Alexander Bachmann — 4 Important Affiliate Program Parameters

Today I want to talk to you about the affiliate program parameters you should pay attention to. A publisher is interested in evaluating the potential of an affiliate program before joining it. For this purpose you are provided with a range of information immediately before joining the program.

But even after you start working, you should pay attention to this data, as it can either improve or get worse. The parameters you should consider and with the help of which you can calculate your approximate earnings will be described below.

Conversion Rate

The Conversion Rate shows you the ratio of Sales/Leads to your Clicks. Publishers can influence the Conversion Rate positively by using deals and sending users not to the main page, but to the necessary page (for this purpose they can and should use a Deeplink tool). The Conversion Rate is also influenced by factors such as website download, user-friendly and well-considered interface, easy order path and good translation into Russian (if it is a foreign online store).

Don’t forget that publishers can influence the Conversion Rate in the affiliate program both positively and negatively – for example, if they send off-target traffic or use prohibited methods for attracting traffic. They are the traffic sources that create many clicks and almost zero Conversion Rate. For this reason the parameters in the affiliate program can be wrong and actually underrated.

Before joining an affiliate program you shall pay attention to the Conversion Rate. It will help you understand how well traffic is converted. Don’t forget that a high Conversion Rate doesn’t mean that you can earn a lot. Sometimes the very narrow subject of the affiliate program brings 10 clicks and 1 sale on high-quality traffic. Conversion Rate shows 10%, but it is very difficult to find target users.

Decline Rate

The Decline Rate tells you the number of declined actions out of the total number of actions. The Decline Rate varies depending on the affiliate program category. E.g., online clothing stores have a very high Decline Rate. Nevertheless, the Decline Rate provides information for publishers and advertisers alike. Advertisers evaluate publishers, and if the Decline Rate is higher than the average rate for the program, it means that the traffic sent by the promoter to the program is of poor quality or is off-target.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPC is calculated on the basis of the remuneration to total traffic ratio. Therefore, the figure shows an analog (Cost Per Click). The programs calculate their expenses, and the publishers calculate their earnings. E.g., if a promoter sends 2,000 clicks for the program and receives $ 10,000 for that, it means that the publisher earns $ 5 per click. Proceeding from this parameter, we can discover which of your affiliate programs converts better and which one requires more traffic.

Hold Time

Many people who pay attention to this indicator misunderstand it. The system has two indicators:

• Maximum hold time
• Mean hold time

The first parameter shows the maximum time during which the Advertiser can process actions (sometime there may be some exceptions when the advertiser exceeds it). It is usually done by large programs or new programs that don’t know how to handle partner marketing correctly yet.

The second parameter indicates that the actions are processed on average much more quickly than the Maximum Hold Time.

Many people wonder who sets the hold time and why they need it. It is set by the advertisers, and they decide how much time they need to say that they pay for particular actions. E.g., this parameter is important for the online stores, as orders are not always purchased or are purchased not quickly. Russia is a big country and delivery can take a long time.

That is why, if you see that the maximum hold time in the affiliate program is 30 days, and the mean hold time is 8 days, it means that you can order a payout in 8 days on an average.

Conclusion

Taking into account these 4 key parameters, you can predict your earnings and and decide on the amount of money you can allocate to buy traffic. If you already have target traffic on the website and you are monetizing it in another way, you can see whether it will be of higher profit for you to monetize it via the affiliate programs in Admitad or not. In most cases it is better to monetize target traffic in Admitad – the practice of many of our partners proves it. Moreover, if you have traffic and you are already monetizing it, you can add Admitad promotional materials for additional monetization, which will finally become the main source of earnings, once again confirmed by the practice of our partners.

In the future we plan to add more parameters to guide you.