What is an “Affiliate Marketing Program”?
(Also called Affiliate Marketing, Advertising, Performance Marketing, Partner Marketing, CPA, or Associate Program) In an affiliate marketing program, a publisher receives a commission for generating a transaction, such as a lead or sale, for an advertiser that the publisher is promoting. The advertiser provides its ads to publishers and assigns a commission for each action it wants to accomplish. Publishers place the tracking code for these ads on their Web sites, in their email campaigns, or in search listings. Whenever a visitor uses these links to generate an action on the advertiser site, that transaction is tracked online. If a product or service is purchased, the customer pays the advertiser directly, and the publisher is paid a commission for that transaction.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based, cost-per-action (CPA) ad method that rewards affiliate sites with a percentage of sales based on their referrals. Your banner ad, product information, or text link to your site is posted on an affiliate site. Visitors to that site who click on these banners and links arrive at your site. Affiliate management software tracks where the customers came from and what they bought. You pay a commission to your affiliates based only on what they sold.
