Introduction
This list covers common terms associated with affiliate marketing and Rakuten Advertising. If the term you are looking for is not on this list, or you want a more technical definition, try running a search in the help center.
Terms
| 1x1 pixel A pixel, short for picture element, is a single point in a graphic image. A 1x1 pixel is a tracking device that is one pixel long by one pixel wide and records the number of impressions generated by a particular site. |
| ACH Automated Clearing House (ACH) is the name of an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. We use the ACH service for its direct deposit transactions. |
| Active Publisher An active publisher has clicked on the network in the past 30 days. Each affiliate program may be defined as active using its own criteria. |
| Actual commissions The net commissions a publisher earns after adjustments such as cancellations and returns. |
| Ad Network/Sub Affiliate Network A publisher with its own network of distribution partners. |
| Adjusted Commissions Revised commissions due to cancellations, returns, manual bonuses, paid placement fees, or other reasons. |
| Ad Tracking Calculating the number of impressions and click-throughs generated by ads. |
| Advertiser This is a merchant, brand, company, or organization selling products or services online that participates in affiliate marketing. |
| Advertiser Dashboard The interface that advertisers see when they sign into their account. Advertisers use the dashboard to manage every aspect of their affiliate program. |
| Affiliate A person, publisher, or organization running a website that partners with one or more online advertisers. The affiliate places links on its site to promote the advertiser's products or services. In exchange, the affiliate receives a commission for all valid transactions it has referred. |
| Affiliate ID The 11-character alphanumeric code is unique to a publisher. This can be found in your linking code, following “id=” and before “&offerid=”. Also known as the encrypted ID or tracking ID. This is not your username or SID. |
| Affiliate Link A special URL that contains a publisher's tracking information. When a consumer clicks on a link on a publisher's site, it directs the user to an advertiser's site. It may be represented as a text link, banner, or product image. |
| All Products Offer A commission structure in which all referred orders are paid at the same rate. |
| Amount The sum of the transaction. |
| Approval The acceptance of a publisher into an advertiser's affiliate program. Once a publisher has been accepted into an advertiser's program, the publisher will have access to links and can start placing links on the publisher's site. |
| Auto-approve A method of allowing publishers to join an advertiser's affiliate program without waiting for site review and manual acceptance. |
| Auto-redirect A method of sending a user or redirecting the user through another website or link without the user's consent. This practice is not acceptable. |
| Automatic Approval "See Auto-Approve" |
| Average Order Size or Average Order Value (AOV) A reporting metric that represents the sum of sales divided by the number of orders. |
| Banner A type of link in the form of a digital ad that is available in many sizes, which publishers place on their site to promote an advertiser's product or brand. |
| Baseline Commissions Baseline commissions represent commissions you have earned from the advertiser’s baseline programs. These do not include special offers and other adjustments such as cancellations and returns. |
| Black Hat Tactics Techniques for violating eCommerce processes or internet security, including cookie stuffing and bidding on keyword search terms against a company's policy. |
| Brick and Mortar A store that has a physical location as opposed to an e-commerce website. From the idea that a retail store is constructed of brick and mortar. |
| Browser A software application such as Edge, Firefox, Chrome, or Safari is used to view websites. |
| Cache An area of space on a computer that temporarily stores web pages for display. This speeds up page viewing because pages are downloaded from a local computer. |
| CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 The CAN-SPAM, Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003, makes it legal to send certain unsolicited commercial email communications if they meet all the criteria of the Act. Unsolicited commercial emails must include certain information about the sender, include an opt-out mechanism, not be deceptive or misleading, and meet other criteria. |
| Cancellation Reversal of a processed transaction. Advertisers can send these via their tracking method or manually through the Advertiser Dashboard. Cancellation reasons vary by advertiser. |
| Channel Email The email address associated with a publisher's marketing channel |
| Click-through When a website user clicks on a link on a publisher's site, they are taken to an advertiser's site. |
