Glossary
A-Z glossary of affiliate marketing, SaaS, and partner program terminology.
AI Crawler
An AI crawler is a bot that gathers web content for artificial intelligence systems, either to train models or to fetch pages that ground live AI answers.
AI Visibility
AI visibility is how often and how favorably a brand appears in AI-generated answers when buyers ask assistants for recommendations in its category.
API Integration
Using application programming interfaces to connect your affiliate software with other business tools like CRMs, email platforms, and analytics systems. APIs enable automated data flow and custom reporting.
API Partnership
An API partnership is a formal relationship where one company builds on another's API under agreed terms, turning technical access into a business alliance.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
A B2B marketing strategy that targets specific high-value accounts with personalized campaigns. ABM and affiliate marketing can work together when affiliates have relationships with your target accounts.
Activation Bonus
An activation bonus is a one-time payment a program gives a new affiliate for completing an early milestone, most often their first referred sale.
Affiliate Activation Rate
The percentage of enrolled affiliates who generate at least one click or referral within a given timeframe. A low activation rate signals onboarding or creative issues. Typical SaaS programs see 20-40% activation.
Affiliate Agreement
A legal contract between a company and its affiliates that outlines the terms, conditions, commission structure, payment schedule, prohibited activities, and responsibilities of both parties.
Affiliate Commission Tier
Performance levels within an affiliate program that unlock higher commission rates. As affiliates generate more referrals or revenue, they advance to higher tiers with better compensation, motivating sustained effort.
Affiliate Compliance
The set of rules and monitoring practices that ensure affiliates promote products ethically and within program guidelines. Includes FTC disclosure requirements, brand usage policies, and prohibited marketing tactics.
Affiliate Creative
Marketing materials provided to affiliates to promote your product, including banners, text links, email templates, social media posts, landing page copy, and product images. Good creatives increase affiliate activation rates.
Affiliate Dashboard
A web interface where affiliates can access their tracking links, view performance metrics (clicks, conversions, earnings), download marketing materials, and manage their account settings.
Affiliate Directory
An affiliate directory is a public, searchable listing of affiliate programs that affiliates browse to find offers to promote, organized by niche and terms.
Affiliate Disclosure
A legally required statement that informs readers or viewers that the content contains affiliate links and that the creator may earn a commission from purchases made through those links. Required by FTC guidelines.
Affiliate Fraud
Deceptive practices by affiliates to generate illegitimate commissions, including cookie stuffing, brand bidding, fake leads, and click fraud. Affiliate fraud detection and prevention is critical for program integrity.
Affiliate Landing Page
A dedicated web page designed to convert traffic from affiliate referrals into leads or customers. Optimized affiliate landing pages include clear value propositions, social proof, and streamlined signup flows tailored to the affiliate's audience.
Affiliate Link
A unique, trackable URL assigned to an affiliate that identifies them as the source of a referral. When a visitor clicks an affiliate link and completes a qualifying action, the affiliate earns a commission.
Affiliate Manager
A professional responsible for managing an affiliate program, including recruiting affiliates, maintaining relationships, optimizing performance, handling payouts, and ensuring compliance with program terms.
Affiliate Marketing
A performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward external partners (affiliates) for driving traffic, leads, or sales through the affiliate's marketing efforts.
Affiliate Marketplace
A platform where SaaS companies list their affiliate programs and affiliates browse and apply to promote products. Reditus operates a B2B SaaS-focused affiliate marketplace connecting companies with vetted affiliates.
Affiliate Network
A platform that connects merchants (advertisers) with affiliates (publishers). In B2B SaaS, affiliate networks like Reditus provide a marketplace where SaaS companies can list their programs and affiliates can discover products to promote.
Affiliate Onboarding
The process of welcoming new affiliates into your program, providing them with resources, training, marketing materials, and tracking links so they can effectively promote your product.
Affiliate Payout
The process of paying earned commissions to affiliates. Payouts can be manual or automated, and typically occur on a monthly cycle after a minimum threshold is met and a verification period has passed.
Affiliate Program
A structured arrangement where a company offers commissions to affiliates who promote their products or services and generate qualifying actions such as sales, signups, or leads.
Affiliate Program Migration
Affiliate program migration is the process of moving an existing program to new software or a new network while preserving links, data, and payouts.
Affiliate Program ROI
The return on investment from your affiliate program, calculated by comparing total affiliate-driven revenue against program costs (commissions, software fees, management time). A well-run SaaS affiliate program typically delivers 5-10x ROI.
