Conversion
A conversion is the qualifying action — such as a sale, signup, lead, or subscription — that triggers an affiliate commission.
Each affiliate program defines what counts as a conversion. For e-commerce it is usually a completed purchase; for SaaS it might be a paid signup or a trial that converts; for lead-gen it could be a form submission. The definition determines exactly when a partner gets paid.
Conversions are recorded through tracking — a click cookie, a promo code, or a server-to-server event — and matched to the referring affiliate before a commission is generated.
See also
- Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is the percentage of referred clicks or visitors that complete a qualifying action, calculated as conversions divided by clicks.
- 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.
- Attribution
Attribution is the process of determining which affiliate or marketing touchpoint should receive credit — and the commission — for a conversion.
- S2S / Postback Tracking
Server-to-server (S2S) postback tracking records conversions by sending an event directly from the merchant's backend to the affiliate platform, without relying on browser cookies.
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