Reference
Lead Generation Glossary
Clear definitions for the terms that matter in performance marketing, lead distribution, ping tree, and affiliate advertising — from the team that built Twyne.
C
- Campaign
- A configured offer in Twyne that defines how traffic is tracked, how leads are delivered, and how revenue is calculated. Twyne supports four campaign types: CPA, CPC, CPL, and DOI. Each campaign belongs to one advertiser.
- CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
- A pricing model where the advertiser pays only when a specific downstream action is confirmed — a sale, a sign-up, or another defined conversion event. The publisher sends the consumer to the advertiser's site; the advertiser fires a postback or pixel when the conversion happens. Twyne tracks this event and credits the publisher accordingly.
- CPC (Cost Per Click)
- A pricing model where the advertiser pays for each qualified click on a campaign. Twyne tracks every click with full attribution — source, sub-ID, timestamp, and device — and supports fraud detection to filter invalid traffic before billing.
- CPL (Cost Per Lead)
- A pricing model where the advertiser pays for each lead that meets their acceptance criteria. The publisher captures consumer data (name, email, phone, etc.) and delivers it to the advertiser via Twyne. CPL is the foundation of lead distribution and ping tree campaigns.
- CPI (Cost Per Install)
- A pricing model used in app marketing where the advertiser pays when a mobile app is installed. Twyne tracks installs via postback from mobile measurement partners.
D
- DOI (Double Opt-In)
- A lead verification method requiring the consumer to confirm their email address after initial form submission before the lead is counted. DOI campaigns command higher CPL rates because the contact data is verified. Twyne supports DOI as a native campaign type with configurable confirmation flows.
- Duplicate Filter
- A rule that rejects a lead if the same consumer data (typically email or phone) was already accepted within a defined time window — per campaign, per buyer, or globally. Twyne supports configurable duplicate windows down to hours or up to lifetime. Prevents billing advertisers for the same consumer twice.
- Dynamic Buy Price
- A ping tree feature where buyers return their bid for a specific lead in real time. Twyne evaluates all bids and routes the lead to the winner based on the configured selling strategy (highest bid, waterfall, or round-robin). Enables true market-price discovery for every lead.
E
- eCPM (Effective Cost Per Mille)
- Revenue per 1,000 campaign impressions. Calculated as (Revenue / Campaign Impressions) × 1,000. The primary yield metric for ad-serving campaigns — higher eCPM means more revenue per impression shown.
- EPC (Earnings Per Click)
- Revenue divided by total clicks. Measures how much revenue each click generates on average. A key affiliate performance metric — publishers use EPC to compare campaign quality across offers.
- Exclusive Lead
- A lead sold to exactly one buyer. Exclusive leads comply with 1:1 TCPA consent requirements and command higher CPL rates. The buyer gets a consumer who has not been sold to any other advertiser. Twyne's ping tree supports exclusive lead mode alongside shared lead mode.
F
- Filter
- A rule in Twyne that validates a lead or click before accepting or routing it. Filters apply to both ad-serving and brokered (API) delivery. Common filter types include duplicate filters, geo filters, age filters, and custom field validation. Distinct from Targeting, which applies only to the ad server.
- Firehose Streaming
- A real-time event export feature in Twyne that streams every lead, click, ping, and delivery event to an external system as it happens. Supports GCP Pub/Sub, AWS Kinesis, and any HTTPS endpoint. Used for custom BI dashboards, data lakes, and downstream automation without waiting for report exports.
- Flow (Delivery Flow)
- The delivery configuration that defines how a lead or click is sent to a buyer. Twyne supports three flow types: HTTP POST (real-time API), SMTP (email), and flat file (scheduled CSV or XML batch). Flows include retry logic and fallback behavior for failed deliveries.
H
- Highest-Bid Strategy
- A ping tree selling strategy where Twyne pings all configured buyers simultaneously, collects their bids, and routes the lead to the buyer who offers the most. Requires a minimum bid threshold and dynamic buy price enabled per buyer. Maximizes revenue on every lead by running a real-time silent auction.