Affiliate Recruitment
The process of identifying, reaching out to, and enrolling new affiliates into your program. Effective recruitment combines marketplace listings, direct outreach, content-based inbound, and leveraging your existing customer base.
Affiliate Revenue Share
A commission model where affiliates earn a percentage of the revenue generated by their referrals, rather than a fixed amount. In SaaS, this is typically a percentage of the referred customer's monthly or annual subscription.
Affiliate Tracking
The technology and process of monitoring affiliate referrals from initial click through to conversion. Tracking systems use cookies, UTM parameters, and server-side methods to attribute sales to specific affiliates accurately.
Agency Partner
A marketing, development, or consulting agency that recommends your product to their clients. Agency partners are high-value affiliates because they bring trusted recommendations and often manage multiple client accounts.
Ambassador Program
A structured program where loyal customers and fans promote a brand long term in exchange for perks, access, and rewards instead of sales commissions.
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
The annualized value of a SaaS company's recurring subscription revenue. ARR is calculated as MRR multiplied by 12 and is a key metric for measuring overall business growth and affiliate program impact at scale.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so search engines and AI assistants can quote it directly as the answer to a question.
Assisted Conversion
A conversion in which a marketing channel or touchpoint influenced the buyer earlier in the journey but was not the final click that closed the sale.
Attribution Window
The timeframe during which a conversion can be credited to an affiliate after a user clicks their link. Also known as the lookback window or cookie window. Longer windows benefit affiliates in longer B2B sales cycles.
Average Order Value (AOV)
Average order value (AOV) is total revenue divided by the number of orders in a period, showing how much revenue a typical transaction generates.
B2B SaaS
Business-to-business software as a service — cloud-based software sold on a subscription basis to other businesses. B2B SaaS companies use affiliate programs to scale customer acquisition through partnerships rather than purely through paid advertising.
Brand Ambassador
A person who publicly represents and promotes a brand over the long term, usually a genuine user compensated with pay, perks, or commissions.
Brand Bidding
When affiliates run paid search ads targeting a company's brand name keywords. Most affiliate programs prohibit brand bidding because it competes with the company's own paid search campaigns and inflates acquisition costs.
Brand Safety
Brand safety is the practice of protecting a company's reputation by controlling where its ads, links, and partner content appear online.
CNAME Tracking
A setup that points a subdomain of your own website at a tracking provider through a DNS CNAME record, so tracking requests appear first-party.
Cashback Affiliate
A cashback affiliate is a partner that rebates part of its commission to the buyer as cash or credit, converting shoppers by sharing the savings.
Channel Account Manager (CAM)
A Channel Account Manager (CAM) is the vendor employee who owns a portfolio of channel partners, driving their recruitment, enablement, and sales performance.
Channel Conflict
Channel conflict occurs when a company's sales channels, such as direct sales, resellers, and affiliates, compete for the same customers or deals.
Channel Margin
The share of each sale that a reseller or distributor keeps as compensation, usually expressed as a percentage discount off the vendor's list price.
Channel Partner
A company or individual that helps sell, implement, or support your product to end customers. Channel partners include resellers, consultants, agencies, and technology partners. Affiliate programs are one type of channel partnership.
Channel Sales
A go-to-market model where a company sells through third parties like resellers, distributors, and agencies instead of only its own sales team.
Churn Rate
The percentage of customers who cancel their subscription within a given period. High churn directly impacts affiliate program economics because shorter customer lifetimes reduce the value of recurring commissions.
Click Fraud
Click fraud is the deliberate generation of fake or automated clicks on ads or tracking links to inflate metrics, drain budgets, or steal attribution.
Click ID
A click ID is a unique identifier assigned to each click on a tracking link so a later conversion can be matched back to the exact click and affiliate.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of people who click on an affiliate link out of the total who see it. CTR indicates how compelling an affiliate's promotion is at driving initial interest.
Cloud Marketplace
A digital storefront run by a major cloud provider where businesses discover, buy, and deploy third-party software billed through their existing cloud account.
Co-Branding
A partnership where two companies present a product, campaign, or asset under both brands at once, so each side borrows credibility and reach from the other.
Co-Marketing
Co-marketing is a partnership where two companies jointly plan, fund, and run marketing campaigns, sharing the leads and brand exposure the campaign generates.
