Seasoned or beginner some online terms and acronyms tend to get confusing and seem like babble. I want to go through a list of terms that are associated with ppc advertising, affiliate marketing and Online marketing in general.

I know a lot of questions float around your head such as, what is affiliate CPM, what is CPC, what is CPA and a host of other acronyms.

Affiliate CPM is...?

CPM is the most common asked. CPM is cost per thousand, originated from the Roman Numeral "M", because it is valued at one thousand.

You are required to pay ad networks such as MSN Ad Center and other banner advertisement companies to air your ad a thousand times across their publisher network.

Now bear in mind when that Online world 1st came on the arena CPM rates were at almost $75 per CPM. Now as the Online world has aged you can get 1000 impressions for a one dollar in some cases.

Granting thereare good things and bad things to marketing your business or products with CPM Advertising because you're not sure how the traffic will convert, but with all advertising methods you must test, test, test.

What the Heck is CPC?

More often than not CPC is the most important when it comes to marketing budget, CPC means cost per click. Illustrious for CPC is of course Google. This is how much you would pay the msn adcenter every time a traffic clicks on your ad. Depending on the merchandise and goods your promotion your cost per click will vary. I've seen CPC rates as high as $15 per click in as little as 5¢ per click.

Plainly the more competition there is in your advertise the more money you will be paying to keep up with that competition.

What the Heck is CPA?

CPA means cost for action or cost per acquisition. The type of action could be simple lead entering an email or completing an online form. This has been the new thing since 2007 when it became a big deal. You will find different types of CPA Networks showing up all over web.

Even as an advertiser you can figure out what each lead is worth to your business and put a price on it. Let other professionals market your business for you and you pay them per performance so to speak.

The gorgeous thing of CPA is that your prospects don't have to buy anything they just have to take some type of action as stated in the previous paragraph. You will pay anywhere from $1 to $100 for various lead generation.

It's one of the easiest ways to generate money online as long as you know how to drive traffic to those landing pages and get people to enter their information.

What the Heck is CTR?

CTR is the "click through rate". This is the percentage of visitors who click through on your ad. For example, if your ad was displayed 100 times and only one person clicked on it then your CTR will be 1%.

Well there you have it, a snappy rundown of what is affiliate CPM, CTR, CPA and even CPC!

So you must create excellent ads to increase your CTR, which in turn increase your profits. The only ad network that I know that rewards you for having great CTR is Google Adwords. The higher your CTR, the lower your Cost Per Click.

When it comes to advertising you have plenty of choices, the only true way to figure out what type of Advertising Works for your business is to test it. Once you start testing and seeing what works you will see what advertising will boost your profits.