EPC is an acronym for "Earnings Per Click".
But it's not quite as simple as that. Commission Junction (cj.com) defines the C to mean 100 clicks ("C" is latin for one hundred).
So EPC is "Earnings per 100 Clicks".
3-Month EPC and 7-Day EPC
On Commission Junction reports you will see "3-month EPC" and "7-day EPC". Commission Junction defines these two EPC's as follows:
- 3-month EPC: The 3-month EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) indicates how well an advertiser converts Web site visitors into commissions, over a three-month period.
- 7-day EPC: The 7-day EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) is the average commissions paid to publishers for every 100 clicks, over the past seven days.
EPC is important because it gives you an idea of how well an affiliate program is doing.
Keep in mind that the reported EPC is an average EPC of all the affiliates promoting the merchant. The EPC for each affiliate can vary greatly depending upon what marketing efforts (promotion, presell, etc.) each affiliate is doing. Depending upon your own marketing efforts, you may make more or less than the reported EPC.
Example EPC Calculation
As an example of calculating EPC, suppose you earned $53 after sending a merchant 2700 clicks last month.
So, divide $53 by 2700 clicks:
$53 / 2700 clicks = $0.0196 per click
So you earned just under 2 cents for each click.
Now multiply by 100 to get "per 100 clicks":
$1.96 per 100 clicks
That means that for every 100 clicks you sent to the merchant, you earned $1.96. So, if you send that merchant another 100 clicks, you will probably make another $1.96 from that merchant (assuming all other things being equal). Of course, past EPC is not a guarantee of future EPC.
Personally, I like to think in terms of "1000 clicks" rather than "100 clicks". So I mentally multiply the reported EPC by 10 (just shift the decimal point one place to the right) to get "earnings per 1000 clicks". So in the above example ($1.96 EPC), $19.60 was earned per 1000 clicks.
Comparing Merchants
If you are trying to decide between two similar merchants which one to signup with, compare the merchants' "3-Month EPC" and "7-Day EPC". If they offer the same products, you may want to go with the merchant with the higher EPC.
Personally, I give more weight to the "3-Month EPC" since it is a longer timeframe than the "7-Day EPC" and is more stable.
Keep an Eye On Your EPC
If you see your EPC for a merchant suddenly drop, the merchant probably changed something on the landing page at their site. If that happens, you might want to consider investigating further or even switching to a different merchant with a higher EPC.
Posts