I
- IO (Insertion Order)
- A formal agreement between you (the network operator) and an advertiser specifying the campaign terms — volume caps, CPL/CPC rate, targeting parameters, and delivery method. Twyne's IO management system tracks IOs, enforces caps, and generates invoices aligned to IO terms.
L
- Lead
- A consumer record — typically name, email, phone, and other demographic or intent data — captured from a form submission or API post and delivered to a buyer. In Twyne, a lead passes through validation, filtering, and routing before being accepted, rejected, or taken down by the advertiser.
- Lead Distribution
- The process of routing leads from publishers (affiliates) to advertisers (buyers) based on predefined rules. Lead distribution includes validation, filtering, deduplication, compliance checks, and delivery via real-time API or batch file. Twyne automates the entire lead distribution pipeline.
- Lead Generation (Lead Gen)
- The practice of acquiring consumer contact and intent data — typically through online forms, surveys, or co-registration flows — and selling or using that data for marketing. Lead gen is distinct from click-based advertising: the publisher captures consumer data rather than just directing traffic.
- Lead Validation
- The process of verifying that lead data is accurate before accepting it into the system. Twyne validates email format and deliverability, phone number format and line type, postal address, name structure, and IP reputation at the point of intake — before billing or routing occurs. Reduces buyer disputes and protects CPL rates.
M
- Mid-Path Placement
- An ad placement shown to a consumer in the middle of a multi-step user journey — typically after they have submitted a form or completed an action but before the thank-you page. Mid-path placements monetize the post-submission moment when consumer intent is highest. Twyne supports mid-path via its ad-serving embed and path orchestration add-on.
- Multi-Buyer Campaign
- A CPL campaign configured to offer each lead to more than one buyer — either in sequence (waterfall), in rotation (round-robin), or simultaneously (highest-bid). Multi-buyer campaigns are the foundation of ping tree monetization. Each buyer in the campaign has its own acceptance criteria, filters, duplicate windows, and payout rate.
O
- Offer Wall
- An ad unit that displays multiple campaign offers simultaneously, allowing consumers to choose which they want to engage with. Offer walls appear on publisher sites or in post-registration thank-you flows and are a primary monetization format for co-registration and survey traffic. Twyne's ad server supports offer walls natively.
- Opt-In
- An active consumer consent action — clicking a checkbox or button — that signals agreement to receive communications or have their data shared. Twyne records opt-in events per lead and supports 1:1 TCPA consent documentation for exclusive leads sold to a single buyer.
P
- Ping
- A request sent to Twyne with a partial lead record to discover which buyers are available and willing to purchase that lead. Twyne evaluates the ping against each buyer's targeting rules, selling strategy, and current availability, then returns the set of eligible buyers. Depending on campaign configuration, a ping can surface buyers for an exclusive sale (one buyer gets the full record), a shared sale (multiple buyers receive the same lead up to the configured sell count), or a criteria-based sale where each buyer's eligibility is evaluated individually. The ping result gives the seller visibility into demand before committing to a post.
- Ping Tree
- A real-time lead routing system that sends (pings) a lead to multiple buyers — simultaneously or in sequence — and routes it to the buyer who accepts first or bids highest. The term "tree" refers to the branching waterfall structure of buyer tiers. Twyne's ping tree supports three selling strategies (waterfall, round-robin, highest-bid), exclusive and shared lead types, and per-buyer acceptance criteria. Sub-500ms routing speed from lead capture to buyer delivery.
- Ping/Post
- A lead delivery protocol where the buyer first receives a subset of the lead data — the ping — and returns an accept or reject decision before the full record is transmitted. Only accepted leads are posted and billed. The buyer's ping response may include a token or ping ID that must be echoed back in the post request to authorize the transaction. Ping/post also supports bid-based selling: the buyer's ping response can include a dynamic bid price, and sellers can enforce a minimum bid amount so leads are only posted when the offered price meets the floor. This makes ping/post the foundation for both quality-gated and market-priced lead brokering.
