The tracking and analytics terms behind every dashboard — the core concepts, the identifiers that stitch a click to a conversion, and the metrics you act on.
These are the words your reporting speaks in. For the mechanics behind them, start with affiliate tracking explained, go server-side with postback & S2S tracking, and see how credit is assigned in attribution models.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Attribution | The rule that decides which click gets credit for a conversion. |
| Conversion | A completed, payable action. |
| Event | A tracked action — view, click, signup or purchase. |
| Session | A single visit or period of activity by a user. |
| Impression | One recorded display of an ad or page to a user. |
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Click ID | A unique identifier attached to each click for matching. |
| Tracking URL | The link carrying your click ID and parameters. |
| Redirect | An intermediate hop that records the click before the offer. |
| Pixel | A snippet that fires from the browser to record an event. |
| Postback (S2S) | A server-to-server call that reports a conversion back to your tracker. |
| Sub ID | A custom parameter you pass to tag a source, placement or creative. |
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Last-click attribution | Credit goes to the final click before the conversion. |
| First-click attribution | Credit goes to the first click in the journey. |
| Attribution window | The time span in which a conversion can be tied back to a click. |
| Cookie | A browser file storing click data used to match a later conversion. |
| Deduplication | Removing double-counted conversions reported by more than one system. |
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Conversion rate (CR) | The share of clicks that turn into conversions. |
| EPC | Earnings Per Click — average revenue per click. |
| Approval rate | The share of conversions an advertiser accepts as valid and payable. |
| Discrepancy | A gap between the numbers two systems report for the same campaign. |
| Dashboard | The view that pulls your key metrics together for decisions. |
Where to go next: build the habit with analytics for beginners, see how a pixel fires in pixel tracking, turn the data into decisions in building dashboards, and diagnose the gaps in identifying data problems.
If you run campaigns on gut feel, you are flying blind with your own money.
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