Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing: a business (the merchant or advertiser) rewards partners (affiliates or publishers) for the customers or actions they generate.

Unlike most advertising, the merchant usually pays only when a measurable result happens – typically a sale, a lead or a sign-up. That makes the channel attractive to brands, and it gives publishers a way to earn from the audiences they have built.

Key terms

• Merchant / advertiser – the brand selling a product or service.
• Affiliate / publisher – the partner promoting it: content sites, cashback and voucher sites, comparison sites, creators, email, technology partners.
• Network – the platform that tracks activity and handles payments between the two (e.g. Awin, CJ, Rakuten, Impact, Partnerize).
• Commission – what the publisher earns for each validated action.
• Conversion – the action the merchant wants (sale, lead, install).

In the next lesson we look at each of these roles in more detail.