Glossary

Payout

A payout is the amount an affiliate or publisher earns for each conversion on an offer. It can be a fixed sum per action (CPA), a percentage of the sale (revenue share), or a hybrid, and it commonly varies by geo, conversion type, and individual partner.

How payouts are set

Networks price payouts off the advertiser rate minus margin, then tier them: tier-1 geos pay more than tier-3, deposits pay more than registrations, and proven partners negotiate bumps. Tracking platforms encode this as payout rules — match on offer, geo, or partner, and set the amount the postback credits.

Payout data flows through the postback chain: the advertiser reports a conversion (often with the amount in a {payout} macro), the network records its revenue, applies the affiliate's rate, and forwards a postback so the affiliate's own tracker logs their earnings.

Why it matters

Payout accuracy is the trust currency of the industry — a mismatch between what an affiliate's tracker shows and what the network pays is the fastest way to lose a traffic source. This is why payout rules live in the tracking platform rather than in spreadsheets.

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