FAQs

What is a publisher?

A publisher, also known as an affiliate, is an independent party that promotes products and services of an advertiser in exchange for a commission on leads or sales. A publisher displays an advertiser's ads, text links, or product links on their Web site, in e-mail campaigns, or in search listings. The publisher is paid a commission by the respective advertiser when a visitor takes a specific action such as filling out a form, subscribing to a service (both lead examples) or making a purchase (a sale).

What is an advertiser?

An advertiser, also known as a merchant or retailer, is a Web site or company that sells a product or service online, accepts payments and fulfills orders. Advertisers partner with publishers to help promote their products and services. Publishers place advertisers' ads, text links, or product links on their Web sites or include them in e-mail campaigns in exchange for commissions on leads or sales.

What is performance-based marketing?

Paying for actions taken by a consumer as they occur on the Internet, rather than paying up front for advertising space. Any type of revenue sharing program where a publisher receives a commission for generating a lead or sale for an advertiser.

What is a commission payout?

A commission payout is an amount of income received by a publisher for some quantifiable action such as selling an advertiser's product and/or service on the publisher's Web site.

What is click-through (also called click)?

A click-through refers to the action a consumer takes when they are referred from one Web site through a link or advertisement and is taken to another Web site. Click-through ratio is the percentage of clicks for the number of advertising impressions displayed.

What is CPA (cost per action)?

CPA is a metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every action that is taken by a user. CPA can also mean Cost Per Acquisition, which refers to a specific acquisition, like a credit card account or online savings account.

What is CPM (cost per thousand impressions)?

CPM is a metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every thousand impressions.

What is EPC (average earnings per click)?

Earnings per click = Total Dollars earned divided by the number of clicks generated to the campaign.

For publishers, an advertiser's EPC shows how well that advertiser converts traffic into actual sales or leads. For advertisers, a publisher's EPC shows how well that publisher sends relevant traffic to advertisers' sites.

What is conversion rate?

The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. The action that determines conversion is determined by the advertiser and may be a sale on the advertiser's Web site, a completed lead form, or another action.

What is an impression?

An impression is the viewing of an advertising banner, link, or product on the Internet.

Affiliate Marketing

What is an affiliate marketing program?

(Also called Affiliate Marketing, Advertising, Performance Marketing, Partner Marketing, CPA, or Associate Program) In an affiliate marketing program, a publisher receives a commission for generating a transaction, such as a lead or sale, for an advertiser that the publisher is promoting. The advertiser provides its ads to publishers and assigns a commission for each action it wants to accomplish. Publishers place the tracking code for these ads on their Web sites, in their email campaigns, or in search listings. Whenever a visitor uses these links to generate an action on the advertiser site, that transaction is tracked online. If a product or service is purchased, the customer pays the advertiser directly, and the publisher is paid a commission for that transaction.

How do publishers join Commission Monster?

Publishers may create a Commission Monster account and join the CM Network at no cost. However, publishers must regularly generate activity within the network (within six months) in order to maintain an active account that Commission Monster supports. Publishers must have a valid email account to complete their applications.

As a publisher, once you have placed ads on your site, you can monitor your transactions in our online interface. To achieve good results, you need to have steady traffic to your Web site and/or email database, and you need to test different links and advertiser programs to find the ones that are best suited to your site and your audience.

Do publishers need to have technical skills?

Publishers need to be able to copy and paste HTML code and place it accurately within the code of a Web page or within an email.

What types of commission structures does Commission Monster allow?

Commission Monster supports multiple types of advertising. A sale on an advertiser's Web site, a lead, or any other objective the advertiser wants to accomplish through its publishers. With a sale action, an advertiser pays a publisher a flat rate or percentage of the sale price when a purchase is made on the advertiser's Web site. With a lead action, an advertiser pays a publisher a flat rate for each visitor the publisher refers to the advertiser's site that signs up for a service or fills out a form. Many advertisers also successfully run a "hybrid" program, which is a combination of the sale and lead programs.

How does Commission Monster get paid?

Commission Monster gets paid in two ways – on a Cost Per Sale campaign it is a flat 30% payout on top of the affiliate payout.

Example: Online Flowers pays 10% commission per sale, and CM gets paid an additional 3% as a network commission, which means ‘Online Flowers’ pays 13% in total on the sale.

What types of links do advertisers provide in the Commission Monster network?

Advertisers can upload a large variety of ad types that are all IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) compliant. These link types include banners (in a variety of sizes), text links, product links, email (eDM) creative.

Commission Monster aggregates each publisher's total commissions earned each month from all advertisers that publisher partners within CM and if this amount exceeds the minimum payout, Commission Monster sends a cheque (or direct deposit) to the publisher. For this reason, each advertiser is required to keep a minimum balance in its Commission Monster account so that publishers can be paid by Commission Monster. How long does it take for an affiliate marketing program to become established?

Commission Monster promotes each new advertiser to help it get started and recruit publishers to its program. However, Commission Monster can only provide advertisers with the tools to manage their accounts. The extent and speed of an advertiser program's success depends on how well the program is managed, how much the advertiser promotes and recruits for the program outside the network, and how much effort is put into learning the Commission Monster tools and using them regularly and effectively.

Tracking

How does Commission Monster track transactions on the Web?

Commission Monster uses cookies to track advertiser sales and leads. Cookies are used when the ad is clicked. The function of these cookies is solely for the purpose of paying publishers (Web site owners) commissions when a consumer creates a lead or makes a purchase.

What about customers who have their cookies turned off?

Over 99% of all Internet users have cookies enabled in their browsers (less than 1% of all users have their cookies disabled). The fact is that cookie-based technology is a reality that will remain a part of consumer tracking for individual Internet businesses.

Does Commission Monster access unique information on customers or site visitors?

No, Commission Monster is a leader in performance-based online marketing solutions and does not use its technology as an analysis tool for profiling online customer use. For more information, see our privacy policy.

How does Commission Monster know which publisher to pay for a transaction?

Essentially, because Commission Monster is a cookie-based system, it has the ability to pass unique information regarding the publisher and the advertising links used to the customer. That information resides within the customer browser for however long that cookie is set to last (determined by each advertiser) or until that customer purchases a product.

Does Commission Monster offer any customer support?

Yes, Commission Monster has a dedicated and knowledgeable client services team that answers emails and phone calls from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) Monday through Friday.