Glossary

Performance marketing glossary

Affiliate and programmatic marketing come with a lot of shorthand. These are the terms advertisers and publishers ask us about most, explained the way we'd explain them on a call. Where we've written a longer guide on something, you'll find a link under the definition.

A

Affiliate network: The platform and team that sits between advertisers and publishers. It tracks clicks and sales, pays commission to publishers, and in the better cases helps recruit partners and keeps an eye on traffic quality.; Guide: How to Choose an Affiliate Network in the UK: 10 Questions to AskHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing
Attribution window: How long after a click or view a sale can still be credited to that ad or partner. A 30-day window means someone who clicked on the 1st and bought on the 25th still counts.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a Programme
Average order value (AOV): Total revenue divided by the number of orders. It matters because it caps what you can sensibly pay to win a sale, and it's often easier to raise than conversion rate.; Guide: What Is Performance Marketing? A Practical Guide for Growing Brands

B

Bot traffic: Visits and clicks made by software rather than people. Some is harmless, like search engine crawlers, but bots clicking ads or filling in lead forms cost you money and pollute your data.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic Early
Brand bidding: Also: PPC bidding policy; When an affiliate buys paid search ads on your brand name, so they appear above your own listing and collect commission on people who were already looking for you. Most programmes ban it or restrict it in a PPC bidding policy, and it's worth checking regularly that partners stick to it.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic EarlyHow we help: PPC
Brand safety: Keeping your ads away from content you don't want to be seen next to, such as violence, hate speech or fake news. In programmatic it's handled with blocklists, allowlists, category exclusions and third-party verification.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: DSP and programmatic buying

C

Cashback affiliate: A site or app that shares part of its commission with the shopper as cashback. They can bring in a lot of volume, but you need to know how much of it is new business rather than people who were going to buy anyway.; Guide: Cashback and Voucher Affiliates: When They Help and When They Don'tHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing
Click injection: A type of fraud, mostly seen with app installs, where malware on a phone fires a fake click just before an install finishes. The fraudster then gets the credit for an install they had nothing to do with.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic Early
Commission tiers: Different commission rates for different partners, products or levels of performance. A common set-up pays a higher rate once a publisher passes a monthly sales target, or pays more for new customers than returning ones.; Guide: CPA vs CPL vs CPS vs CPC: How to Choose a Performance Pricing Model
Content affiliate: A publisher that earns commission from articles, reviews, buying guides or comparison pages. They tend to reach people earlier in their decision than cashback or voucher sites, so their sales are more likely to be genuinely new.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a ProgrammeHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing
Conversion rate: The share of visitors or clicks that go on to do the thing you want, such as buy or fill in a form. Small improvements here lower your cost per acquisition across every channel at once.; Guide: How to Reduce Your Cost Per Acquisition: 12 Proven TacticsHow we help: Conversion-led growth
Cookie stuffing: Dropping an affiliate tracking cookie on someone's browser without them clicking anything, often through hidden frames or pop-unders. If that person later buys, the fraudster gets commission they didn't earn.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic Early
Cookie window: Also: Cookie duration; The affiliate name for the attribution window: how many days after a click a publisher can still be paid for a sale. Longer windows are more attractive to publishers but mean you pay on sales that are further from the click.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a Programme
CPA (cost per acquisition): Also: Cost per action; What you pay for each conversion, whether that's a sale, a lead or a sign-up. It's both a pricing model, where partners are paid per conversion, and a measure of how efficiently you're buying customers.; Guide: How to Reduce Your Cost Per Acquisition: 12 Proven TacticsHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing
CPC (cost per click): Paying each time someone clicks your ad. It's how most search and social advertising is bought, and it only works out if enough of those clicks turn into customers.; Guide: CPA vs CPL vs CPS vs CPC: How to Choose a Performance Pricing ModelHow we help: PPC
CPI (cost per install): Paying for each app install. It's the standard model for app campaigns, although many advertisers now pay on what happens after the install, like a registration or first purchase, because installs alone are easy to fake.
CPL (cost per lead): Paying for each lead, usually a completed form with contact details. It works well when the rules on what counts as a valid lead are clear and agreed before launch.; Guide: Cost Per Lead Campaigns: How to Get Leads That Actually Convert
CPM (cost per mille): Also: Cost per thousand impressions; The price of a thousand ad impressions. Most programmatic, display, video and TV media is bought on CPM, so you pay for the ad being shown rather than for anything the viewer does.; How we help: DSP and programmatic buying
CPS (cost per sale): Commission paid when a sale happens, usually as a percentage of the order value. It's the most common model in retail affiliate programmes.; Guide: CPA vs CPL vs CPS vs CPC: How to Choose a Performance Pricing ModelHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing
CTR (click-through rate): Clicks divided by impressions. Useful for comparing ads and headlines, but a high CTR on its own says nothing about whether those people bought.
CTV (connected TV): Any television connected to the internet, whether it's a smart TV, a streaming stick or a games console. CTV advertising puts ads into streaming apps on those screens and can be bought programmatically.; Guide: Connected TV Advertising Explained: A Practical Guide for BrandsHow we help: Connected TV
Customer acquisition cost (CAC): Everything you spend to win a new customer, divided by the number of new customers. It's broader than CPA because it usually includes fees, tools and staff time, not just media.

