ReveNews
Some Comments on EPC
Several people have posted and opined about our recent release of advertiser EPC data [Michael Coley, Shawn Collins, Todd Crawford]. I do not want to abuse this forum, but thought it was as good a place as any to respond.
Todd pointed out that numbers at CJ might differ from those at Performics for the same set of clicks and orders due to differences in accounting. While this is true, there are a couple points of clarification.
Performics counts a ‘visit’ for every click on a link in a thirty minute time period. If a user clicks the same link two times in two minutes, that’s one visit; if they click two different links (for the same merchant) in two minutes that’s two visits. The EPC calculations use our visit numbers rather than raw clicks.
I agree with Todd’s assessment that these numbers are not really directly comparable between networks. They are much more helpful when comparing two programs within the same network. One of the other benefits of EPC is that it provides an affiliate a benchmark for each advertiser. An affiliate who has run a program for a month or two with a relatively low EPC compared to the merchant’s average EPC can move on to focus on programs whose offers are better targeted toward the affiliate’s audience.
Michael also posted a suggestion on how to improve EPC. I like his line of thinking and this fits in well with some enhancements I already have planned for EPC…stay tuned. Todd remarked on the absence of publisher EPC. We do intend to display publisher EPC in a future release. Performics’ advertisers have access to this data through their program managers but it is not currently available in our interface.
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