ePN Quality Click Pricing QCP Affiliate Intent Target!
MY Take On ePN Click Quality
I just want to emphasize, this is just MY VIEW on the Quality Click Pricing model… take it for what it is. I now have a printout of this target on my wall to remind me every time I work on a ePN monetized site, I NEED to send “BullsEye” Visitors as often as possible, to increase the overall quality of my earnings.
We have all asked eBay time and time again to give us something SPECIFIC to measure the quality of our visitors as it relates to engagement, now we have it… EPC.
Further reading on the eBay QCP Site:
If I get It… EPC is NOT a value based on what you earn… it is a RESULT of Overall Quality! It is a RESULT VALUE thats made up of:
- Daily Metrics (the resulting quality of visitors you sent)
- Campaign Metrics (the cumulative quality of all those visitors)
- User Metrics (the quality of users, new or not, I introduce to eBay)
- Overall Network Metrics (the combined quality of ALL your campigns)
- Trend Metrics (trending quality of campaigns and visitors over time)
In order to achieve the HIGHEST POSSIBLE EPC (results) all I need to do is hit the bullseye, or come as close to it as possible, as often as possible, with all my campaigns!
I should also mention that have never relied upon, or done anything special for ACRU visitors. In my world, an ACRU is a bonus… I do however realize that alot of affiliates rely on ACRU to earn worthy income.
Examples Using the ePN Quality Click Pricing Target
Remember now, its all about intent… I send a visitor to eBay to view a “JVC 5 Channel Surround Sound System”, that is MY Bullseye! (The point values I used are just made up values to show the trend value)
IF the Visitor I referred: (New or Established eBay User)
- Buys or Bids on EXACT Item, on EXACT Day – Bullseye! (+10 Points! ACRU + 5 More)
This is our perfect visitor! We have told them exactly what they needed, and sent them exactly where they could get it! Would not have occurred without me. - Buys or Bids on ANY Surround System, on EXACT Day – Bullseye! (+10 Points! ACRU + 5 More)
This is another perfect visit! Our intent was to get them to buy the JVC, but while on eBay, they found one they liked better and bought it in the same session! Would not have occurred without me. - Buys or Bids on ANY ITEM the EXACT Session – Almost a Bullseye! (+8 Points! ACRU + 5 More)
Although this visitor did not buy what I referred them to, the result was that they might have bought nothing unless I referred them to eBay. My actions resulted in an eBay sale! - Buys or Bids on Exact or ANY Surround System in 2-7 Days – Almost a Bullseye! (+8 Points! ACRU + 5 More)
Although they did not buy right away, they came back and bought in the same item or category I referred them to. Obviously, this may not have occurred with me! - Buys or Bids on a GPS System in 2-5 Days – Not Quite My Intent! (+5 Points! ACRU + 5 More, Existing User – 3 Points)
Maybe… they saw the item during the initial visit and decided to come back and get it. Maybe not… its alot of gray area, but since its related (by category) it MAY just be a result of my actions. - Buys or Bids on a Set of Luggage in 5-7 Days – No Intent! (+5 Point! ACRU + 5 More, Existing User – 10 Points))
Although this is well off the target of MY INTENT, ePN still recognizes the lead… except it has no benefit to me! It would likely have occurred whether I sent that visitor or not!
I’m sure there are many scenarios I am leaving out of this example, but you can take it for what it is… and apply it to your own situation pretty easily.
What Can I Learn From this Target and Example?
Positive Values – Higher EPC and Earnings!
- The closer I am to the bullseye with a VISITOR – The higher my Visitor EPC Result
- The closer I am to the bullseye with a CAMPAIGN - The higher my QCP Campaign Results
- The closer I am to the bullseye with ALL my Campaigns -The higher my QCP Network Results
- The LONGER I continue to TREND closer to the Bullseye -The higher my QCP Overall Results
Lower Values – Lower EPC and Lower Earnings!
I don’t think I need to retype the last 4 bullet points, just to change two words… “closer = farther”, and “higher = lower”. Its a pretty clear picture… If you are the affiliate who converts high numbers of intentional sales… meaning they bought what you sent them to buy, you will do very well!
The biggest difference in the quality score results from existing eBay users, buying stuff you didn’t send them to buy! Chances are very good, they would have been there anyway… and you were just the “lucky squirrel who catches a nut” every now and again on days 5-7 of your cookie. We have all seen these transactions in our reports… we send a visitor for that JVC Surround Sound system and on day 7 they buy a car. Not our intent for sure and may have occurred regardless of our actions, especially if that already had an eBay account… but we still earned $100 in affiliate income! That’s going to end…
Finally – I’m sure the entire algo ePN has built is much more complex that this… but this is ALL I need to worry about, and everything else will take care of itself!
I INTEND to publish a full series of posts throughout the next 30-60 days on improving the quality of your ePN sites, to attract highly targeted organic traffic, then converting that traffic into buyers on eBay. Make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed via email, or in your favorite reader.