Co-Selling
A sales motion where a software vendor and a partner actively work the same deal together, sharing contacts, intel, and effort to win a shared customer.
Commission Cap
A commission cap is a program-set limit on how much commission an affiliate can earn per sale, per customer, or per period, regardless of revenue driven.
Commission Clawback
The reversal of a commission already credited or paid to an affiliate or partner, usually because the referred sale was refunded, canceled, or fraudulent.
Commission Hold Period
A commission hold period is the set time a program holds earned commissions before payout so refunds, chargebacks, and fraud surface first.
Commission Rate
The percentage or fixed amount an affiliate earns for each qualifying referral. In B2B SaaS, typical commission rates range from 15-40% of the referred customer's subscription revenue.
Commission Reversal
A commission reversal cancels a pending affiliate commission before payout, usually because the referred sale was refunded, churned, or failed validation.
Comparison Content
Comparison content is material that weighs two or more competing products side by side to help high-intent buyers make a final purchase decision.
Consent Management
The process of collecting, storing, and honoring user permission for cookies and tracking scripts before they run, usually through a consent banner.
Content Affiliate
An affiliate who promotes products through content creation — blog posts, reviews, tutorials, comparison articles, and educational videos. Content affiliates typically drive higher-quality leads than coupon or deal affiliates because their audience has higher purchase intent.
Content Marketing
Creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and retain a target audience. For SaaS affiliate programs, strong content marketing supports both direct SEO traffic and equips content affiliates with share-worthy resources.
Conversion Rate
The percentage of visitors who complete a desired action (signup, purchase) after clicking an affiliate link. A key metric for evaluating affiliate and landing page performance.
Cookie Duration
The length of time a tracking cookie remains active after a user clicks an affiliate link. If the user makes a purchase within this window, the affiliate receives credit. SaaS programs typically offer 30-90 day cookie durations.
Cookie Stuffing
A fraudulent affiliate practice where tracking cookies are placed on a user's browser without their knowledge or consent, typically through hidden iframes or forced redirects, to claim unearned commissions.
Cookieless Tracking
Cookieless tracking attributes conversions without browser cookies, using click IDs, server postbacks, and first-party data to keep affiliate credit accurate.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
A pricing model where affiliates earn a fixed commission for each qualifying action, such as a sale, signup, or lead. Unlike recurring commissions, CPA is a one-time payment per conversion.
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click (CPC) is the price paid for each click on an ad or link, calculated by dividing total spend by the number of clicks it generated.
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Cost per lead (CPL) is the average amount spent to generate one qualified lead, calculated by dividing total campaign cost by the number of leads produced.
Coupon Affiliate
An affiliate that promotes discount codes and deals, earning a commission when buyers apply its code or click its link before completing a purchase.
Coupon Tracking
Attributing affiliate referrals through unique coupon or discount codes rather than (or in addition to) tracking links. Useful for affiliates who promote through channels where clickable links aren't practical, like podcasts or live events.
Creator Economy
The creator economy is the market of independent creators earning income from content, audiences, and the platforms and tools that support them.
Cross-Device Tracking
The practice of connecting one person's clicks and conversions across phones, laptops, and other devices so attribution survives device switches.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
The total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing, sales, and affiliate commissions. Affiliate marketing typically delivers a lower CAC than paid advertising because you only pay for actual results.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
The total revenue a business expects to earn from a customer over the entire duration of their relationship. CLV helps determine how much to invest in affiliate commissions while maintaining profitability.
Customer Onboarding
The process of guiding new customers from signup to becoming active, successful users of your product. Strong onboarding reduces churn and increases CLV — both critical for maintaining healthy affiliate program economics.
Dark Funnel
The dark funnel is the part of the buyer journey that analytics cannot track: word of mouth, communities, podcasts, private chats, and AI assistants.
Deal Registration
A channel process where partners log a sales opportunity with a vendor to claim credit, deal protection, and better margins if the deal closes.
Deep Linking
The practice of creating affiliate links that point to specific product pages or content rather than just the homepage. Deep links improve conversion rates by sending referrals directly to the most relevant page.
Demand Generation
Creating awareness and interest in your product among potential customers who may not yet be actively looking for a solution. Unlike lead generation, demand gen focuses on building long-term awareness rather than capturing immediate intent.
Deterministic Attribution
Attribution that ties a conversion to its source using exact identifiers such as click IDs, login emails, or coupon codes, with no statistical guessing.
