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Measurement and metrics

EPC (Earnings Per Click)

Also called EPC, Earnings Per Click, earnings per click, eEPC, average earnings per click.

Short answer

EPC (earnings per click) is the average amount earned per click: total commission divided by the number of clicks in the same period. DKK 600 in commission from 200 clicks gives an EPC of DKK 3. The figure makes programs with different rates comparable.

Definition of EPC (Earnings Per Click).

EPC stands for Earnings Per Click and is expressed in money. The calculation has a single step: all commission earned in the period divided by all clicks in the same period. An EPC of DKK 3.00 means that every click you sent on its way turned into DKK 3 on average – whether that came from one large sale per 200 clicks or from many small ones.

EPC combines two things that are otherwise measured separately: how often clicks turn into sales, and how much each sale pays. A program with 8 % commission and a low conversion rate can have the same EPC as a program with 3 % and a high one. If you compare on commission rate alone, you will often choose wrong.

The figure is only comparable when clicks and commission cover the same period and the same traffic. Conversions land after the click, some of them days later when the attribution window is long. An EPC calculated on yesterday’s clicks is therefore systematically too low. Measure over periods long enough for the window to have closed for the vast majority of clicks.

How it is calculated

EPC = total commission ÷ number of clicks

total commission
all commission earned in the period, excluding VAT – pending and approved kept separate
number of clicks
clicks registered in the same period, after known bots have been filtered out

Example

Commission
DKK 2,400
Clicks
800
EPC
DKK 3.00

An EPC of DKK 3.00 means that 100 new clicks to that program are worth DKK 300 on average – before rejections.

EPC on pending or approved commission

Commission that has not yet been approved can still be rejected. If you calculate EPC on pending commission, you get the highest figure the numbers can possibly give, and it drops again every time an order is rejected or refunded. If you calculate it on approved commission, you get a figure you can plan around, but it always lags one approval period behind.

Use both, and keep them apart. Pending EPC tells you what the traffic looks to be worth right now; approved EPC tells you what it has actually been worth. If the two are far apart, EPC is not the problem – the approval rate is.

Your EPC and the program’s EPC are two different numbers

An EPC calculated across all affiliates in a program is an average of very different traffic. Coupon sites, review sites and paid traffic rarely come close to one another, so the average says something about the program, not about what your clicks will be worth.

Always calculate your own EPC per program and per placement. The same program can pay DKK 6 per click from a review the reader finished and DKK 0.40 from a banner in the footer. When the gap is that large, it is the placement, not the program, that needs replacing.

EPC vs. conversion rate

AspectEPCConversion rate
Measuresmoney per clickshare of clicks that became a sale
Unitcurrencypercentage
Affected byconversion rate, order value and commission rateonly whether the click became a sale
Used forchoosing between programs and placementsfinding where in the journey people drop off

Use EPC when you need to decide where to send traffic, and conversion rate when you need to work out why that decision is not paying off.

How it goes wrong

  • 01

    Clicks and commission from different periods

    The commission from a sale belongs to the click that created it – not to the day the sale was recorded. Divide this month’s commission by this month’s clicks and you mix two different populations, so EPC swings with when the store happens to approve.

  • 02

    Too few clicks for the number to mean anything

    With 40 clicks and one sale that paid DKK 300 in commission, EPC is DKK 7.50. Had the sale not happened, it would have been 0. An EPC built on fewer than a couple of hundred clicks is chance with two decimal places.

  • 03

    Bots counted in the denominator

    If clicks from crawlers and scripts are counted, the denominator grows without the numerator keeping up, and EPC looks lower than the traffic is worth. Check that the clicks are filtered before you drop a program on the strength of the number.

At Affilyflow

EPC (Earnings Per Click) in practice

In Affilyflow, the two figures in the calculation are two separate things in the database. A click is created as its own row the moment it happens, with the program’s rate and type copied onto it, and known bots get no click registration – so they never enter the denominator. Commission stays pending until the store approves it and is calculated excluding VAT – although via the Shopify app it is calculated on the value of the goods excluding shipping, where it has not yet been confirmed whether VAT has been deducted. Public metrics on the program pages are only shown above a minimum threshold of 25 clicks and 3 sales, precisely because an EPC built on fewer numbers is noise.

Frequently asked questions

What does EPC mean?

EPC stands for earnings per click. It is the commission you earn on average for every click you send to a store: total commission divided by the number of clicks in the same period.

How do you calculate EPC?

EPC is calculated as total commission divided by the number of clicks in the same period. DKK 2,400 in commission spread over 800 clicks gives an EPC of DKK 3.00. Keep pending and approved commission separate, so you know whether the figure is before or after the store’s approval.

What is a good EPC?

There is no universal benchmark. EPC depends on the industry, the order value and the commission rate, and DKK 2 per click in a category with cheap products can be better than DKK 15 in a category where traffic is expensive to acquire. The useful comparison is your own EPC across your own programs and placements.

What is the difference between EPC and CPC?

EPC is what the affiliate earns per click. CPC is what an advertiser pays per click. If you buy traffic, EPC has to be higher than CPC before the campaign turns a profit, and the difference between the two is the contribution margin per click.

Should EPC be calculated on pending or approved commission?

Both, separately. Pending commission gives the fastest signal but falls when orders are rejected or refunded. Approved commission gives the figure you can plan around, but only once the store’s approval deadline has passed.

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