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Affiliate marketing glossary
63 terms and concepts of the affiliate industry: from CPA models to farmer slang.
- Traffic arbitrage
- Buying paid traffic through platforms such as Facebook Ads, TikTok Ads, and Google Ads to promote affiliate offers and profit from the difference between traffic costs and advertiser commissions.
- Synonyms: Traffic arbitrage, media arbitrage
- Affiliate
- A person or team that promotes an advertiser's products or services in exchange for a commission on user sales or actions.
- Synonyms: publisher
- CPA
- Cost Per Action is a payment model where the affiliate is paid for a user action such as registration, purchase, or deposit. It is a core model in the affiliate industry.
- Synonyms: Cost Per Action
- CPL
- Cost Per Lead is a payment model where the affiliate is paid for a lead, such as a completed form or submitted application.
- Synonyms: Cost Per Lead
- CPS / CPO
- Cost Per Sale or Cost Per Order is a payment model where the affiliate is paid for a sale or order. It is commonly used in e-commerce.
- Synonyms: Cost Per Sale, Cost Per Order
- Hybrid
- A hybrid payment model combines a fixed CPA payout with RevShare. It helps reduce risk for both parties.
- Synonyms: CPA + RevShare
- FTD
- First Time Deposit is a player's first deposit and a key KPI in iGaming affiliate programs. It is often used as a payout metric, for example $50-200 per FTD in Tier-1 markets.
- Synonyms: First Time Deposit, First Time Depositor
- NGR
- Net Gaming Revenue is a casino's net gaming income. RevShare is often calculated based on NGR.
- Synonyms: Net Gaming Revenue
- ROI
- Return on Investment measures profitability using the formula (Revenue - Cost) / Cost × 100%. It is a core metric for media buyers.
- Synonyms: Return on Investment
- ROMI
- Return on Marketing Investment is similar to ROI but focuses specifically on marketing spend.
- Synonyms: Return on Marketing Investment
- Media Buyer
- A specialist who buys paid traffic. In affiliate marketing, the term often refers to an FB media buyer.
- Synonyms: media buyer
- Affiliate Manager
- A manager who recruits and supports affiliates or media buyers on behalf of an advertiser. Key metrics include turnover and retention.
- Synonyms: AM, affiliate manager
- Account farmer
- A specialist who creates and warms up FB or TikTok advertising accounts for media buyers. They handle registration, account warming, and bypassing blocks.
- Synonyms: farmer, account farmer, farmer FB
- Warm up
- Preparing a new advertising account before launching campaigns through organic activity, small test spends, and trust-building with the platform.
- Synonyms: warm-up, warming up
- ZRD
- Zero Risk Disabled, or an advertising ban on Facebook, is an ad account block with no right to reinstatement. It is Facebook's harshest sanction, and account farmers try to bypass or recover from it.
- Synonyms: Zero Risk Disabled
- BM
- Facebook Business Manager is a company workspace for managing large ad accounts and pages. Older BMs are valued more highly, and account farmers often run a pipeline for creating them.
- Synonyms: Business Manager, BM Facebook
- RDP / Anti-detect
- Remote Desktop or an anti-detect browser such as Octo, AdsPower, Multilogin, or Dolphin Anty. Each tab or profile is isolated and has a unique fingerprint.
- Synonyms: anti-detect, antidetect browser, Octo, AdsPower, Multilogin, Dolphin Anty
- Multi-accounts
- Multiple advertising accounts that a media buyer uses in parallel to spread risk and scale campaigns.
- Synonyms: multi-accounts
- Bundle
- A combination of traffic source, creative, landing page, and offer that generates profit. It is the media buyer's core asset.
- Synonyms: bundle, profitable bundle
- Creative
- An ad unit consisting of an image or video plus text. A designer creates it, and the media buyer tests it.
- Synonyms: creative, ad creative
- Caps
- Volume limits set by an advertiser for how many leads they are willing to accept per day or week. Affiliate networks set caps to avoid overloading the call center.