In the meantime, I suggest you pickup a copy of the N1Way Website Building Guide, it is a 118 page step by step guide to building the perfect review site! After you have the guide, come follow along over on my N1Way Readers Guide website as well.
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- 3 Tips To Understand and Succeed with ePN Quality Click Pricing!
- Quality Click Pricing Comes to ePN for eBay Affiliates
- ePN Quality Click Pricing Webinar Q&A
- 5 Ways to Make Your Site Sticky and Increase Your ePN ACRU Quality
- 7 Tips for Getting Accepted into ePN – eBay Affiliate Network
- eBay Partner Network wants Quality Traffic, Not Random Visits!
- Feeding your Target Visitors the Food they Expect to Eat!
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
I don’t care how targeted a visitor is, if the auction listing and the seller sucks the affiliate gets punished for something we have no control over.
If Ebay wants to keep more money in house they should just do away with the affiliate program instead of trying to turn it into Google Adsense.
Mark, thanks for the article. I’m curious to know how this is going to affect those of us who sell cars. Any insight on that?
thanks again,
~C
An excellent take there, Mark. This was exactly how I came to understand how it will work which is why it’s going to be so important to have your visitors fully informed on a product through ‘valuable’ content. Hopefully they will then have decided to buy that product before going to eBay, ultimately this is where our big bucks are going to be.
@Christine – ePN are making adjustments for that as they realize that certain items will sell differently, I’ve never actually dabbled in the auto niche but I think Mark has.
Mark,
I don’t comment much on your site but I had to this time. This is THE BEST description of the new ePN quality click pricing I have seen.. Nice job, I’m printing this out and hanging it up! Totally make sense. And I now know how much harder I’m going to have to work to hit the bullseye.
Mark,
Just curious. Based on this image (which I love!), do you recommend that we focus our eBay niche sites on BIN or auctions?
Rochelle
@ Rochelle, I’m curious about the Auction v/s BIN approach as well… I believe it was mentioned over at the BANS forum, about how some niches just may not have enough BIN products available for your pages.
I’m going to try to look at over my individual pages over the next while.. play around with it a bit and see what’s available as a BIN!
I’m also thinking, for those sites/pages that we have that do not have enough BIN products available, we can show listings that are ending soonest and hope for the best!
@ All – Thanks for the comments!! Good questions and discussion for sure!!
@ Rochelle and Jake – BIN is factored higher than auctions… from what I can tell, it is the easiest way to increase your quality, since your visitor is buying exactly what you told them they need…
,a href=”https://publisher.ebaypartnernetwork.com/files/hub/en-US/quality.html”>Read here – short term factor section.
@ Jake – in some markets like antiques or victorian style products, there may never be a great selection of BIN items… BUT… changing the way you display the listings, showing those ending soonest, will also work to the same end effect.
Mark
So, you have your total earnings. Your Transaction Reports aren’t telling what you think they should about just what it is your selling – are your winning bids and acru’s really on target. For a fact, the Transaction Report will tell you, as I described in the prior post, that you can find out how soon your visitor purchased the item at eBay once you directed them there (click to sale).
Another tool to use is the “Category” report. Targeting the Category.
Goto Reports> Run Reports> Select report type as “Category”.
Also have the option to use specific campaign id’s. This will help you gauge what piece of the “pie” is really on target for that campaign.
Those two reporting tools should allow you to gauge your time to sale and target category.
I see an issue where for a lot of Affiliates it will be hard to hit the Bullseye. My site is in the “Collectables” genre, and as such, I feel a lot of potential eBay buyers will see the item they wish to bid on shortly after the item is listed, through my links, but will simply put it on their “Watch” list, and then come back near close of auction to place their bids. Hitting the Bullseye may be difficult for people aiming for the “Collectors” market.
EPN isn’t worth signing up for anymore, so I wouldn’t waste your time. The just converted to a “pay per click” model, that pays less than Google Adsense. They word it as their Quality Click Pricing is basically a system to change your earnings to whatever they want to pay. EPN is going to pay about 1/4th of what is was paying before. This was verified with not just my account, but hundreds of other Affiliates, and 99% are being paid only a fraction of before, even though everything was white hat and quality traffic that converted.
@Roger
Don’t make any decisions too quickly, give the new ePN structure time to settle in before deciding to move on. I am going to give it at least 2 months of my time, I’ll analyise traffic and decide which sites to keep ePN and which to ditch.
Currently, under the new system, sending targeted traffic I would be earning 100% more under QCP than the current structure.
[...] to come unstuck. This is why I wanted to bring to your attention a post which Mark Hansen over at The Niche Store Builder has written. Mark gives his opinion of how he thinks quality click pricing will work and I have to [...]
[...] ePN Quality Click Pricing QCP Affiliate Intent Target! [...]
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