What affiliate marketing is:
core terms and principles
core terms and principles
Affiliate marketing and CPA marketing are two different terms standing for the same marketing field concerned with helping advertisers drive traffic through cooperation with publishers. Let’s puzzle out each term individually:
CPA
(Cost per Action)
(Cost per Action)
is the pay-per-action model which powers affiliate marketing. Here’s how it works basically: The advertiser determines how much they are ready to pay for every website visitor who made a purchase and rewards publishers for every sale (or any other target action).
The
advertiser
advertiser
is a commercial organization that operates on the web. That may be an online store, online service, mobile app, online game, bank or credit service, travel agency distributing flight tickets or rendering hotel booking services. The advertiser may be anyone who needs customers or subscribers that may convert into sales.
Traffic
is target audience; customers, users, subscribers the advertiser wants to lead in.
The
publisher
publisher
is a person or legal entity that owns — or knows where to source — traffic. The publisher may be a social media community/Telegram channel/YouTube channel/forum/coupon or cashback service owner, blog author, contextual advertising/targeting/SEO specialist.
While under standard promotion models the advertiser pays for ad placement, impressions, or clicks, in affiliate marketing, what is payable is a qualified lead (request likely to convert into a sale) or real sale (when a user placed an order, received it, paid for it, and didn’t return it). Such a principle helps the advertiser calculate promotion-related costs easier and more accurately — as they know in advance how much they are going to pay for every customer (lead).
A mediator between the publisher and advertiser is the partner network. Here’s what it does:
Brings all advertisers together in one place and helps launch their affiliate programs. An affiliate program consists of the description of terms under which publishers are going to work (what they can be rewarded for, what they need to do, what is forbidden by the rules). All programs come to the affiliate program catalog.
Also, the network draws together publishers and provides them with all the essential instruments to handle the traffic. The publisher goes to the program catalog and chooses a program of a store or service whose products and services may spark interest in the publisher’s users (traffic).
Connects publishers to advertisers’ affiliate programs and tracks which publisher led a specific user and sale amount. Also, it credits rewards from advertisers to publishers’ accounts.
Orders are tracked with the help of affiliate links. An affiliate link consists of the tag of a publisher and their ad space and tags of advertising campaigns set by the advertiser (subID). At the moment when a user follows the publisher’s affiliate link and makes a purchase, the advertiser can see it in their statistics and in the reports in their partner network account.
Beside planning expenses on attracting users, here’s another advantage in cooperating with partner networks: delegating traffic sourcing to the channels that can’t be operated in-house, without dispersing attention to several contractors and agencies.
Beside planning expenses on attracting users, here’s another advantage in cooperating with partner networks: delegating traffic sourcing to the channels that can’t be operated in-house, without dispersing attention to several contractors and agencies.
Check yourself!
Find out if you have learned everything correctly
| Start |
What does the advertiser pay for in affiliate marketing?
Correct! The advertiser pays the publisher when a user who followed the publisher’s affiliate link performed a target action specified in the affiliate program terms.
Incorrect. The advertiser pays the publisher when a user who followed the publisher’s affiliate link performed a target action specified in the affiliate program terms.
Incorrect. The advertiser pays the publisher when a user who followed the publisher’s affiliate link performed a target action specified in the affiliate program terms.
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What is traffic in affiliate marketing?
Miss! Traffic is users the publisher leads to the advertiser’s website. The more the traffic generated by the publisher meets targeting requirements, the higher the user (click)-to-buyer conversion.
Right! Traffic is users the publisher leads to the advertiser’s website. The more the traffic generated by the publisher meets targeting requirements, the higher the user (click)-to-buyer conversion.
Miss! Traffic is users the publisher leads to the advertiser’s website. The more the traffic generated by the publisher meets targeting requirements, the higher the user (click)-to-buyer conversion.
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| Results |
What is the purpose of an affiliate network? Several options possible
Bingo! All the statements are correct as affiliate networks exercise all these functions.
Bingo! All the statements are correct as affiliate networks exercise all these functions.
Bingo! All the statements are correct as affiliate networks exercise all these functions.
Bingo! All the statements are correct as affiliate networks exercise all these functions.
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| Results |
Who is a publisher in CPA marketing?
Wrong. Anyone can be a publisher if they own traffic (e.g. subscribers) or know where to source it (contextual advertising/targeting/SEO specialist).
Correct! Anyone can be a publisher if they own traffic (e.g. subscribers) or know where to source it (contextual advertising/targeting/SEO specialist).
Wrong. Anyone can be a publisher if they own traffic (e.g. subscribers) or know where to source it (contextual advertising/targeting/SEO specialist).
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What is the difference between affiliate marketing and other types of promotion?
Correct! User reach depends on the number of publishers connected and their performance. The advertiser can track target actions from any channels (provided analytical systems are configured properly) but the reward is only paid for a target action.
Incorrect. User reach depends on the number of publishers connected and their performance. The advertiser can track target actions from any channels (provided analytical systems are configured properly) but the reward is only paid for a target action.
Incorrect. User reach depends on the number of publishers connected and their performance. The advertiser can track target actions from any channels (provided analytical systems are configured properly) but the reward is only paid for a target action.
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| Results |
You might have been distracted when reading the text. Brew some coffee, relax, dismiss everything unwanted from your mind, and try again.
| Go through again |
Fair take-off. Get back to those a where you made a mistake, and then proceed to the next lesson.
| Go through again |
Well done!
Lesson accomplished. Let's move further!
Lesson accomplished. Let's move further!
| Go through again |
Well done!
Choose your next step
Is affiliate marketing suitable for you?
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