- Synonyms: cap, capping
- GEO
- The target country or region for advertising. Tier-1 includes USA/EU/AU/CA, Tier-2 includes Russia and LatAm, and Tier-3 includes Africa and Southeast Asia.
- Synonyms: geo, tier-1, tier-2, tier-3
- Vertical
- The category of offers, such as iGaming, Crypto, Nutra, Finance, Dating, or E-commerce. Each vertical has its own specifics.
- Synonyms: vertical, niche
- iGaming
- Online casinos, sports betting, and betting products. It is the largest affiliate vertical by advertising budgets.
- Synonyms: gambling, iGaming
- Nutra
- Supplements, weight-loss products, potency products, and diet-related offers. These are often grey or black offers, with AOV of $30-80 per box.
- Synonyms: nutra
- White / Grey / Black
- A classification of offers by legality and ethical risk. Black offers are deceptive or prohibited, White offers are legal, and Grey offers sit in a grey area.
- Synonyms: white offer, black offer
- Affiliate network
- An affiliate network, or CPA network, aggregates advertisers' offers. It acts as an intermediary between advertisers and affiliates.
- Synonyms: CPA network, affiliate network
- Direct advertiser
- An advertiser working without an intermediary. Direct advertisers usually pay more than affiliate networks but require higher volume and more experience.
- Synonyms: direct advertiser
- Team Lead
- A Team Lead manages a team of media buyers, typically 5-20 people. They are responsible for the overall result and usually receive a percentage of the team's profit.
- Synonyms: team lead
- Junior / Middle / Senior
- Seniority levels: Junior usually means up to 1 year of experience, Middle means 1–3 years, and Senior means 3+ years with stable profitable results.
- Synonyms: levels
- ASO
- App Store Optimization is the optimization of a mobile app for App Store / Google Play to grow organically in search results. In mobile offer arbitrage, ASO is often combined with burst campaigns.
- Synonyms: App Store Optimization
- UAC
- Universal App Campaigns / Google App Campaigns is a Google ad format for promoting mobile apps. It is a popular tool among iGaming media buyers working with a whitepage.
- Synonyms: Universal App Campaigns, Google App Campaigns, Google UAC
- Pre-LP
- An intermediate page between the ad and the offer that warms up the user through a news-style page, review, or quiz. It often improves conversion rates in nutra and crypto funnels.
- Synonyms: Pre-LP, pre-landing
- Cloak / Cloaking
- A technology for showing different content to users and ad network moderators. A whitepage is shown for Facebook/Google moderation, while real users are routed to a blackpage.
- Synonyms: Cloaking, cloak
- Whitepage
- A “clean” page used for Facebook/Google moderation, such as a news portal, informational article, or product landing page. It is replaced with a blackpage for real users through cloaking.
- Synonyms: white page
- Blackpage
- The real offer page that an actual user sees after passing through the cloak. It can contain anything from a casino registration form to a nutra presell page.
- Synonyms: black page
- Retention marketing
- Marketing aimed at already acquired users through push notifications, email, SMS, and similar channels to generate repeat deposits. In iGaming, retention is often more important than acquisition.
- Synonyms: retention, reactivation
- KPL
- Cost Per Lead is a payout model where payment is made for the lead only, without confirmed registration or deposit. Payouts are lower, but scaling is usually easier.
- Synonyms: Cost Per Lead, KPL
- Holdout
- A control group that does not receive advertising, used to measure incremental lift. Serious iGaming brands use holdouts to assess real ROI.
- Synonyms: holdout group, incremental lift
- Postback
- A server-side pingback from a tracker to an affiliate network or advertiser with conversion data. It is an alternative to a pixel.
- Synonyms: pingback, server-side pingback
- Scrub
- The intentional removal or underreporting of some real leads by an affiliate network or advertiser to reduce payouts. It is a common complaint against gray-market advertisers.
- Synonyms: scrubbing
- EPC
- Earnings Per Click is the average revenue generated per click. It is a key metric for affiliates when choosing an offer.
