If your thought finding an advertiser was awkward, just take a look at our list of acronyms used in online advertisement and affiliate marketing. I hope this short list of affiliate terms helps you find your way.
CPM
Cost Per 1,000 impressions. Usually used with banner advertising. For example, an publisher may offer banner impressions at $5 CPM. The advertiser would then pay $5 per 1000 banner impressions of his advert. So for example, 50k impressions would cost $250.
CPC
Cost Per Click is usually used with banner or text link advertising. For example, if you use Google Adwords to advertise your websites then you pay Google on a cost per click basis. If you use Google Adsense on your websites then Google pays you on a CPC basis.
CPA
Cost Per Action can refer to a lead, sale or click. For example, a merchant offers its affiliates $2.00 per sign-up. The signatory hasn’t necessarily purchased anything but the merchant will still pay the affiliate for the sign-up action.
EPC
Earnings per 100 clicks. The publisher is paid per 100 clicks of an advert.
EPM
Earnings per 1,000 impressions.
CPL
Cost Per Lead. A lead could be filling out a survey, filling out some type of form, joining a newsletter, or joining a forum among others.
PFP
Pay Per Performance.
PPA
Pay Per Action. This is also the same as CPA.
PPI
Pay Per Impression. Unlike CPM, PPI is a payout per single impression not per thousand impressions.
PPL
Pay per Lead.
PPS
Pay Per Sale.
RON
Run Of Network. Rotated banner advertising among a network of sites with no particular targeting used. For example, a website owner might sell 50,000 banner impressions at $2 CPM, RON.
ROS
Run Of Site. Rotated banner advertising among all pages of a single website.
CR
Conversion Ratio. The CR is the percentage of something (clicks, views, etc.) needed in order to achieve a particular outcome (a sale, lead, etc.). For example, if one in a hundred of your website visitors sign-up for your newsletter, your website has a 1% newsletter sign-up ratio. CR is a critical part of affiliate marketing.
ROI
Return On Investment is the amount made back relative to your outlay. If your $200 Adwords campaign earns you $600 in sales, your ROI would be 200%. You spent $200 and got back your $200 plus another $400.
InVue
InVue ads are like pop-up ads but they appear up front, blocking the website content behind it. You can’t drag an Invue window outside the browser window, unlike normal pop-up ads. InVue ads “live” inside an existing browser window.
Interstitial
An Interstitial advertisement is an ad that’s delivered between webpages when browsing a website. It must usually be viewed in its entirety, or the user must take a step to remove it from view.
