The total cost of acquiring a sale through an affiliate channel, typically calculated as commission paid plus network fees, expressed as a percentage of revenue. Advertisers use cost of sale to compare affiliate channel efficiency against other marketing channels like paid search or social ads.
An advertiser pays 8 percent commission plus a 25 percent network fee on that commission, giving a total cost of sale of 10 percent of revenue once both figures are combined for the channel.
Commission rate only reflects what the publisher is paid, while cost of sale adds the network fee and any other program costs on top, giving the advertiser's true total spend per sale. Comparing cost of sale across channels gives a fairer efficiency comparison than commission rate by itself.
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