| Click-through Rate Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of visitors who click an ad on a publisher's web page, click-throughs, divided by the number of times the ad is delivered to them, impressions. For example, if a banner ad is delivered 100 times and one person clicks on it, the CTR is 1 percent. This is a common performance metric. |
| Clickstream The electronic path a user takes while navigating from site to site, and within a site, from page to page. |
| Commission The compensation paid to a publisher participating in an advertiser's affiliate program for referring leads or generating sales. |
| Commissionable Transaction A customer action, generated by a publisher, that meets an advertiser's affiliate offer terms. |
| Consumer Promotion Promotions are ultimately directed to the consumer: coupons, free shipping, etc. |
| Conversion Rate The number of orders is divided by the number of clicks, or orders/clicks. For example, if you received 1000 clicks and 10 orders, the conversion rate is 1 percent. This metric is found in several reports and is a good way to measure program performance. |
| Cookie A small file on a consumer's computer that records information such as where the user has been on the web. |
| Cookie Stuffing The action of publishers setting tracking cookies on a site causes the web browser to produce a click on a link and set a return day cookie on the computer, regardless of the known or unknown action taken by the user to generate fraudulent affiliate transactions. Sometimes known as forced clicks, this activity may be cause for removal from the network. |
| Cost Per Action (CPA) A commission structure in which an advertiser pays a publisher every time a visitor makes a purchase, signs up for a service, or completes some other commissionable action on the advertiser's site. |
| Cost Per Click (CPC) A commission structure that compensates a publisher whenever their referred customer clicks on a link for an advertiser's offer. CPC is also an internet marketing formula used to price banner ads. |
| Cost Per Form (CPF) A commission structure in which publishers are paid a set amount every time a customer fills out a form, essentially paying them for a qualified lead. |
| Cost Per Lead (CPL) A commission structure in which an advertiser pays a publisher for every qualified lead delivered to the advertiser. Typically, the commission is set as a flat fee for each lead delivered. |
| Cost Per Mille (CPM) Mille is the Latin word meaning thousand. This is a commission structure in which an advertiser pays a publisher for banner impressions. The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPM by 1,000. For example, a 10 CPM equals .01 per impression. |
| Cost Per Sale (CPS) A commission structure in which an advertiser pays a publisher by giving them a percentage of each sale they drive to the advertiser's site. |
| Cost Per Thousand (CPT) A commission structure in which an advertiser pays a publisher for banner impressions. The amount paid per impression is calculated by dividing the CPT by 1,000. For example, a $10 CPT equals $.01 per impression. |
| Creative categories Groupings created by advertisers to help publishers better find banners, text links, and other creatives in both the Publisher Dashboard and through the Product Catalog data feed. |
| Credit Card Fraud Any theft or fraud implemented using a credit card or other payment method that the true user does not approve of. Advertisers are responsible for implementing measures to verify transactions. We immediately terminate any publisher we identify as being a conduit for credit card fraud. |
| Deep Link Links that direct visitors of a publisher's site to a specific page on an advertiser's site beyond the advertiser's homepage. An advertiser must enable this feature for a publisher to be able to build deep links. |
| Default creative Creative that is displayed if an advertiser's link expires to avoid a poor user experience. We require advertisers to have one text link and one banner in place. |
| Direct Deposit A payment method that allows publishers to receive their commission through a direct transfer into their bank account. |
| Downloadable Software Application (DSA) A program that is downloaded onto a user's computer and is designed to help promote an advertiser’s offers to the user. This can include a toolbar, a bookmarklet, or a browser plug-in installed on a user’s computer to remind the user to take a specific action when arriving at a website. |
| Dynamic Rich Media (DRM) A link type that supports advanced technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, video, and more. Advertisers can automatically update this link across all publisher sites as often as needed. |
| Earnings per Click (EPC) This is how much a publisher earns based on the number of click-throughs on links. EPC is determined by dividing the commissions earned by the number click click-throughs that generated these commissions. |
| Email Link Text links with a special tracking code that allows publishers to place unique links in their email communications to consumers. From a user experience, there is no difference between text and email links. |