Direct Linking
Direct linking sends affiliate traffic straight to the advertiser's URL, with tracking handled by parameters on the link instead of an intermediate redirect.
Double-Sided Incentive
A double-sided incentive rewards both the referrer and the referred person in a referral program, giving each party a reason to complete the referral.
Earnings Per Click (EPC)
The average commission an affiliate earns per click sent to a program, calculated as total commissions divided by total clicks. EPC folds payout size and conversion rate into one number, which is why it beats commission rate for comparing programs.
Ecosystem Qualified Lead (EQL)
An Ecosystem Qualified Lead (EQL) is a prospect flagged as sales-ready by partner ecosystem signals like shared customers or integration usage.
Ecosystem-Led Growth
A go-to-market strategy that uses a company's partner ecosystem, integrations, and shared customer relationships as its main engine for pipeline and revenue.
Effective Earnings Per Click (eEPC)
Effective earnings per click (eEPC) is the commission revenue actually earned per click after reversals, showing a program's true value per visitor sent.
Email Marketing
Using email campaigns to nurture leads, engage customers, and drive conversions. Affiliates who build email lists in your niche can be powerful partners, as email consistently delivers the highest ROI of any marketing channel.
Fake Leads
Fake leads are fabricated or worthless form submissions created to trigger pay-per-lead commissions, with no real buyer behind the contact details.
Finder's Fee
A one-time payment made to someone for introducing a buyer or deal to a business, typically paid only when the introduction leads to a closed transaction.
Fingerprint Tracking
A cookieless attribution method that identifies a returning visitor by combining browser and device signals into a probable match for crediting conversions.
First-Party Data
Data collected directly from your own customers and website visitors, as opposed to third-party data from external sources. In affiliate marketing, first-party tracking is increasingly important as third-party cookies are deprecated.
Flat-Fee Commission
A commission model that pays affiliates a fixed dollar amount per conversion, regardless of the size or value of the deal they refer.
Freemium
A SaaS pricing model where a basic version of the product is offered for free, with premium features available for a fee. Freemium products work well with affiliate marketing because affiliates can promote a risk-free entry point.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of increasing how often AI tools cite or recommend a brand in the answers they generate.
Go-to-Market Strategy
The plan for how a company will reach its target customers and achieve competitive advantage when launching or scaling a product. For SaaS, this includes positioning, pricing, distribution channels (including affiliate programs), and messaging.
Growth Loop
A self-reinforcing system where the output of one growth activity feeds back as input to create compounding growth. Affiliate programs create growth loops when referred customers become affiliates themselves, driving exponential expansion.
Hybrid Commission
A payout structure that combines two commission models, most often a fixed upfront bounty plus a recurring revenue share on the same referral.
Ideal Partner Profile (IPP)
An Ideal Partner Profile (IPP) is a documented set of traits, audience, and capabilities that mark the partners most likely to drive revenue for a program.
In-App Referral Program
An in-app referral program lets existing users invite others directly inside a product, typically rewarding both sides when the invitee signs up or converts.
In-House Affiliate Program
An in-house affiliate program is one a company runs on its own tracking software and manages directly, rather than through a shared affiliate network.
Incentivized Traffic
Incentivized traffic is visitors who click or convert because they receive a reward, such as cash, points, or perks, rather than out of genuine intent.
Independent Software Vendor (ISV)
An Independent Software Vendor (ISV) is a company that builds and sells its own software products, rather than reselling or servicing software built by others.
Influencer Marketing
Leveraging individuals with significant online followings to promote your product. In B2B SaaS, influencer marketing often overlaps with affiliate marketing when influencers earn commissions on referrals alongside flat fees.
Influencer Seeding
Influencer seeding is sending free product or access to creators with no obligation to post, hoping authentic use leads to organic mentions and reviews.
Integration Partner
An integration partner is a software company whose product connects to yours through a live integration, so shared customers get more value from both tools.
Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP)
Safari's privacy technology that blocks third-party cookies and caps script-set first-party cookies at seven days, shortening affiliate tracking windows.
LLM Citation
An LLM citation is a mention or linked source reference that an AI assistant includes in a generated answer, crediting a page as the basis for its claims.
LTV:CAC Ratio
The ratio of Customer Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost. A healthy SaaS business targets a 3:1 ratio or higher. Affiliate marketing typically improves this ratio because commissions are performance-based.
