Two Different EPC at CJ

July 17, 2007 on 1:07 am | In Questions and Comments | 1 Comment

Hi Tony,

In CJ I’m noticing a discrepancy in the EPC chart under the general ‘My Advertisers’ section (where it shows all your Advertisers) and the EPC in the specific Advertiser’s Keyword Link pop open window. It one case the Keyword Link EPC was 1/2 the other and in another case it was 1/4. This is a significant difference when assessing your max bid amount. Is there a reason for this and which is correct?

Best Regards,
Michael

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  1. Michael,

    The problem with EPCs (whether they are overall EPCs, or EPCs for specific banners, text, or keyword links) is that they are averages that include good websites, bad websites, emails, search traffic from good ad text, bad ad text, and even a lot of misuse (i.e. using the wrong link code for the medium you are advertising in). Sometimes, if the client has tools for generating destination links, it not clear which, if any, of these sets of stats those clicks go into as well.

    I recommend using the overall EPC as a starting point, only because I trust it slightly more than any of its smaller subsets, but the bottom line is really that you can’t count on ANY of them to very closely predict your results because your results can be a lot better or worse than the average depending on where you advertise, how well you write your ads, and how well you choose and organize your keywords.

    It’s this uncertainty that leads me to advise my readers to be conservative in the beginning of each new campaign, monitor the results closely, and as soon as enough data is gathered to see what your own ACTUAL EPC is, to quickly adjust your bids accordingly. Prior to calculating your actual EPC, there is no way to be certain your bids are not too high, or even too low.

    So why suggest taking these reported EPCs into account when setting initial bids? Well… using the EPCs reported on Commission Junction, or any other affiliate network, as a starting point in your calculation for setting your initial bids on a campaign may only be a little bit better than guessing, but… well… its still better than just guessing.

    Tony

    Comment by Administrator — July 17, 2007 #

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