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Affiliate tracking

Affiliate tracking

Noun

[ah-fil-ee-it trak-ing]

Affiliate tracking is technology used to track the traffic, referrals, and/or sales that come through a specific partner. The purpose of affiliate tracking is so that a company knows which affiliates drive favorable business outcomes (in other words, attribution), and can reward these individuals accordingly. UTM links are the most common mechanism for affiliate tracking.

Affiliate tracking can also be achieved using promo codes. For example, if an influencer can offer his or her audience 10% off a 1-year software subscription with the promo code PERCY10, this allows the company to track precisely how many sales Percy drives. This then enables the company to determine which partnerships are most lucrative and invest in building these relationships and enabling them to do their best work.

Example: Through affiliate tracking, Partner Marketing Manager Lisa identified five partners who were driving 60% of PekoeCorp’s partner-sourced sales each year. She decided to send them each a gift basket of PekoeCorp swag, fancy chocolates, and red wine.

More Partnership terms beginning with
A
Average deal size (AKA average contract value or ACV)

Noun

[ave-ridge deel sye-z]

Average deal size is a metric used by SaaS companies that represents the average amount of money that customers spend on a solution. Another way to explain it is the average amount of money a business makes per deal they close.

Average deal size can be calculated by taking the total revenue earned in a given period and dividing it by the number of closed-won opportunities during that timeframe. ACV is often calculated on a monthly or quarterly basis and used as a key performance indicator (KPI) for the business. Average deal size can be a helpful metric to use when evaluating the performance of sales teams, and it can also be used to determine the price points that are most likely to see leads convert.

Example: Luca's company closed three deals in the last month, worth $5,200, $6,700, and $7,000, respectively. He added the value of each deal up to a total of $18,900, which he divided by three to find an average deal size of $6,300.

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Activation

Noun

[ak-ti-vay-shin]

The process of enabling and mobilizing the partners you've recruited to perform valuable activities for your business (e.g. sharing a link, making a referral, or closing a deal.) Many programs will define partners as “active” as soon as they’ve made a single successful referral or sale, but this can vary by program, so it’s worth figuring out what determines whether a partner is truly active in your program. Common partner activation signals include first deal registration, first closed deal, or generating revenue for a set number of months.

Partner activation is different from partner onboarding. Activation requires the active participation of the partner in the program, so it normally occurs after a partner has successfully onboarded.

Example: The newest partner to join RayCorp's partner program achieved activation three months after they finished onboarding when they successfully closed their first deal.

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