Last-Click Attribution
An attribution model that credits the entire conversion to the last affiliate link clicked before a purchase. While simple, it can undervalue affiliates who introduce customers earlier in the buyer journey.
Lead Generation
The process of attracting and converting potential customers into leads who have expressed interest in your product. Affiliate marketing is a form of lead generation where external partners drive qualified leads to your business.
Link Cloaking
Link cloaking is the practice of masking a long affiliate tracking URL behind a short, branded redirect link that forwards visitors to the destination.
Listicle
A listicle is an article structured as a numbered or ranked list, such as a best-tools roundup, often monetized with affiliate links to the products featured.
Locking Period
A locking period is the window after a conversion during which a commission can still be adjusted or reversed before its status becomes final.
Market Development Funds (MDF)
Market Development Funds (MDF) are budgets a vendor gives channel partners to fund marketing activities that generate demand for the vendor's product.
Marketing Funnel
A model representing the customer journey from initial awareness to purchase decision. Affiliates typically operate at different funnel stages — content affiliates drive top-of-funnel awareness while comparison/review affiliates capture bottom-of-funnel intent.
Marketplace Listing
A marketplace listing is a product page a company publishes in a third-party marketplace, like a cloud marketplace or app store, to reach its buyers.
Mass Payout
A mass payout is a single batch payment that settles commissions for many affiliates at once, replacing dozens or hundreds of individual transfers.
Media Buyer
A media buyer is an affiliate who purchases paid ads on search, social, or display networks and profits on the spread between ad spend and commissions.
Media Kit
A media kit is a document where a creator or publisher presents audience size, demographics, formats, and pricing to prospective sponsors and partners.
Micro-Influencer
A micro-influencer is a creator with roughly 10,000 to 100,000 followers whose smaller, niche audience typically delivers higher engagement and trust.
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
The predictable monthly revenue a SaaS company generates from subscriptions. In affiliate marketing, MRR driven by affiliates is a key metric for measuring program ROI and is often the basis for commission calculations.
Multi-Touch Attribution
An attribution model that distributes credit across multiple touchpoints in the customer journey, rather than giving all credit to the last click. More accurate for B2B SaaS where sales cycles involve multiple interactions.
Nearbound
Nearbound is a go-to-market motion that uses partners' relationships, data, and trust with your target accounts to source and close deals faster.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
A customer loyalty metric based on asking customers how likely they are to recommend your product on a 0-10 scale. High NPS correlates with strong referral potential — promoters (9-10) are natural candidates for your affiliate or referral program.
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
The percentage of recurring revenue retained from existing customers over a period, including expansions and contractions. NRR above 100% means customers are expanding faster than churning — a strong signal for affiliate program sustainability.
Net Terms (Net-30/Net-60)
Net terms are payment deadlines, such as Net-30 or Net-60, that give the paying party 30 or 60 days after invoice or approval to settle the amount owed.
Newsletter Affiliate
A newsletter affiliate is a publisher who monetizes an email newsletter by promoting partner products through tracked affiliate links in their sends.
Niche Site
A niche site is a content website focused on one narrow topic that monetizes its targeted organic traffic through affiliate links, ads, or sponsorships.
Nofollow and Sponsored Links
Nofollow and sponsored links use rel attributes that tell search engines a link is paid or untrusted, so it passes no ranking credit to the destination site.
Partner Certification
A formal training and assessment process that validates a partner's ability to sell, implement, or support a vendor's product to a defined standard.
Partner Ecosystem
The interconnected network of all your business partners — affiliates, resellers, technology integrations, agencies, and community advocates. A strong partner ecosystem creates multiple referral channels that compound over time.
Partner Enablement
The training, content, tools, and support a company gives its partners so they can market, sell, and support its product effectively on their own.
Partner Marketing
Marketing planned and executed with or through partners, from co-marketing campaigns to affiliate promotion, to reach buyers a brand cannot reach alone.
Partner Portal
A dedicated web platform where partners access links, assets, training, deal registration, and performance data for a vendor's partner program.
Partner Program
A broader business arrangement where companies collaborate with external partners — including affiliates, resellers, agencies, and technology integrators — to jointly drive growth, revenue, and market reach.
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) is the software and processes a vendor uses to recruit, onboard, enable, and track its channel and referral partners.
Partner Scorecard
A partner scorecard is a structured rating of partners against metrics like sourced revenue, activation, and engagement, used to guide program investment.