- Synonyms: Earnings Per Click
- Dedupe
- Tracker logic that determines which source receives the payout if one user generates a lead through multiple sources. Common models include last-click, first-click, and pari-passu attribution.
- Synonyms: dedupe, deduplication, last-click, first-click, attribution
- S2S
- Server-to-Server is server-side conversion transfer without cookies. It has become the standard integration approach in 2025+ due to ITP and 3rd-party-cookie deprecation.
- Synonyms: Server-to-Server, S2S postback
- CR / CV
- Conversion Rate / Conversion is the share of clicks that turn into leads or deposits. A typical CR in FB-iGaming is 2-8%.
- Synonyms: Conversion Rate, Conversion
- AOV
- Average Order Value is the average order value in e-commerce. In nutra, it is often $30-80 per box.
- Synonyms: Average Order Value, cart value
- LTV
- Lifetime Value is the total revenue generated by one player or customer over their entire lifecycle. iGaming brands typically evaluate LTV over 90-180 days.
- Synonyms: Lifetime Value
- NDC
- Net Deposit Calculation is a player's net deposit amount, calculated as deposits minus withdrawals and bonuses. Most iGaming payouts are based on NDC.
- Synonyms: Net Deposit Calculation
- Capping
- Capping is a limit on the number of leads accepted per day or week. Affiliate networks set a cap to avoid overloading the call center.
- Synonyms: cap
- Anti-detect browser
- An anti-detect browser such as Octo, AdsPower, Multilogin, or Dolphin Anty provides isolated profiles with unique fingerprints. It is a core tool for multi-accounting.
- Synonyms: anti-detect browser, Octo, AdsPower, Multilogin, Dolphin Anty
- Proxy farm
- A proxy farm is a pool of residential IPs used for different geos. Providers such as Bright Data, Smartproxy, and Soax typically cost $5-15 per GB of traffic in Tier-1 markets.
- Synonyms: proxy, Bright Data, Smartproxy, Soax
- Self-registered accounts
- Self-registered accounts are FB accounts created manually and warmed up over several weeks. They usually cost $5-30 each, depending on age and activity.
- Synonyms: self-registered accounts
- Auto-reg
- Auto-reg accounts are FB accounts created in bulk using scripts. They are cheaper than self-registered accounts but usually lower quality.
- Synonyms: auto-reg, auto-registered
- PWA
- Progressive Web App is a hybrid between a website and an application. It is widely used in iGaming because it helps bypass Google Play / App Store restrictions.
- Synonyms: Progressive Web App
- Tracker
- Trackers such as Keitaro, BeMob, Voluum, and Binom are server-side traffic routers and analytics platforms. They distribute clicks, track conversions, and test offers.
- Synonyms: Keitaro, BeMob, Voluum, Binom, tracking platform
- Smartlink
- A Smartlink is a dynamic affiliate network link that selects an offer for the user based on geo, device, or language.
- Synonyms: smart link
- Dating vertical
- The dating vertical involves promoting dating websites and apps. It is one of the oldest affiliate marketing verticals, with payouts typically ranging from $1-15 per registration.
- Synonyms: dating, dating offers
- Burst campaign
- A burst campaign is the rapid purchase of a large volume of mobile app installs over a short period to push the app into the App Store / Google Play rankings. It is a standard ASO tactic.
- Synonyms: burst campaign, burst, incentivized install
- Pixel
- A Facebook/Google pixel is a website script that sends events such as views, leads, or purchases back to the advertising platform. It is used for optimization and retargeting.
- Synonyms: Facebook pixel, Meta pixel, tracking pixel
- TDS
- Traffic Distribution System — a system for routing traffic according to rules such as geo, device, and time. It is often combined with a cloaker.
- Synonyms: Traffic Distribution System
- Webview
- A mobile wrapper app that opens a regular website in an embedded browser. It is a low-cost way to build an iGaming app.
- Synonyms: webview app
- KYC
- Know Your Customer — verification of a player's documents before withdrawals. It is part of AML regulation in iGaming and affects NDC → payout conversion.
- Synonyms: Know Your Customer
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