In affiliate marketing, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of acronyms, models, and platforms. But at the heart of every campaign, there are just two key players: publishers and advertisers. Understanding who they are—and how they interact—is the first step to making smart, scalable decisions as a media buyer or affiliate.
Let’s break it down. No buzzwords, just the basics—and how they actually work in 2025.
🧩 Who Are Advertisers?
Advertisers (sometimes called merchants, brands, or offer owners) are the ones with something to sell. It can be a product, service, app, subscription—whatever. They create or control the CPA offers you promote, and they pay for each desired action: a lead, install, sale, or sign-up.
In the wild, advertisers can be:
- Nutra brands pushing dietary supplements
- Fintech companies offering loan applications
- Casino platforms seeking new players
- Mobile apps looking for installs
Advertisers either work directly with affiliate programs or go through a CPA network that distributes their offers. But at the end of the chain, they’re the ones who foot the bill.
🧲 Who Are Publishers?
Publishers (also known as affiliates or media buyers) are the ones who drive traffic. They buy clicks—via push, pop, native, SEO, paid social, or whatever channel makes sense—and send that traffic to CPA offers hoping to earn more than they spend. That’s traffic arbitrage in a nutshell.
Smart publishers:
- Test multiple verticals to find what converts
- Use tracking systems to optimize funnel performance
- Monitor push notification metrics and interstitial page UX
- Hunt for best CPA offers to promote in their GEO
Some publishers are solo buyers. Others are full-on agencies or teams managing thousands of dollars in daily spend.
🤝 How Do They Work Together?
The relationship between advertiser and publisher can be direct (via a direct link to offer) or through a CPA network that acts as middleman. Either way, trust and transparency matter.
Advertisers want quality leads. Publishers want to get paid. To make that work:
- Advertisers use anti-fraud tools to check traffic quality
- Publishers use affiliate marketing spy tools to see what’s working
- Both rely on S2S tracking for accurate attribution
It’s not just about sending traffic. It’s about sending the right traffic—geo-matched, vertical-aligned, and time-optimized.
📈 Why Does This Matter?
Understanding who’s who helps you:
- Choose the right CPA network
- Avoid shady middlemen or broken flows
- Know what red flags to look for (poor ROI, bad landing pages, no caps, etc.)
- Scale profitably by aligning expectations on both sides
If you’re still wondering what is a publisher in advertising or how to find quality CPA offers, this is your sign to step up your ecosystem game.
🧠 TL;DR
- Advertisers = they pay
- Publishers = they play (with traffic)
- Both sides want conversions, but speak different languages
- Success comes when tracking, creatives, offers, and traffic all align
🔗 Bonus read:
Want to know which verticals actually convert on push?
Check out our breakdown of Top Verticals for Push Traffic: What Converts Best?
