Glossary
The words in a case file.
What each one means when you are reading the evidence. Look for the dotted underline across the site.
- Ad click ID
- The search ad platform's own click identifier. It shows the click came from an ad, not which affiliate placed it.
- Brand bidding
- An affiliate buys search ads on a brand's own name. The shopper was already looking for the brand; the affiliate's ad takes the click, and its tracking link takes the credit for the sale.
- Brand-bidding policy
- The clause in an affiliate program's terms that forbids publishers from bidding on the brand's name. Evidence of a breach is what a network acts on.
- Case file
- AdCrime's PDF for a scan: each violator's ad, click path and publisher ID, ready to forward to the network.
- See one
- Clawback
- Recovering commission that was already approved or paid. Whether and how depends on the network; pending commission is easier to decline.
- Click reference
- A token the network mints for a single click. It changes every time. Quote it and the network maps it to the publisher who sent the click.
- Coupon site
- A site that lists discount codes. Many are affiliates; the ones that bid on brand names send shoppers through their tracking links on the way to the code.
- Last-click attribution
- Networks usually credit a sale to the last tracked click before the purchase. That is why an ad that intercepts a branded search takes the commission.
- Merchant ID
- The ID of the brand's own program on the network. It tells you whose program the click was for, not whose account sent it.
- Publisher ID
- The account number a network gives an affiliate. It is the same on every click, so you can search it in your network dashboard and the network can act on it.
- Where each network puts it
- Redirect chain
- The hops a click passes through between the ad and the page it lands on. Reading it shows which network, and which publisher, the click went through.
- Read one
- Reversal window
- The time a network allows to decline or amend a commission before it locks. After the lock, recovery gets harder, and on some networks it ends.
- Every network's window
- Sub ID
- A tag a publisher adds to its own links for its own reporting. It is not an account number.
- Tracking link
- A link that sends the click through the network's server first, so the network can record which publisher sent it before forwarding the shopper to the merchant.
- Read one