Glossary
The most important terms from affiliate marketing and working with QUALITYCLICK — clearly explained.
Affiliate
An affiliate (also: publisher or partner) promotes the products or services of a merchant on their own website, app or other channels. For each successful referral (click, lead or sale) the affiliate receives a commission.
Anchor Tracking
A tracking method where partner information is appended to the end of the URL as a fragment (#). A JavaScript (getpid.js) on the landing page reads the data and sets a first-party cookie. Advantage: The partner link is organic and requires no redirect or URL parameters.
API (Application Programming Interface)
An interface for external software to access the affiliate program. QUALITYCLICK offers SOAP APIs for transaction processing (Admin API) and statistics retrieval (Affiliate API) as well as a CSV API for data exports.
Click
A click on a creative or partner link that redirects the visitor to the merchant's page. See also: Lead, Sale, PPC.
Conversion
A target action defined by the merchant — e.g. a purchase (sale), a registration (lead) or an app install. Every conversion is recorded as a transaction in QUALITYCLICK.
Conversion Rate (CR)
The conversion rate indicates how many transactions occurred per 100 clicks. Formula: (Number of Conversions / Number of Clicks) × 100.
Conversion Tracking
A feature that allows partners to store their own tracking codes (e.g. Google Ads). The code is automatically triggered on a successful transaction so the partner can measure success in their own system.
CSV (Comma Separated Values)
A text-based data format where values are separated by a delimiter (e.g. semicolon or comma). Used in QUALITYCLICK for data exports, transaction imports and partner imports.
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
The ratio between the number of displayed creatives (views) and the number of clicks on them. Formula: (Clicks / Views) × 100.
Custom Fields
Additional, freely definable data fields that are stored with transactions. Managers can create custom fields (e.g. for IP address, email, customer number) and populate them via the parameter &FF_1=, &FF_2= etc. in the transaction pixel.
Commission Tier
A commission model in QUALITYCLICK that allows different partners to be compensated at different rates. The combination of commission product and commission tier determines the final commission.
CPM (Cost per Mille)
The cost per 1,000 visual contacts (views) of a creative. Also known as TKP. Primarily used in display advertising.
Creative
The advertising materials that a merchant provides to their affiliates — e.g. banners, text links, HTML codes, widgets or product data feeds. Each creative is assigned to a category and contains the tracking information for attributing clicks and transactions.
Deeplink
A link that goes directly to a specific subpage of a shop — e.g. a particular product page — instead of the homepage. In QUALITYCLICK, deeplinks are created via the parameter &wmid=cc&target=URL.
EBICS (Electronic Banking Internet Communication Standard)
A data format for electronic payments. QUALITYCLICK generates EBICS files for SEPA batch transfers that can be directly imported into banking software.
eCPA (effective Cost per Action)
The average cost (commission) per transaction. Calculation: Total commission divided by number of transactions. The lower the eCPA, the more efficient the affiliate program.
EPC (Earnings per Click)
The average commission per 100 clicks that a merchant pays to affiliates. A KPI for evaluating the attractiveness of an affiliate program.
eCPM (effective Cost per Mille)
The cost (commission) per 1,000 impressions (views) of a creative. Calculation: Commission divided by views times 1,000. Relevant for evaluating display creatives like banners.
Landing Page
The target page where a visitor lands after clicking on a creative or partner link. On this page, the getpid.js script is included for anchor and referrer tracking.
Lead
A contact inquiry or registration — e.g. a newsletter signup, credit application or contest entry. Leads are recorded as transactions in QUALITYCLICK and can be compensated via lead commission (PPL).
Merchant
The provider of goods or services who operates an affiliate program. Also known as: Advertiser, retailer, shop operator, program operator.
Net Clicks / Net Views
The number of unique clicks or page views within a specific period. Multiple clicks from the same IP address and cookie ID within 15 minutes are counted as one net click.
Page Impression (PI)
The number of page views of a website. Unlike net views, all visits are counted here, including repeated visits by the same person.
Partner
See: Affiliate.
Pay per Click / Lead / Sale (PPC / PPL / PPS)
The three most common compensation types in affiliate marketing. Commissions are paid per click, per registration or per sale. From the merchant's perspective: Cost per Click (CPC), Cost per Lead (CPL), Cost per Sale (CPS / CPO).
Postback
A server-to-server call that reports a conversion to an external system. QUALITYCLICK supports postbacks via the get_trans.cgi interface in combination with ClickID tracking.
Product Data Feed
A structured file (CSV or text) containing all products of an online shop with article data such as name, price, deeplink, description, image URL and EAN. Affiliates use product data feeds to embed products on their pages.
Sale
A successful purchase or completed transaction that was referred by an affiliate. Sales are recorded as transactions in QUALITYCLICK and can be compensated with fixed or percentage-based commissions.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing)
Search engine marketing — encompasses all measures to increase the visibility of a website in search engines, both paid (SEA) and organic (SEO).
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search engine optimization — measures to improve the ranking of a website in organic search results.
Server-Side Tracking
A tracking method where transaction capture occurs via a server-to-server connection — independent of browser cookies. QUALITYCLICK supports server-side tracking via the SOAP API and ClickID-based postbacks.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
A protocol for transmitting structured data (XML) via HTTP. QUALITYCLICK offers two SOAP interfaces: the Admin API (Uplink) for transaction processing and the Affiliate API (Downlink) for statistics and transaction data.
SSO (Single Sign-On)
An authentication method where partners can log into external systems using their QUALITYCLICK credentials without needing separate login data.
SubID
A freely chosen tracking parameter by the partner (up to 255 alphanumeric characters) to label their campaigns, ad placements or traffic sources. SubIDs are analyzed in the SubID statistics.
Tracking Channel
A grouping of partners into categories (e.g. SEO, SEM, coupon partners, price comparison) to separately evaluate and compare the performance of individual groups.
Tracking Pixel (Transaction Pixel)
An invisible HTML element (1×1 pixel image or JavaScript code) embedded on a shop's order confirmation page. It transmits transaction data (order number, revenue, product) to QUALITYCLICK and creates an open transaction.
Transaction
Every commissionable event in QUALITYCLICK — whether sale, lead or app install. A transaction goes through four statuses: open → confirmed → paid out (or cancelled).
White Label
A solution where the software operates under the merchant's own brand and domain. With QUALITYCLICK, partners only see the merchant's branding — the QUALITYCLICK logo is not visible.