We recently talked with a number of advertisers and web publishers about their use of affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing’s ROI vs. other online advertising formats, and any potential impact from Google’s AdSense or other contextual marketing programs. Affiliate marketing is simply where an advertiser places text-based ads across a variety of web publisher sites. The advertiser then pays a fee to the web publisher each time a specific action is generated by a consumer (i.e., a consumer registers for a credit card or completes an online commerce transaction). The advertiser pays the affiliate either on a percentage of sales basis or a fixed fee.
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