Marketing
EPC (Earnings Per Click)
Definition
An affiliate’s commission earned divided by the clicks sent to an operator over a period, expressed per click or per hundred clicks. The single figure that compares operators, pages and placements on the same basis, combining conversion rate and commission per customer into one number.
Key takeaways
- EPC is commission divided by clicks; it compares operators, pages and placements on one basis.
- It combines conversion rate and commission per customer, so a low-paying operator that converts well can beat a high-paying one.
- Revenue-share EPC rises for months as cohorts mature, so comparisons with CPA EPC must be by cohort and time since click.
- An affiliate’s position for an operator in its tables follows the operator’s EPC.
Why it matters
Affiliates decide where to send traffic by EPC. An operator paying a high CPA that converts poorly and an operator paying a modest revenue share that converts well can only be compared by what a click is worth, and EPC is that comparison: commission earned over a period divided by the clicks that produced it. A page's EPC tells the affiliate whether the page is worth more traffic; an operator's EPC tells it which operator deserves the top position in a comparison table; a placement's EPC tells it whether a button outperforms a text link. Everything an affiliate optimises reduces to raising EPC.
The number has a time problem. CPA commission arrives soon after the click, so CPA EPC can be measured within weeks; revenue-share commission arrives over the customer's life, so revenue-share EPC keeps rising for months after the click as the cohort matures, and an affiliate comparing a CPA operator with a revenue-share operator on the same window undervalues the second. Serious affiliates measure EPC by cohort and by time since click, and forecast the revenue-share tail from older cohorts, which is the same lifetime-value discipline operators apply to customers.
Operators watch affiliates' EPC too, from the other side. An affiliate whose EPC on an operator is far above its peers is either excellent or sending traffic that will be clawed back; an affiliate manager negotiating terms knows that the affiliate is comparing its EPC across operators and that the operator's position in the table follows.
Frequently asked questions
How is EPC calculated?
Total commission earned from a source in a period divided by the clicks from that source in the same period, often multiplied by 100 to give earnings per hundred clicks. Cohort-based EPC uses the clicks in a period and all commission those clicks ever produce.
What is a good EPC in iGaming?
It depends entirely on market, product and traffic quality; comparison-site traffic in a regulated European market earns far more per click than social traffic in an emerging one. EPC is for comparing sources against each other, not against a benchmark.
Why does revenue-share EPC keep changing?
Because the commission on a click keeps arriving for as long as the referred customer plays. A cohort’s EPC measured at one month understates what it will be at twelve.