Partner Success Manager
A Partner Success Manager is the person responsible for helping active partners reach their goals after onboarding, so they keep producing revenue long term.
Partner Tier
A partner tier is a level within a partner program that groups partners by performance or commitment and unlocks specific benefits, rates, and support.
Partner-Influenced Revenue
Revenue from deals where a partner meaningfully helped move the buyer forward, even though the deal was originally sourced by your own marketing or sales team.
Partner-Led Growth
Partner-led growth is a strategy where partners, from affiliates to resellers, drive a company's customer acquisition, expansion, and retention.
Partner-Sourced Revenue
Revenue from deals a partner originated, where the customer entered your pipeline because of that partner rather than your own marketing or sales.
Pay Per Click (Affiliate)
A commission model where affiliates are paid for each click they send to a merchant's site, rewarding traffic volume instead of leads or sales.
Pay Per Lead (PPL)
A commission model where affiliates earn a fixed payout for each qualified lead they refer, such as a demo request or trial signup.
Pay Per Sale (PPS)
A commission model where an affiliate is paid only when a referred visitor completes a purchase, tying payouts directly to closed revenue.
Payout Schedule
A payout schedule is the recurring timetable an affiliate program uses to pay approved commissions, such as monthly payouts on net 30 terms.
Payout Threshold
A payout threshold is the minimum commission balance an affiliate must reach before a program pays out, with unpaid earnings rolling over to the next period.
Performance Bonus
A performance bonus is an extra payment an affiliate or partner earns for hitting a defined target, paid on top of their standard commission.
Postback URL (S2S Tracking)
A postback URL is a server-to-server endpoint that notifies an affiliate tracking platform of a conversion from the advertiser's server, no cookies required.
Probabilistic Attribution
Attribution that infers which source drove a conversion from signals like device, IP address, and timing when no exact identifier links click to sale.
Product-Led Growth (PLG)
A business strategy where the product itself drives customer acquisition, retention, and expansion. PLG companies often combine affiliate programs with in-app referral features to create viral growth loops.
Product-Market Fit
The point where a product satisfies strong market demand. Achieving product-market fit before launching an affiliate program is critical — affiliates cannot sell a product that doesn't solve a real problem for its target audience.
Quarterly Business Review (QBR)
A structured quarterly meeting where a vendor and a partner review performance against goals and agree on a concrete plan for the next quarter.
Rate Card
A rate card is a creator's or publisher's standard price list for promotional placements, such as sponsored posts, videos, newsletters, and usage rights.
Recurring Commission
A commission model where affiliates earn ongoing payments for as long as the referred customer remains a paying subscriber. This is the standard model for SaaS affiliate programs and creates predictable passive income for affiliates.
Redirect Tracking
Redirect tracking routes affiliate clicks through a tracking server that logs each click and sets identifiers before sending the visitor on to the destination.
Referral Agreement
A referral agreement is a contract where a partner introduces prospects to a vendor and earns a fee when those introductions become paying customers.
Referral Fee
A reward paid to a person or company for sending a new customer to a business, usually triggered when the referred customer signs up or completes a purchase.
Referral Program
A program where existing customers are incentivized to recommend a product to people they know. Unlike affiliate programs, referral programs target your user base rather than external marketers. Rewards are often in-app credits, discounts, or cash.
Reseller
A partner who purchases your product at a discounted rate and resells it to end customers, often bundled with their own services. Unlike affiliates who earn commissions, resellers manage the customer relationship directly.
Reseller Agreement
A reseller agreement is a contract that lets a partner sell a vendor's product to end customers, defining pricing, margin, support duties, and branding rights.
Resource Page
A resource page is a curated page of recommended tools, services, and guides on a website, often monetized with affiliate links to the products it lists.
Review Site
A review site is a website that evaluates products or services in depth and earns affiliate commissions when readers buy through its recommendation links.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The practice of optimizing web content to rank higher in search engine results. SEO and affiliate marketing are deeply complementary — affiliates often rank for keywords you don't, expanding your organic footprint.
Sales-Led Growth
A growth strategy where dedicated sales teams drive customer acquisition through direct outreach, demos, and relationship building. Often contrasted with product-led growth, though many SaaS companies use a hybrid approach.
Self-Billing Invoice
A self-billing invoice is an invoice the buyer creates on the supplier's behalf: affiliate programs use it to pay commissions without affiliates invoicing.
