Affiliate Marketing Glossary
50 terms
Essential terms and definitions for media buyers and affiliate marketers
A
Account Farm
The process of creating and warming up multiple advertising accounts. Used to have backup accounts when main ones get banned.
Account Warming
The process of gradually building trust on new advertising accounts before running campaigns. Includes small spends, organic activity, and time.
Ad Network
A company that connects advertisers with publishers who want to host ads. Ad networks aggregate inventory and offer targeting options.
Affiliate Network
A platform that connects advertisers (merchants) with affiliates (publishers). Networks provide tracking, payments, and offer management.
Anti-Detect Browser
A browser that masks digital fingerprints to prevent tracking and maintain multiple accounts. Popular options: Multilogin, GoLogin, Dolphin Anty.
API (Application Programming Interface)
A set of protocols allowing different software to communicate. Ad platforms provide APIs for automation, reporting, and campaign management.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)
The average revenue generated per user over a specific period. Calculated as Total Revenue / Number of Users. Important for subscription and gaming businesses.
B
C
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)
The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses. A healthy business has LTV significantly higher than CAC.
Cloaking
A technique of showing different content to ad platform reviewers vs regular users. Used to bypass ad policies but violates platform rules and is risky.
CPA (Cost Per Action)
A pricing model where advertisers pay for a specific action taken by a user, such as a purchase, sign-up, or deposit. CPA is the most common model in affiliate marketing.
CPC (Cost Per Click)
A pricing model where advertisers pay for each click on their ad. Common in PPC (pay-per-click) advertising on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook.
CPI (Cost Per Install)
A pricing model where advertisers pay for each app installation. Common in mobile app marketing and gaming verticals.
CPL (Cost Per Lead)
A pricing model where advertisers pay for each qualified lead generated. A lead typically involves collecting user contact information through a form.
CPM (Cost Per Mille)
A pricing model where advertisers pay per 1,000 impressions of their ad. "Mille" means thousand in Latin. Used for brand awareness campaigns.
CR (Conversion Rate)
The percentage of users who complete a desired action. Calculated as Conversions / Total Visitors × 100%. A key metric for optimizing campaigns.
Creative
The visual and textual elements of an advertisement, including images, videos, headlines, and copy. Good creatives significantly impact CTR and conversions.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The percentage of people who click on an ad after seeing it. Calculated as Clicks / Impressions × 100%. Measures ad creative effectiveness.
D
Direct Link
A tracking link that leads directly to an advertiser's offer without a pre-landing page. Simpler funnel but may have lower conversion rates.
DSP (Demand-Side Platform)
A platform that allows advertisers to buy ad inventory from multiple sources through one interface. DSPs use algorithms to optimize ad placements.
E
eCPM (Effective CPM)
A metric to compare profitability across different pricing models. Calculated as (Total Earnings / Impressions) × 1000. Useful for publishers.
EPC (Earnings Per Click)
A metric showing average earnings generated per click. Calculated as Total Earnings / Total Clicks. Higher EPC indicates better offer performance.
F
G
GEO
Geographic targeting in affiliate marketing. Offers are often restricted to specific countries or regions. Tier 1 GEOs (US, UK, CA) typically have higher payouts.
Gray Hat
Marketing practices in a gray area between fully compliant and policy-violating. May be tolerated by platforms but carries some risk.
L
Landing Page
A standalone web page designed for a specific marketing campaign. Landing pages are optimized for conversions with a single call-to-action.
Lookalike Audience
A targeting method that finds new users similar to your existing customers. Platforms analyze your customer data to find users with similar characteristics.
LTV (Lifetime Value)
The total revenue a customer generates throughout their relationship with a business. Used to determine how much to spend on acquiring customers.
M
N
O
P
Postback (S2S)
Server-to-server tracking method that sends conversion data from one server to another. More reliable than pixel tracking and works without cookies.
Pre-landing
A preliminary page shown before the main landing or offer page. Pre-landings warm up visitors, build interest, and filter quality traffic.
Programmatic Advertising
Automated buying and selling of digital advertising using software and algorithms. Real-time bidding happens in milliseconds to show the right ad to the right user.
Proxy
An intermediary server that masks your real IP address. Types include datacenter, residential, and mobile proxies. Essential for multi-accounting.
R
Retargeting
A strategy of showing ads to users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your content. Uses cookies or pixels to track users.
RevShare
A payment model where affiliates receive a percentage of the revenue generated by referred customers over time. Common in gambling and subscription offers.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
A metric measuring revenue generated per dollar spent on advertising. ROAS of 3x means $3 revenue for every $1 spent on ads.
ROI (Return on Investment)
A metric measuring the profitability of an investment. Calculated as (Revenue - Cost) / Cost × 100%. Positive ROI means profit, negative means loss.
RPM (Revenue Per Mille)
Revenue earned per 1,000 page views or impressions. Similar to eCPM but often used by publishers. Higher RPM means better monetization.
RTB (Real-Time Bidding)
An auction-based system where ad impressions are bought and sold in real-time, within milliseconds of a user loading a webpage.
S
S2S (Server-to-Server)
Server-to-server communication for tracking conversions without client-side cookies. More accurate and reliable than browser-based tracking.
Smartlink
An intelligent link that automatically redirects users to the best-performing offer based on their device, location, and other parameters.
SSP (Supply-Side Platform)
A platform that helps publishers manage and sell their ad inventory. SSPs connect with DSPs to maximize revenue through real-time bidding.
T
Tracker
Software for tracking and analyzing advertising campaigns. Trackers collect data on clicks, conversions, and ROI. Popular trackers: Voluum, Binom, RedTrack.
Tracking Pixel
A small piece of code placed on a website to track user actions and conversions. Facebook Pixel, Google Tag, and TikTok Pixel are common examples.
Traffic Arbitrage
The practice of buying traffic at a lower cost and monetizing it at a higher rate through affiliate offers or ad networks. The profit comes from the price difference.
Traffic Source
The platform or channel where traffic originates. Examples include Facebook Ads, Google Ads, TikTok, push notifications, native ad networks, and SEO.
V
W
The WEB-HH glossary is a reference for affiliate marketing, media buying and performance-marketing terminology. If you are new to the niche, here you will find definitions of CPA, CPL, CPM, ROI, ROAS, EPC, PPS, RevShare, types of ad networks and offers, and the slang used in affiliate chats. Every definition is concise and grounded in a real example.
Why this glossary exists
Affiliate and arbitrage use a mixed vocabulary: part from digital ads (CPM, CTR, frequency), part from CPA marketing (postback, S2S, lead, payout), part from internal slang (buyer, prelander, shave, cloaking). Without these definitions you cannot read case studies, talk to your affiliate manager, or build a tracking flow.
How to use the glossary
Find a term via the alphabetical navigation or search. Click into any card to see an expanded definition, synonyms in English/Russian, and links to related concepts. Every term is tagged with a cluster (media-buying, affiliate, crypto, gambling), making it easy to learn vocabulary specific to one vertical.