Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie, and have yet to begin my first campaign. I'm reviewing various offers, trying to decide which would be the best to start with. I'm using EPC as a basis to form my decision.

For example, let's say that I'm looking at an offer for Ringtones, and the Network is showing/advertising the network EPC to be $.70, and when I do a keyword analysis on Google, I find out that I can get ad positions 4-6 for $.35. So, as long as I can get some clicks with that position, then I might be able to make some money, right? It looks like a 100% ROI at first glance.

But, when I go a different calculation route: I take the (Payout) X (My Landing Page Conversion Rate) X (Advertiser Landing Page Conversion Rate) = Break Even EPC

This last calculation usually is nowhere near the Affiliate Network's advertised EPC!

So, my question is...are the Affiliate Networks PADDING their EPC figures? Are their EPC figures NOT to be believed?

If I use the latter calculation method, I usually end up just breaking even, or losing money, and it makes me wonder how anyone makes money in this business!

Please advise me on this?

Most networks do add a "little" bit to their EPC's. As a network owner, I never tell EPC's unless I'm personally running the campaign. EPC's vary for different traffic sources drastically, so giving a broad EPC is, in my opinion, not ethical and deceptive.

Cheers,

Ryan Eagle

Steveo777,

My take is a little different. First of all, you should not be making your decisions based on the network's EPC claims.

Here's why.

This is the network's average, over thousands or even hundreds of thousands of clicks -- from many different affiliates running many different types of traffic. What if the other affiliates are sending qualified traffic who is already ready to buy, and you are doing emails to a general list?

ryaneagle is correct, as this is a broad calibration. Some networks show different EPC for "past month", "last 3 months" and overall. (if you even get to see this info)