Self-Referral
A self-referral is when a person uses their own affiliate or referral link to earn commission on their own purchase, which most programs prohibit.
Sell-Through
A channel motion where a vendor sells its product through partners such as resellers and distributors, who own the transaction with the end customer.
Server-Side Tracking
Server-side tracking records conversions through server-to-server requests instead of browser scripts, so ad blockers and cookie loss cannot break attribution.
Solo Ads
Solo ads are paid dedicated emails in which a list owner sends a message promoting only your offer to their subscribers, typically priced per click delivered.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is media a brand pays a creator or publisher to produce and share, blending promotion with the channel's normal editorial format.
Strategic Alliance
A strategic alliance is a formal agreement between two independent companies to pursue shared goals, such as co-selling or integration, while staying separate.
Stripe Integration
Connecting your affiliate software with Stripe (a payment processor) to automatically track subscription revenue from referred customers and calculate affiliate commissions. Essential for accurate SaaS affiliate tracking.
Sub-Affiliate
An affiliate recruited by another affiliate (sometimes called a two-tier or multi-level affiliate structure). The original affiliate earns a small override commission on the sub-affiliate's referrals.
Sub-ID Tracking
Sub-ID tracking lets affiliates add custom labels to their links so each click and conversion reports back with the exact placement or campaign that drove it.
Super Affiliate
A super affiliate is a top-performing affiliate who drives a disproportionate share of a program's referrals and revenue, often the top 1-5% of partners.
System Integrator (SI)
A services firm that implements, customizes, and connects software systems for clients, often influencing which vendors those clients buy from.
Technology Partner
A company whose product integrates with yours, creating mutual value. Technology partnerships often include reciprocal affiliate arrangements where each partner promotes the other to their user base.
Tiered Commission
A commission structure where affiliates earn higher rates as they hit performance milestones. For example, 20% for the first 10 referrals per month, 25% for 11-25, and 30% for 26+. Incentivizes top performers.
Tracking Domain
The domain used to host affiliate tracking links and set attribution cookies, often a branded subdomain so tracking runs in a first-party context.
Tracking Pixel
A tracking pixel is a tiny, invisible image or script embedded in a web page or email that fires a request to a server to record a visit or conversion.
Two-Tier Affiliate Program
A two-tier affiliate program pays affiliates for their own referred sales plus a smaller override commission on sales made by affiliates they recruit.
Typosquatting
Typosquatting is registering misspelled versions of a brand's domain to capture mistyped traffic, often to run scams or claim unearned affiliate commissions.
UGC Creator
A creator paid to produce authentic-style photos, videos, or reviews that a brand publishes in its own channels and ads, not to the creator's own audience.
UTM Parameters
Tags added to URLs (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content, utm_term) that track where traffic originates. While affiliate tracking uses its own system, UTM parameters provide supplementary data in Google Analytics.
Usage Rights
Usage rights specify how, where, and for how long a brand may reuse content that a creator, affiliate, or partner produced, as agreed before publication.
Value-Added Reseller (VAR)
A Value-Added Reseller (VAR) is a company that buys a vendor's software, adds services like implementation or support, and resells the bundle to end customers.
View-Through Attribution
An attribution model that credits a conversion to an ad impression the buyer saw but did not click, provided the sale happens within a set window.
Viral Loop
A viral loop is a growth mechanism where existing users bring in new users as a byproduct of using a product, and each new user repeats the cycle.
W-8BEN Form (for Affiliates)
A U.S. tax form that non-U.S. individual affiliates submit to certify foreign status so programs can apply the correct withholding on payouts.
Warm Intro
A warm intro is an introduction to a prospect made by someone the prospect already trusts, giving the seller borrowed credibility that cold outreach lacks.
Webhook
An automated HTTP callback that sends real-time data between systems when a specific event occurs. In affiliate marketing, webhooks can trigger notifications when an affiliate generates a referral, conversion, or reaches a commission threshold.
White-Label Affiliate Program
An affiliate program that uses custom branding instead of the software provider's branding. White-labeling allows SaaS companies to present their affiliate portal as a seamless extension of their own product.
White-Label SaaS
Software built and maintained by one company but sold by another under its own brand, pricing, and customer relationships as if it were its own product.
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing is the practice of getting customers to recommend a product to peers, turning satisfied users into a compounding acquisition channel.
Zero-Click Search
A zero-click search is a query the user resolves directly on the results page or inside an AI answer, without clicking through to any website.