In our previous article, "The Reality of the CPA Market 2026: Action Plan" we discussed the technical side of the business. But before diving into settings, you must understand the lingo used in professional circles. This guide is your foundation for entering the affiliate community.
To prevent you from drowning in information, we've broken the glossary down into logical blocks. This is the foundation you need to know before your first launch.
Block 1: Foundation and Market Participants
- Offer: The proposal the user sees. It is the product or service your advertisement leads to.
- Adv (Advertiser): The advertiser. The product owner who pays you for the result.
- Network (Affiliate Program/CPA Network): An intermediary platform where hundreds of offers are gathered and your payouts are tracked.
- Vertical: A niche or category of offers (e.g., "E-commerce", "Finance", "Gambling").
- Geo: The country or region where the offer is available and advertising is permitted.
- Private: Offers hidden from public access. Given only to verified buyers with solid experience.
Block 2: Money and Payment Models
- Working Capital (Oborotka): Money you rotate in advertising. Your main working capital.
- CPA (Cost Per Action): A payout model for a specific action (purchase, registration).
- RevShare: A model where you receive a lifetime percentage of the attracted client's spending.
- Hold: The verification period during which the network evaluates traffic quality before releasing funds.
- Approve: The percentage of actions (leads) confirmed by the advertiser.
- Shaving: A scam against an affiliate when the affiliate network or advertiser intentionally hides part of your real conversions to avoid payment.
Block 3: Metrics and Efficiency
- Conversion (Lead): The fact of a user performing a targeted action.
- ROI: Return on investment. The main indicator of profitability. Formula:
((Profit - Expenses) / Expenses) * 100%. - Conversion Rate (CR): The ratio of the number of clicks to the number of purchases/registrations.
- CTR: The click-through rate of your ad (ratio of impressions to clicks).
- EPC: The average profit generated by one of your clicks (revenue / clicks).
- Click-Through Rate (Probiv): The percentage of users who moved from the pre-lander to the main landing page.
Block 4: Technical Part and Consumables
- Creative (Creo): Your advertisement (image, video, and text).
- Lander (Landing Page): A one-page site with a description of the product and an order form.
- Pre-lander (Bridge Page): A warming-up site (e.g., a blog) that stands before the main landing page.
- Dedicated Server / VPS: A remote server for running advertising software 24/7.
- Accounts (Accs): Profiles in social networks (Facebook, Google) used to run ads.
- Cloaking: A technology that allows showing one page to moderators and another one (the offer) to real users.
- You can find more information like this in our beginners’ section — GO TO
