with an ongoing RevShare percentage for the same referred customer.

Incentivized traffic comes from users who receive a reward, such as cash, points or in-game currency, for clicking, signing up, installing or depositing.

An attribution model that gives full credit for a conversion to the last qualifying click before it, ignoring earlier touchpoints.

LTV (lifetime value) is the total net revenue a brand expects from a customer over the whole relationship, used to set affordable CPA and RevShare terms.

A RevShare rule in which a negative monthly revenue balance carries into later months and must be offset before the affiliate earns commission again.

Net terms define how many days after a billing period closes a brand pays approved commissions; net 30 means payment within 30 days.

Gross gaming revenue minus deductions such as bonuses, payment fees, taxes, and chargebacks; the usual base for iGaming RevShare commissions.

Client-side conversion tracking in which a tag or tiny image on the confirmation page fires in the user's browser and reports the conversion.

A URL one system calls server-to-server to report a conversion to another, passing the original click ID plus details such as payout and status.

A qualification baseline is the minimum deposit, wagering or activity a referred player must reach before the affiliate earns the agreed CPA.

A commission model in which the affiliate earns an agreed percentage of the revenue generated by the customers they refer, usually on an ongoing basis.

Server-to-server tracking, in which conversions are reported directly between servers using a stored click ID instead of browser cookies or pixels.

Self-referral is when an affiliate converts through their own tracking link, earning commission on their own or controlled accounts instead of real referrals.

A smartlink is a single tracking URL that automatically routes each visitor to the offer most likely to convert, based on geo, device, OS and other rules.

A sub-affiliate is a publisher recruited into a program by another affiliate, whose results earn the recruiting affiliate an override commission.

A custom parameter an affiliate adds to a tracking link to label traffic by source, campaign, placement, or creative for reporting.

A unique URL given to an affiliate that logs each click, assigns a click ID, and redirects the visitor to the advertiser's landing page.

A placeholder in a URL, such as {click_id} or {amount}, that a tracking system replaces with the real value when the link or postback fires.

A white-label affiliate portal is a partner sign-up and reporting dashboard that runs on third-party software but carries the brand's name, design and domain.