Glossary
A-Z glossary of affiliate marketing, SaaS, and partner program terminology.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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-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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Earnings Per Click (EPC)
The average revenue an affiliate earns per click on their affiliate link. Calculated by dividing total commissions by total clicks. EPC helps affiliates compare programs and helps managers identify top performers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.