affiliate marketing

Definition

A performance-based model where third parties earn commissions for driving sales, creating an army of motivated salespeople who work for free until they succeed. It's outsourcing your sales force to anyone with a website and no shame.

Example Usage

Our affiliate marketing program pays 10% commission, attracting a network of bloggers who now pepper their content with our product links like confetti.

Origin

Pioneered by William J. Tobin in 1989, popularized by Amazon Associates in 1996

Fun Fact

Affiliate marketing accounts for 16% of all e-commerce sales globally, making it a multi-billion dollar industry of people recommending things for money.

Source: Performance marketing and e-commerce

Related Terms

Intermediate

Vanity Metrics

Numbers that look impressive in reports but mean absolutely nothing, like counting how many people walked past your store without ever coming in and calling it brand exposure. They exist primarily to make quarterly presentations look good while avoiding any meaningful conversation about revenue.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Advanced

marketing attribution

The practice of determining which touchpoints deserve credit for a conversion, attempting to solve marketing's eternal question: 'Which half of my advertising is working?' Spoiler: there are no perfect answers.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

brand affinity

The emotional connection and loyalty consumers feel toward a brand beyond rational product attributes. It's when people buy your overpriced product because they've developed feelings for a corporation, which should concern everyone.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Intermediate

frequency cap

The limit on how many times an individual user will see the same ad within a given time period. Preventing your target audience from developing homicidal thoughts about your brand.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Beginner

budder

The budget remaining after a campaign that mysteriously needs to be spent before fiscal year-end, often on questionable initiatives. Use it or lose it money that spawns terrible ideas.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

Advanced

viral coefficient

The number of new users each existing user generates through referrals, where anything above 1.0 means exponential growth. It's the mathematical expression of every marketer's fantasy: growth that doesn't require advertising.

📣 Marketing / Advertising

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