The scene is set. The boxing ring is lit. The bell dings in the background for the fight to begin. In the right corner, the “Alluring High Payout.” In the left corner, the quiet and often over looked “Conversion Rate.” It’s an epic battle between what affiliates see in a payout and the truth of the conversion rate.
In the course of speaking with one of my affiliates about a short form campaign, I hear the following -- “No Dice, the payout is too low. Find me something that pays above $20.” In many instances, this is a perfectly valid response. But not always…
I suggest we look at the offer’s conversion rate and EPC. The EPC is the “estimated price per click.” You can calculate EPC by taking the amount of clicks on the offer and dividing that by the commission. You can estimate EPC by multiplying an offer’s conversion percentage by the payout.
Here’s an example: Let’s stack two campaigns up to each other. Long Form A that pays out $20 and Short Form B that pays out $3.75. Now, Long Form A is a full page ad. It’s asking for a social security number, routing number and account number. End users are much more reluctant to give out this information than opposed to what is required on the Short Form B. Short Form B is looking for first and last name, address, email and the phone number with the best time to call.
Conversion rate will be much higher with Short Form B. For an offer like this I typically see a 20% conversion rate -- giving us an EPC of 75 cents. On the flip side, Long Form A usually converts around 3%. That comes to an EPC of 60 cents. You’re going to make a whole lot more money with the short form in this example (25% more).
Now, please don’t get me wrong -- I’m a huge fan of long forms, especially when they are divided into two pages. I think this helps conversions as it doesn’t scare end users away with a full page asking for private information. In this case conversions (and EPC) are higher. As I said before, sometimes big payouts make the most sense.
When you’re looking at campaigns keep in mind that EPC is the most important measurement. The payout isn’t everything. By looking at conversion rates and EPC you may be surprised to find that you will end up making more money per click with a lower paying short form offer than the higher paying long form offer.
Bottom line, when in doubt, test it out.