D

Deduplication: Making sure one sale is only paid for once when several channels or partners touched it. Without it, the affiliate network, paid search and social might all claim the same order.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a Programme
Deep link: A tracking link that sends people to a specific product or page rather than the homepage. Publishers use them so readers land exactly where the article pointed.
DSP (demand-side platform): Software advertisers use to buy ad space across many sites, apps and streaming services at once. It decides, impression by impression, whether to bid and how much, based on your targeting and goals.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: DSP and programmatic buying

E

EPC (earnings per click): How much a publisher earns, on average, for every click they send you, usually shown per hundred clicks. Publishers compare programmes on EPC, so a good one helps you recruit.

F

First-party data: Information you collect directly from your own customers and visitors, such as purchases, sign-ups and site behaviour. With third-party cookies fading out, it's become the most reliable basis for targeting and measurement.; Guide: Retargeting vs Remarketing: What's the Difference and When to Use Each
Frequency cap: A limit on how many times one person sees your ad in a given period. Set it too high and you waste money and irritate people; set it too low and the message may not stick.; Guide: Retargeting vs Remarketing: What's the Difference and When to Use EachHow we help: Retargeting campaigns

H

Header bidding: A way for publishers to offer each impression to several ad exchanges at the same time rather than one after another. It gets publishers better prices and gives buyers fairer access to inventory.
Holdout test: Deliberately not showing ads to a random group of people and comparing how many of them buy with the group that did see ads. It's the most direct way to measure incrementality.; Guide: How to Reduce Your Cost Per Acquisition: 12 Proven Tactics
Hybrid deal: A mix of a fixed fee and performance payment, for example a small placement fee plus commission on sales. Common for premium spots on large publishers.; Guide: CPA vs CPL vs CPS vs CPC: How to Choose a Performance Pricing Model

I

In-house affiliate programme: An affiliate programme run by the brand's own team on a tracking platform they license, rather than through a network. You get more control and no network override, but you take on recruitment, payments and compliance yourself.; Guide: Affiliate Network vs In-House Programme: Which Is Right for Your Brand?
Incrementality: Whether a sale happened because of your marketing or would have happened anyway. A channel can report a lovely ROAS and still add very little if most of its customers were already on their way to you.; Guide: What Is Performance Marketing? A Practical Guide for Growing Brands
Influencer: Also: Creator; Someone with an engaged audience on social platforms, a blog or a podcast. They can be paid a flat fee, on performance through tracked links and codes, or a mix of both.; How we help: Influencer marketing

L

Last-click attribution: Giving all the credit for a sale to the last thing someone clicked before buying. It's simple and still the default in most affiliate programmes, but it favours partners who appear right at the end, like voucher sites.; Guide: Cashback and Voucher Affiliates: When They Help and When They Don't
Lead fraud: Also: Fake leads; Leads that were never real enquiries: made-up details, bots filling in forms, or people incentivised to sign up with no interest in the product. Clear validation rules and quick feedback to partners are the best defence.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic Early
Lead quality: How likely a lead is to turn into a customer. It's what separates a cheap CPL campaign that works from one that fills your sales team's day with dead ends.; Guide: Cost Per Lead Campaigns: How to Get Leads That Actually Convert
Lifetime value (LTV): Also: CLV; What a customer is worth to you over the whole relationship, not just the first order. If customers come back, you can afford a higher CPA to win them in the first place.; Guide: What Is Performance Marketing? A Practical Guide for Growing Brands
Lookalike audiences: New audiences built by a platform to resemble a list you give it, such as your best customers. They're a common way to find new prospects on social platforms and in DSPs.; How we help: DSP and programmatic buying

M

Multi-touch attribution: Sharing credit for a sale across the ads and partners someone met along the way, rather than handing it all to the last click. It gives a fairer picture, but it depends on good tracking and a model everyone agrees to.

