The business that runs a brand's affiliate programme: it holds the terms, tracks clicks and sales, invoices the brand and pays publishers.
An affiliate network sits between a brand and the publishers who send it shoppers. The brand runs its programme on the network, and publishers join the network once and apply to each programme they want. The network gives every approved publisher tracking links, records clicks and sales, holds the programme terms, and usually handles the money: it invoices the brand for commission, often with a fee on top, and pays the publishers.
Almost everything a brand knows about a publisher's sale comes through the network. A sale arrives with the publisher's id and name, the time of the click, and whichever sub ID field reaches your reports. If the click began on a Google ad, the Google Ads account that paid for it isn't something the network can show you.
- Its domain is the one on a publisher's tracking link, which is how a link tells you which network it belongs to.
- A sub-network joins it as one publisher and can have many sites behind it.
- Its own rules, such as how long you have to decline a sale, sit beside your terms.
When an ad on your brand's searches doesn't match anyone on your partner list, the network is who can say which publisher it was. How affiliate marketing works sets out the four parties.
Google's own help and policy pages first.