← DictionaryAffiliate Marketing
Paying third parties a commission for sales they generate.
Others sell for you and take a cut.
What It Is
You will find Affiliate Marketing in the Marketing layer, alongside the rest of Channels. What it actually refers to is paying third parties a commission for sales they generate.
It is a route to an audience, so its worth depends entirely on who is actually on the other end of it. Once it is defined that clearly, arguments about it usually stop.
How It's Used
Most of the time Affiliate Marketing is used in campaign planning, channel choices and the reporting that follows them. It is usually discussed together with Referral Marketing and Attribution. The practical test is whether the right people are reachable there at a cost that makes sense.
Why It Matters
Ignoring Affiliate Marketing rarely fails loudly — it fails slowly. When it is unclear, spend keeps moving but nobody can say what it bought. It is worth pinning down before anyone builds on top of it.
Think of a road. Useful only if the people you want are travelling on it. Others sell for you and take a cut.
Termshift™
How the meaning shifts depending on who is using it, and where.
Practitioners use Affiliate Marketing as shorthand and expect no explanation — paying third parties a commission for sales they generate.
Outside the industry, most people would just say: others sell for you and take a cut.
The Bottom Line
If you only keep one thing about Affiliate Marketing: others sell for you and take a cut. Everything after that is detail.