Why Network EPC is Completely Useless
July 25, 2013 Posted by Tyler CruzIn my last blog post, a reader named Dave left the following comment: "I am looking on Neverblue and most of the campaigns have an EPC of like less than 5 cents. No way to make a profit with that. Should those be ignored?"
In a word? Yes.
This question pops up fairly often and is especially common amongst those looking for their first offer. The logical thing to do would be to look for an offer with a high EPC (earning per click), and that is how a lot of newcomers to this industry pick their offers.
But choosing an offer based on its EPC is a huge mistake because (in my opinion) network EPC numbers are completely useless.
I decided to record a 12-minute video explaining exactly why. Check it out below:
(Note: You may need to visit the post directly at TylerCruz.com if you’re reading this via e-mail or RSS in order to see it.)
One thing I didn’t mention in the video as a possible solution to knowing how a good an offer is, is to simply contact your affiliate manager. Ask him or her how the offer is doing on X traffic source and what some of the top guys (and average publisher) on that traffic source are doing in terms of EPC. Be sure to get an idea of if those publishers are doing good volume or not too.
Even with this information though, you can’t judge an offer completely. You have no idea what ads, landing pages, and targeting those other publishers are using. The only real way to know how good an offer is, is to try it yourself!
I hope this answers your question Dave 
Thanks for sharing this information. Your blog is very helpful for me to start out my first Affiliate Marketing campaign.
Best of luck for your campaign. Hope you succeeded in that.
Thanks, Tyler. Just shot an e-mail off to my AM.
EPC is useful for looking at your own reporting to compare offers sometimes. However I agree Network wide EPC is pretty useless.
Do you have any advice for whether or not sales work on Facebook or do you stick to leads only?
Sales tend to do better for search PPC (because of the mindset), but will still work on Facebook. Really need to nail down the demo and keywords though.
Thanks for clarifying. I used to take EPC seriously,.
The problem is that many companies are lying about their figures and you can only test, test, test until you find the best one for you.
Very interesting share, Tyler. The most important thing you said is for anyone to always TRY things out themselves to come to their own conclusions!
EPC is new concept to me.I only knew before about CPC.I think its also handy way to earn.
Great post , even dough you fall a bit from your previous months ! Yesterday, I spent like 4 hours reading through your blog, watched 3 of your Youtube Videos and even convinced myself and has just signed up with StackThatMoney using your affiliate link ! Now – I have a couple of questions ( I don’t need examples or don’t mean asking you to reveal your niches , offers etc. )
Since I’ve had some success in the past with Facebook, I am quite familiar with their Ads Manager, but all the ads I’ve made were only for gaining LIKES to FanPages – never done Ads for Offers , so I was curious :
1. Except Facebook Ads, which Network/Service do you focus on mainly?
2. Do you cloak your Links/iFrame your Pages and send them directly to Money Landing Pages, or you use a Squeeze Page, then ask them to Sign Up and as a Thank You Page, you sent the traffic to CPA or whatever offer?
3. Aside from Peerfly – recommend another CPA Network, that you’ve had success with ?
4. Since I’ve read that many FB Accounts got banned from time to time for any reason – what are you doing as alternative ? How do you create new FB accounts for Ads ( are these accounts with 0 friends , or you add some for evidence ) or maybe you are buying some accounts !
5. Do you pay your FB monthly Fees via Debit Card or Paypal ?
I will stop here and I will really appreciate your answers ! I will also accept Email message as well !
Best Regards
You’ll enjoy StackThatMoney. Great investment.
1. You mean for traffic? Other than Facebook I use some PPV networks and a bunch of small self-serve networks.
2. I mostly direct link, but use basic landing pages the other 10% of the time. I don’t list build.
3. It really depends what you want to run. Most networks specialize in something or other. I personally will run on any network where I end up with the best EPC on the offer.
4. My account has been clean with no issues. Run things according to their guidelines and you should be fine. That being said, good “5k” FB accounts run for around $5-$10K these days if you wanted to purchase one under the table.
5. Monthly fees? I pay for my FB account with a credit card if that’s what you’re asking.
Thanks for all the answers ! Can you just confirm on some tweaks around :
1. Do you use Double Meta Resfresh ( DMR ) for the Direct Linking and how do you set it up – with 1 Domain or 2 Domains ?
2. I will go through their Guidelines today, but can you point based on your experience what to avoid ?
3. What is your FB Daily Spent limit at the moment and how did you get to that level ?
Once again I do appreciate your polite replies !
Best Regards
1. I use CPVLab and have it set to Double Meta Refresh.
2. Avoid offers such as rebills, ads such as very sexual or misleading ads, and techniques such as cloaking.
3. $5,000/day. I got there after like my first 7-10 days of using Facebook…
EPC is useful for looking at your own reporting to compare offers sometimes. I just like the approach you took with this subject. It isn’t every day that you discover something so concise and enlightening.
Tyler,
I have recently started reading your blog and enjoy your upfront realistic information provided. My question is:
Would you recommend someone , like myself, who has no cpa experience to try and gain a foothold in that area, at this time?
My concern is that what expectations should I have compared to someone, like yourself who is experiencing obvious decline in revenue with so much experience in the cpa market?
My goal is to build a small revenue quickly and repeat in order scale up future income.
Thx,
Scott
Hi Scott,
The problem lies in your sentence: “My goal is to build a small revenue quickly and repeat in order scale up future income.”
By revenue I assume you mean profit (because ANYONE can start generating revenue within 10 minutes), and I take umbrage with the word “quickly”. You need to be willing to slave away and not see profits for a while. Focus instead on improving your ROI. That way, you can still see progress even though you’re still in the red (Ex. -100%, -80%, -50%, etc.). Your goal should be to hit break-even first, and then to profit.
Hi Tyler,
yes.. I see it the same.. I guess it’s a given indicator.. but you can pretty much say that the EPC is meaningless. The relevance isn’t really there.
Thanks for posting & keep rocking !
Hi Tyler,
Thanks for the useful information. I was confusing the same for the past 1 month now i got the solution. How this EPC is differ from CPC?
EPC = average earning per click
CPC = average cost per click
EPC only provides us an idea of the conversion capability of the network.
Great explain.. 🙂