Know the Terms in Affiliate Marketing
Before discussing further about affiliate marketing, there are a number of terms that you should know.
If you intend to run an affiliate marketing, then you also need to be familiar with the terms in it so you don’t get confused. Here are some important terms:
Affiliate
Affiliates are people who work with companies or affiliate program providers to promote products, services, or even introduce brands to their audiences.
Affiliates come from various circles and communities, but in online world are generally done by bloggers, website content creators, or creators related to the merchant industry.
An affiliate will write or create content related to products or services provided by the affiliate maker, place banner ads on their site, or provide coupon codes.
Payment
Compared to other businesses, affiliate programs provide higher ROI (profit or profit) to merchants or those who sell goods and services because the business is performance-based. This means that they will only pay affiliate commissions on successful purchases and will not pay for site visitors simply browsing.
If several affiliates get billed for the same transaction, the payments will fall apart. There may be cases where an affiliate claims a commission for a customer or customer who came from another affiliate at the last minute.
A good affiliate program will offer multi-channel attribution to ensure that the affiliate with the most transaction results will receive the most payouts.
Some of the types of payment methods commonly used by merchants are:
#CPS (Cost Per Sale) – You will receive a commission per sale or a percentage of the value of the product or service.
#CPL (Cost Per Lead) – You will receive payment for each lead that is validated and completed.
#CPC (Cost Per Click) – You will receive payment for driving traffic to websites that provide products and services via ad click.
#CPA (Cost Per Action) – You will receive payment when the user completes the request that you advertise (filling out a form or survey)
Affiliate Network
Most affiliate programs are managed and regulated through an affiliate network. Affiliate networks are very useful because they provide a centralized database that lists affiliate program providers so that it is easier for affiliates to find opportunities.
Affiliate networks also facilitate product and service providers (merchants) who wish to use publisher services (affiliates). Usually merchants provide various tools for running the affiliate marketing, such as payments, refunds, tracking, reports, and affiliate management.
Some of the most popular affiliate networks you can join are, ShareASales, Clickbank, CJ, and even Amazon. If you prefer an individual affiliate program, companies like Hostgator offer an affiliate program that you can join.
