Reference

Affiliate marketing glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms you actually run into when running affiliate links at scale.

Affiliate link: A URL that contains a tracking identifier so the network can credit a sale back to the publisher who sent the click.
Affiliate network: A platform that brokers relationships between merchants and publishers, handles tracking, and pays commission. Examples: Awin, CJ, Impact, Rakuten, ShareASale.
Anchor text: The visible, clickable text inside an HTML link tag. For affiliate links, anchor text influences both click-through and SEO trust signals.
Attribution window: The time period after a click during which a conversion still credits the original publisher. Often 24 hours for Amazon, 30 days for many networks.
Brand-owned redirect: A first-party domain (yoursite.com/go/product) that redirects to a network tracker. Cleaner URLs, easier to update in bulk, but adds another point of failure.
Click-through rate (CTR): Clicks divided by impressions. For affiliate content, CTR varies hugely by placement, anchor text, and product fit.
Conversion rate (CR): Sales divided by clicks. Tells you how well a destination converts the traffic you send. Low CR can mean a broken link, the wrong region, or a poor product fit.
Cookie window: The duration the network stores its tracking cookie on a visitor's device. Conversions inside the window credit the publisher; outside, they do not.
Deep link: An affiliate link that points to a specific product page rather than the merchant homepage. Higher conversion rates because the user lands where they expected.
EPC: Earnings per click. Total commission divided by total clicks, usually multiplied by 100. A blended efficiency metric used to compare merchants.
Geo-redirect: A server- or client-side redirect that sends visitors to a region-specific URL. Often the cause of stripped tracking parameters.
Impression: A view of an affiliate link or banner. Most affiliate programs only pay on clicks or sales, but impression data helps optimise placement.
Link cloaking: Replacing a long affiliate URL with a short, branded redirect. Improves UX and tracking control but adds a layer that can drift out of sync. See our guide on link cloaking.
Merchant: The brand selling the product. Sometimes called advertiser. Pays commission to publishers via the network.
Network ID: The publisher identifier the network uses to credit clicks and sales. Examples: Amazon's tag, Awin's awinaffid, ShareASale's afftrack.
Nofollow / sponsored: HTML link attributes that tell search engines a link is paid or unverified. Required by Google for affiliate links.
Out-of-stock (OOS): A merchant landing page that loads but cannot convert because the product is unavailable. Common silent revenue leak.
Postback: A server-to-server notification from the network when a conversion happens. More reliable than pixel-based tracking but requires technical setup.
Publisher: The site, newsletter, podcast, or creator placing affiliate links. Sometimes called affiliate.
Redirect chain: The sequence of URLs a browser visits between the click and the final destination. Each hop is a chance for tracking to drop. Trace yours with our redirect chain checker.
Referral URL: The page that originated the click. Networks use it to verify the publisher and detect fraud.
Revenue at risk: An estimate of monthly commission a publisher stands to lose from broken or degraded links. Used to prioritise fixes by impact rather than count.
S2S tracking: Server-to-server tracking. Conversions are recorded by direct API call between the merchant and the network, bypassing browser cookies and ad blockers.
SubID: A custom parameter publishers append to track campaigns, placements, or A/B tests inside their affiliate dashboard.
Tracking pixel: A 1x1 image or script the merchant fires on order confirmation. Vulnerable to ad blockers, ITP, and consent tooling.
UTM parameters: Query string tags (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign) that pass campaign metadata to your analytics platform. Build them with our UTM builder.

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