What EPC tells you
EPC — earnings per click — is the single most useful number for comparing two affiliate offers. It rolls the payout and the conversion rate into one figure: what one click is actually worth when you send it to that offer. A high commission rate means nothing if the page doesn't convert; EPC catches that.
The formula
EPC = total commissions ÷ total clicksNetworks usually report EPC as a 7-day or 30-day average across all affiliates on an offer, which is a useful starting estimate before you have your own data. Once you've sent real traffic, your own EPC is the number that matters.
Worked example
You send 500 clicks to an offer and earn $250 in commissions. Your EPC is $250 ÷ 500 = $0.50. At that rate, every 1,000 clicks is worth about $500 — so if you're buying that traffic, anything under $0.50 CPC is profitable and anything above it loses money.
EPC benchmarks by vertical
- Physical goods — roughly $0.20–$0.80 (low payout, high conversion)
- SaaS / software — roughly $1–$3+ (higher payout, often recurring)
- Finance / insurance — roughly $2–$10+ (high payout per lead)
These are rough ranges — EPC is only meaningful when you compare offers you could send the same traffic to. Use it to choose between offers, not to judge a vertical.