| Encrypted ID The 11-character alphanumeric code is unique to a publisher. This can be found in your linking code, following “id=” and before “&offerid=”. Also known as the affiliate ID or tracking ID. The tracking code is not your username or SID. |
| Encryption The encoding of data to prevent anyone but the intended recipient from reading it. We encrypt all sensitive transmitted data, such as the numeric string of the site ID. |
| Forced Clicks The action of publishers setting tracking cookies on a site causes the web browser to produce a click on a link and set a return day cookie on the computer, regardless of the known or unknown action taken by the user to generate fraudulent affiliate transactions. Sometimes known as cookie stuffing, this activity may be cause for removal from the network. |
| GIF Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) is a common file format for image files. It is especially suitable for images containing large areas of the same color. GIF is the most common file compression format for banner ads and most other pictures on the web. Most graphic images on our website are in GIF format. |
| Hosting/Hosted The business of housing, serving, and maintaining files for one or more websites. Banners may be hosted by us or on the advertiser’s servers. |
| HTML Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the coding language used to create webpages. The advertiser recruitment page, homepage, and newsletters support HTML. |
| IAB Standard Sizes The Internet Advertising Bureau standardized banner and other creative sizes. We support all IAB-size creatives as well as non-standard creatives. |
| Image URL The web address of any image that can be found in the affiliate link code. This usually differs from the URL of the page where the image is found. Publishers can replace the advertiser's image URL with their own hosted banner. |
| Impression An impression is a single instance of a link shown to a user. |
| JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is the most commonly used image file format, and JPEGs are preferred for photographic images. |
| Landing page URL The web address of a specific web page a visitor reaches after clicking on an affiliate link. |
| Marketing Channel A method for publishers to manage multiple sites as independent publisher programs. Each channel has a unique SID, website attributes, reports, and user permissions. |
| MID Merchant Identification Number (MID) is a unique ID assigned to each advertiser in the network. |
| Nexus Laws Several states have passed laws that require advertisers to charge a tax on internet retail sales. Though the law differs by state, typically, they require advertisers to collect sales tax when sales from publishers reach a certain level. These laws are also known as affiliate tax laws and internet tax laws. |
| Non-Commissionable Transaction A transaction that is ineligible to earn a commission. This may occur for several reasons, including, but not limited to: a transaction not associated with an offer, an invalid affiliate ID is detected, or if return days have been exceeded. |
| Offer An offer represents the terms of an advertiser program available to publishers. Advertisers set their own offers, which vary from one advertiser to the next. Offers can include commissions based on a set percentage of sales, the number of impressions or click-throughs, or a combination of these. |
| Order ID The unique identifier refers to a specific order. It is usually an alphanumeric value. Each advertiser uses its own order ID format. |
| Orders Per Click The number of orders is divided by the number of clicks. For example, if you received 1000 clicks and 10 orders, the conversion rate is 1 percent. Also known as conversion rate, this metric is found in several reports and is a good way to measure program performance. |
| Organic Search Results Links that appear on a search results page because of their relevance to the terms searched, placement varies by search engine, as opposed to paid search or pay-per-click ads. |
| Pay-per-Click (PPC) A payment method where an advertiser compensates a publisher each time a link or banner ad is clicked. |
| Paid Search Ads Links that appear on a search engine results page because an advertiser paid for placement in those spaces, as opposed to appearing organically. |
| Pixel Short for picture element, a single point in a graphic image. A 1x1 pixel is a tracking device that is one pixel long by one pixel wide and records the number of impressions generated by a particular site. |
| Pixel Tracking A browser-to-server tracking method using a 1x1 pixel. |
| PNG Portable Network Graphics (PNG) is a file format for images. PNGs are used similarly to GIFs but offer greater color precision. |
| Premium Advertiser Throughout the publisher interface, advertisers who satisfy a set of best practice benchmarks are denoted with a star symbol next to their name. |
| Private Offer An offer that is available only to a select publisher or group of publishers in an advertiser program. Typically, a private offer includes a higher percentage of sale or CPC, or other more favorable terms than the baseline offer. |
