Affiliate network

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. It allows website publishers to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website (and thus generate income from those programs), and allows websites offering affiliate programs (typically online merchants) to reach a larger audience by promoting their affiliate programs to all of the publishers participating in the affiliate network.^[1]

Traditional affiliate networks enable merchants to offer publishers a share of any revenue that is generated by the merchant from visitors to the publisher's site, or a fee for each visitor on the publisher's site that completes a specific action (making a purchase, registering for a newsletter, etc.). The majority of merchant programs have a revenue share model, as opposed to a fee-per-action model.

For merchants, affiliate network services and benefits may include tracking technology, reporting tools, payment processing, and access to a large base of publishers. For affiliates, services and benefits can include simplifying the process of registering for one or more merchant affiliate programs, reporting tools, access to product API's and payment aggregation.

Affiliates are generally able to join affiliate networks for free, whereas there is generally a fee for merchants to participate. Traditional affiliate networks might charge an initial setup fee and/or a recurring membership fee. It is also common for affiliate networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to affiliates, this is known as an 'over-ride' and is payable on top of the affiliates commission.

CPA network

In addition to the traditional networks, lead generation and CPA networks also exist. Lead generation networks are typically networks that, in addition to performance based promotions (affiliate marketing) also offer CPM- or CPC-based display advertising. CPA networks, on the other hand, are often so-called "super affiliates" who are themselves affiliates of merchants via the traditional affiliate networks.

Most CPA networks such as CPAGrip, offer publishers "content-lockers" to lock their content, this is in turn forces users to complete offers provided by the network for a price that is dependent on various factors such as Locality, Device and type of offer completed.^[2]

See also

• Advertising network or ad network
• Affiliate programs
• Affiliate marketing

References