Do you know the difference? Gross versus Unique Clicks and EPCs (2)
Do you know the difference? Gross versus Unique Clicks and EPCs
Gross clicks VS. Uniques
The difference between gross and unique clicks: Gross clicks are every single click that hits your aff link. Uniques are multiple clicks that come from the same IP and are only counted as a single unique.
This constantly comes up when I have conversations with people who are starting out and want help getting profitable. I made this mistake when I started and it's overlooked all the time. When people ask me for help, one of the first things I tell them is to talk to their AMs and ask for some data on offer EPCs that are performing well.
What? I can actually speak to my AM and ask them for data on what is running and not just pick offers at random because I like the name? Yup you can. 
But if you don't understand what you are looking at you might start running traffic to campaigns that will never get off the ground.
Example:
Offer with a quoted EPC of $.60
The network stats show a 40% difference in gross vs. unique clicks.
Actual earnings per click for this offer would be: $.36
So if you are paying more than $.36 / click you are losing money. $.6 * .6 = $.36 EPC (40% click loss the difference between gross and unique clicks). For CPC we pay for every single click that hit our aff link when they click our ads. Always calculate EPCs based on unique clicks, unless you are promoting products with unpaid traffic, like SEO.
Questions for your AM:
- Please run me a report on the top performing EPC offers network wide. If they won't do this ask for another AM or work with a different network.
- Is this EPC based on gross clicks or uniques? If he doesn't understand what you are saying ask to work with a different AM.
- How many conversions for this EPC? If it's only 10 conversions it's not statistically significant.
- What time frame is this report for? Is it for the last week, month, year.
- Can I have a bump? No I'm not telling you to ask your AM for cocaine, but that's your call I'm not judging. Once you find something you want to promote ask for a bump (an increase in offer payout) even if you haven't run any traffic.
Why do the networks give stats in unique clicks?
Most of the aff network reports you see sent out in emails are based on unique clicks. But Sean this is puffing up the networks stats and isn't accurate for a CPA guy that does CPA & paid traffic? You are right, it sucks but life isn't fair. That's why I make money and many others don't. And if it were easy everybody would be doing it. Actually it is easy you just have to put in the work and know what you are looking at.
Have a great day and make some money, hopefully more than you spend and I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial.
Thank you for posting this.
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