- Pre-Ping
- A real-time check sent to an advertiser before a campaign is shown to a consumer (or before a lead is fully submitted) to determine whether the advertiser will accept traffic from this source. The advertiser responds with accept or reject, allowing Twyne to suppress campaigns that the advertiser won't pay for. Pre-ping reduces takedown rates and improves publisher yield. Distinct from ping tree — pre-ping is a quality gate, not a monetization strategy.
- Publisher
- A company or individual that generates leads or clicks for your campaigns — also called an affiliate or partner. Publishers in Twyne can use the Lead/Click API (brokered delivery) or the Twyne ad-serving embed. Publishers have Groups and Sources that organize their traffic by site or placement.
R
- Round-Robin Strategy
- A ping tree selling strategy that distributes leads evenly across all configured buyers in sequence. Each buyer receives approximately equal volume over time. Used when you want to maintain balanced buyer relationships or when buyers have contractual volume minimums.
- RPI (Revenue Per Impression)
- Revenue divided by campaign impressions. The non-normalized version of eCPM — measures raw revenue generated per impression shown. Used in ad-serving reporting to evaluate campaign yield at the impression level.
- RPA (Revenue Per Accepted Lead)
- Revenue divided by the number of leads accepted by the advertiser. The effective CPL from the revenue perspective — what you are earning per accepted lead after accounting for takedowns, rejections, and scrubs.
S
- Scrub
- A lead that Twyne passes internally and invoices the advertiser for, but does not pay the publisher for. Scrubs allow you to manage your margin when advertiser-side rejection rates exceed expected levels. Twyne supports campaign-level scrubs (revenue + cost), source-level scrubs (cost only), and campaign/source-level scrubs (cost only).
- A lead sold to more than one buyer. You set the maximum number of buyers per lead (sell count). Shared leads do not provide 1:1 TCPA consent — each buyer receives the same lead data. Shared leads typically command lower CPL rates than exclusive leads.
- Source
- A specific traffic origin within a publisher's account. Sources belong to Groups and represent individual websites, forms, API endpoints, or ad placements. Sources are the granular unit of traffic tracking — every lead and click in Twyne is attributed to a source.
- Sub-ID
- A parameter appended to tracking links or API calls by publishers to identify specific campaigns, creatives, or placements within their traffic. Twyne passes sub-IDs through to advertiser postbacks and includes them in reports, enabling publishers to optimize at the creative or placement level.
T
- Takedown
- A lead that passed all of Twyne's internal rules but was rejected by the advertiser in real time via their API. Takedowns are distinct from internal rejections — the lead met your criteria but not the advertiser's. High takedown rates indicate a mismatch between your traffic quality and the advertiser's acceptance criteria.
- Targeting
- Demographic and geographic rules in Twyne that control which campaigns are shown to which consumers on the ad server. Targeting applies only to the ad-serving embed — it decides what to display. Filters, by contrast, apply to both ad serving and brokered (API) campaigns and validate lead quality after the consumer acts.
- TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)
- A US federal law that restricts telemarketing calls and text messages. In lead gen, TCPA compliance requires that a consumer's consent to be contacted can be demonstrated with a specific timestamp, IP address, and the exact consent language shown. Twyne's exclusive lead mode with 1:1 consent documentation supports TCPA-compliant lead sales.
W
- Waterfall Strategy
- The most common ping tree selling strategy. Buyers are ranked in priority order. When a new lead arrives, Twyne pings the top buyer first. If they reject or are at capacity, the lead moves to the next buyer — continuing down the list until a buyer accepts. Automated fallback eliminates unsold inventory.
Y
- Yield Management
- The practice of maximizing revenue per consumer or per impression by dynamically selecting the highest-value campaign or buyer for each piece of traffic. Twyne's ad server uses yield management to rank campaigns by expected eCPM — surfacing the offers most likely to generate revenue for each publisher source.
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