N

Native ads: Ads designed to match the look of the page they sit on, such as sponsored articles or 'recommended for you' units. They tend to feel less intrusive than banners, but they should always be clearly labelled as ads.; How we help: Video and native ads

O

OTT (over-the-top): TV and video delivered over the internet rather than through a cable or satellite box. CTV is the screen; OTT is the way the content gets there, and it includes phones and laptops too.; Guide: Connected TV Advertising Explained: A Practical Guide for BrandsHow we help: Connected TV

P

Pixel tracking: Also: Client-side tracking; Tracking a conversion with a small piece of code that loads in the shopper's browser on the confirmation page. It's easy to set up, but ad blockers, browser privacy settings and cookie consent mean it misses more than it used to.
Postback (server-to-server tracking): Also: S2S tracking; Your server tells the tracking platform directly that a conversion happened, instead of relying on a pixel in the browser. It's far more reliable now that browsers block so many cookies, and most networks recommend it.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a Programme
Private marketplace (PMP): An invitation-only auction where a publisher offers its inventory to a small group of buyers, usually at a floor price. You get better-quality placements than the open market in exchange for paying a bit more.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: DSP and programmatic buying
Programmatic advertising: Buying ad space automatically through software, one impression at a time, rather than through manual deals with each publisher. It covers display, video, audio, native and connected TV.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: DSP and programmatic buying
Publisher: Also: Affiliate, partner; Anyone who promotes an advertiser and gets paid for results: comparison sites, cashback and voucher sites, bloggers, newsletters, creators and more. In programmatic, the word also means any site or app that sells ad space.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a ProgrammeHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing

R

Remarketing: Reaching people who already know you, usually through email or text, to bring them back. Google also uses the word for what most people call retargeting, which is why the two get muddled.; Guide: Retargeting vs Remarketing: What's the Difference and When to Use EachHow we help: Retargeting campaigns
Retargeting: Showing ads to people who visited your site or app but didn't buy, as they browse elsewhere. It's often the cheapest conversion you'll find, as long as it's capped and split by what people actually did.; Guide: Retargeting vs Remarketing: What's the Difference and When to Use EachHow we help: Retargeting campaigns
Reversal rate: Also: Decline rate; The share of tracked sales or leads that the advertiser rejects at validation, for returns, cancellations or failed checks. Publishers watch it closely, and a high or unexplained rate makes a programme hard to recruit for.; Guide: How to Choose an Affiliate Network in the UK: 10 Questions to Ask
ROAS (return on ad spend): Revenue divided by ad spend. A ROAS of 4 means £4 of revenue for every £1 spent. It doesn't account for margin or whether the sales were incremental, so treat it as a starting point.; Guide: What Is Performance Marketing? A Practical Guide for Growing Brands
RTB (real-time bidding): The auction behind most programmatic buying. When a page loads, the available ad slot is offered to buyers, their DSPs bid, and the winning ad appears, all in well under a second.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: DSP and programmatic buying

S

SSP (supply-side platform): The publisher's side of programmatic. An SSP offers a site's or app's ad space to many buyers and exchanges and tries to get the best price for each impression.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?
Sub-ID: An extra tag a publisher adds to its tracking links to show where a click came from, such as a particular page, email or campaign. Asking for sub-ID data is one of the easiest ways to spot where good and bad traffic comes from.; Guide: Affiliate Fraud and Traffic Quality: How to Spot Bad Traffic Early
Sub-network: A publisher that is really a network of other publishers, passing your offer on to its own partners. They can add reach quickly, but you lose sight of who's actually sending the traffic unless they share sub-ID data.; Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers: How to Launch and Scale a Programme

T

Tenancy: Also: Placement fee; A fixed fee paid to a publisher for a guaranteed spot, like a homepage feature or a newsletter slot, usually on top of commission. Agree what you're getting in writing and judge it on the extra sales it brings, not the exposure.
Tracking link: The unique link a publisher uses to send people to you, so the click and any sale can be credited to them. It normally carries the publisher's ID and sometimes a sub-ID.; How we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing

V

Validation: Also: Approval; The step where the advertiser checks tracked sales or leads and approves or declines them before commission is paid. Returns, cancellations, duplicates and fraud are the usual reasons for a decline, and publishers expect it done on time.; Guide: CPA vs CPL vs CPS vs CPC: How to Choose a Performance Pricing Model
Viewability: Whether an ad actually had a chance to be seen. The common industry standard counts a display ad as viewable when at least half of it is on screen for a second, or two seconds for video.; Guide: What Is Programmatic Advertising and How Does a DSP Work?How we help: Display advertising
Voucher affiliate: Also: Coupon affiliate, discount code site; A site that lists discount codes and earns commission when a shopper uses one. Useful for tipping undecided shoppers over the line, but they often pick up sales at the checkout that were already happening.; Guide: Cashback and Voucher Affiliates: When They Help and When They Don'tHow we help: Affiliate and publisher marketing

Can't find a term, or want to talk through what any of this means for your own programme? Get in touch or browse the blog.