| Process Date The date a transaction is received. |
| Product Image URL The web address where the image of a product is located. |
| Product Link A type of creative that features a product in an advertiser's inventory and takes a user to the page on which it is featured on an advertiser's site. |
| Public Offer An offer is available to all the publishers in an advertiser's program. |
| Publisher A site managed either by an individual or organization that partners with one or more online advertisers and earns a commission for all valid clicks, leads, or sales it has referred. |
| Report A document showing the performance of various data points, such as impressions, clicks, sales, and earnings, is used to identify trends and patterns and to improve campaign effectiveness. |
| Return Days Return days are the number of days between a referred customer's initial visit and a return visit in which they make a purchase. If a customer purchases within the return days period, the referring publisher receives a commission on the sale, even if the visitor returns directly to the advertiser’s site. |
| RSS Feeds RSS stands for real simple Syndication, a computer-readable format for syndicating information on the web. The feed is written using XML, which can be read by an RSS reader or application server and parsed into a user-readable form or database. |
| Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Also known as paid search, the process by which advertisers increase their visibility in search engine results. This includes bidding on and winning placement for the links on a search results page's top or right-hand side. |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The process by which website owners improve their ranking in a search engine's unpaid search results. |
| Search Overlay Icons on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) are designed to flag and present offers on search results. Often, this feature is activated by a publisher's downloadable software. |
| SEM Acronym for search engine marketing. Also known as paid search. The process by which advertisers improve their visibility in search engine results. |
| SEO Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or organic search is how advertisers improve their ranking in a search engine's unpaid search results. |
| Signature Signature is an API allowing publishers to track and generate detailed reports on the commerce activity generated by its site down to the transaction level of each member, organization, or sub-site. |
| Site ID The site ID (SID) is a unique number for identifying marketing channels. |
| SKU List A list of product SKU numbers in text format that a merchant uploads to keep track of publisher referrals, products, and commissions. Publishers should study the SKU list linked to product-specific offers and know which products are included. |
| SKU Number A Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number is a unique identifier most commonly used to refer to a specific product in inventory. It is usually an alphanumeric number set by advertisers. |
| Special Offer Special offers can be public or private offers that are available for a limited time, at increased commission, for a particular product, or some combination of these. |
| Terms and Conditions The agreement between an advertiser and its publishers will differ from advertiser to advertiser. Publishers are bound by each advertiser’s terms when they enter into the agreement, so reviewing these terms in each instance when joining an advertiser’s program is important. |
| Text Link A text link is a link that is not accompanied by a graphical image. They are easy to use and can save download time. |
| Tiered Offer A tiered offer, or progressive tier, is a commission structure where the commission rate changes as the total transaction amount increases. Only the portion covered in each tier is subject to a unique commission rate. |
| Tracking Code The 11-character alphanumeric code is unique to a publisher. This can be found in your linking code, following “id=” and before “&offerid=”. Also known as the affiliate ID or encrypted ID. The tracking code is not your username or SID. |
| Trademark Bidding When publishers attempt to gain revenue by bidding on specific words or phrases via search engine marketing, protected by an advertiser’s trademark. |
| Transaction An agreement between a buyer and a seller to exchange a product or service for a payment. This may refer to placing an online order or performing a qualifying event, such as registering or completing a form. |
| Transaction Date The date the customer purchased the product or service. |
| Typo-squatting Purchasing misspelled domain names of an advertiser to redirect traffic. This is dependent upon a hand-typed URL being misspelled. |
| Web Service or API An Application Program Interface (API) that can be accessed over a network, such as the internet, and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services. |
Comments
Thanks! Good resource I'll need to revisit.
Obrigado pela informação,o meu aprendizado foi melhor depois desta leitura
Please sign in to leave a comment.