HOME > GLOSSARY >
C
>
Commission structure

Commission structure

Noun

[ko-mish-un struk-tchur]

A commission structure is how a company compensates partners based on the revenue they generate for the business. Partner programs pay partners based on the sales they close, the traffic they drive, or the qualified leads they send to the program. The commission structure defines how much a partner is paid for those actions and how much that pay increases with increased revenue generated.

Partner programs should strive to develop a commission structure that is compelling and progressive. A compelling structure with appealing rewards can help drive interest and signups for your program, and a progressive commission structure continues to adequately reward high-performing partners for their share of revenue driven. Note that commission structure usually varies between partner types; affiliates who drive leads may earn less commission per lead, whereas resellers who have more hands-on involvement in the whole sales process usually would earn more.

Example: Reid's partner program paid affiliates 15% of the value of their leads generated and resellers 35%. His commission structure then increased the share paid for high-performing partners sending many leads and closing many sales.

More Partnership terms beginning with
C
Conversion rate

Noun

[con-vir-shin rayt]

A conversion rate is the average number of conversions per ad interaction as a percentage. Remember that a conversion is a desired goal of an ad, often a website visit or sale. Conversion rate can be found by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of ad visitors and multiplying by 100 to get a percentage.

While desirable conversion rates vary greatly by industry and business model (the average conversion rate in Google Ads is 4.40% on the search network), a high conversion rate can be indicative of a successful ad campaign.

Example: Mikaela was calculating the conversion rate of her ad campaign. There were 1100 conversions out of 35,600 total ad interactions, yielding a conversion rate of 3.09%.

Full definition ->
Cannibalism

Noun

[canna-bal-izm]

Cannibalism (also called product or market cannibalism) occurs when a product released by a company competes for market share with an existing product of theirs. The new product "eats" demand for the old, reducing sales and profit of their existing product. Some amount of product cannibalism is expected with new product launches, and companies normally consider the financial risks and rewards of releasing new products carefully.

Cannibalism can result in overall positive or negative effects on a company's bottom line, and can be either intentional or unintentional. When it's intentional, it's referred to as a cannibalisation strategy.

Example: Leo's team released a new file sharing software, but it soon became apparent that the demand for their other file sharing softwares was plummeting in favor of the new release. They'd caused cannibalism by putting out a product that ate up demand for their other products.

Full definition ->

Grow bigger and better with PartnerStack

Go all in with partnerships. Demo our platform to see how you can diversify your channel and scale revenue.