Affiliate
An affiliate is an individual or company that promotes another business's products in exchange for a commission on the sales or actions they generate.
An affiliate (also called a partner or publisher) earns money by referring customers to a merchant. They share a unique tracking link or promo code, and when someone they refer completes a qualifying action — a signup, a purchase, a subscription — the affiliate is paid a commission defined by the program's rules.
Affiliates range from individual content creators, bloggers, and YouTubers to coupon and review sites, agencies, and B2B SaaS partners. The defining trait is performance-based pay: affiliates are compensated for results they drive, not for ad impressions or a flat retainer.
See also
- Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model in which a business pays external partners a commission for each customer or sale they refer.
- Commission
A commission is the payment an affiliate earns for each qualifying conversion they drive, set as a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount per action.
- Merchant
A merchant is the business that owns the product and runs an affiliate program, paying partners a commission for the customers they refer.
- Deep Link
A deep link is an affiliate tracking link that sends the customer to a specific product or page on the merchant's site rather than just the homepage.
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