As an affiliate marketer, not monitoring the appropriate KPIs is worse than driving a car without a steering wheel. Decisions based on accurate metrics are profitable, while decisions based on flawed metrics are devastating. In this article, we’re discussing the most important KPI metrics you should monitor, how to establish limits, and the importance of real-time analysis – especially within Hypernet.
Earnings Per Click (EPC) – The Profitability Indicator
EPC is one of the important metrics in affiliate marketing because it indicates how much revenue you earn per click. This allows the affiliates to evaluate different offers and traffic sources and decide which are the most beneficial.
For instance, consider an affiliate promoting a financial product through a campaign. If they earn $500 from 1,000 clicks, their EPC stands at $0.50. Now let us assume another campaign generates $400 from 800 clicks. Its EPC is $0.50 too. Although both campaigns have identical EPCs, the latter has a higher conversion rate which suggests it may be worth scaling further.
A low EPC almost always indicates that the offer has low appeal, the landing page does not convert or there is poor traffic quality for whatever product serviced. Tracking EPC over time provides affiliates better opportunities to improve their campaigns by shifting toward stronger performing offers.
Conversion Rate (CR) – The Traffic Quality Metric
CR indicates the percentage of users who perform specific actions like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or completing a form. Metrics like this help evaluate how well an offer is appreciated by the audience.
A good example is an affiliate promoting a high-ticket coaching program. They might have a lower CR than someone pushing a low-cost digital product. However, the margins on high-ticket commissions are way higher, so the campaign may still be more profitable.
In many instances, a lower CR indicates that a landing page requires optimizations, changes in focus for ad targeting, or even the offered traffic source is unsuitable for the offer. Through A/B testing different headlines, call-to-action buttons, and ad creatives, affiliates can improve their CR which increases overall revenue.
Return on Investment (ROI) – The Ultimate Success Metric
ROI is of utmost importance to any affiliate marketer since it establishes a campaign’s profitability. For example, if you spend $1,000 on advertisements and bring in $1,500 in sales, your ROI is 50 percent. This means, you earn $1.50 for every dollar spent.
As an example, consider an affiliate who runs paid ads for an ecommerce store selling health supplements. If they spend $2,000 on Google Ads and earn $3,000, their ROI will be 50 percent. In contrast, if revenue was $6,000 after spending $5,000, the ROI would only be 20 percent, signifying a point of diminishing returns.
Affiliates can figure out what campaigns are worth scaling up, and which ones either need to be adjusted or paused by tracking ROI.
Setting Benchmarks for KPIs
Numbers without context do not hold value. Marking benchmarks enables affiliate marketers to evaluate if their campaigns are performing effectively or require modifications. While benchmarks differ from industry to industry and traffic source to traffic source, there are general parameters.
For instance, in the financial services niche an EPC over $2 is viewed as favorable, whereas in eCommerce an EPC above $0.50 may be tolerable. A CR of 3% to 5% is considered average for lead generation campaigns, on the other hand, anything exceeding 7% for direct sales is phenomenal.
One of the best ways to set benchmarks is by analyzing previous campaign data. Affiliates can check their average EPC, CR, and ROI figures over a few months and set reasonable expectations over new campaigns. Another way is to utilize industry benchmarks and check market leaders’ performance and gauge them against their competitors.
Real-Time vs. Delayed Stats in Hypernet
Having the capability to track performance metrics in real-time can mean the difference between having a money making campaign and a busting investment. Many platforms only provide delayed stats, updating their information once or twice during the day. For media buyers who require real-time data for making critical decisions, this information degradation can be detrimental.
Hypernet provides analytics that are up to the minute, enabling affiliates to make data dependent decisions on the fly. This allows them to take action if an ad is not performing as expected mid reporting cycles instead of waiting for next reporting cycles. Similarly, if a campaign is performing exceedingly well, it can also avoid putting them on pause waiting to scale them up without hassle.
To illustrate, think of an affiliate using Facebook Ads to market a new subscription based service. If they observe that particular ad creatives have an astounding higher conversion rate, they can immediately funnel more budget to those ads instead of waiting hours or even days to make the necessary changes. The opposite applies as well, if they notice sudden decline in ROI, they can dig deeper and fix the problem quickly and prevent losing out on money.
Real-time analytics is also very useful for spotting fraud. Certain unwanted traffic sources create fictitious clicks and conversions, leading to skewed KPIs and lost revenue. Hypernet’s real-time fraud detection enables affiliates to eliminate low-quality traffic, thereby sustaining a high level of campaign productivity.
How Hypernet Gives You a Competitive Edge
Hypernet goes beyond being simply a tracking platform, as it provides solutions for streamlining processes and alleviating pain points with traffic management.
Hypernet also offers automated traffic optimization with UAD scenarios. This feature allows automatic positioning of traffic to the highest yielding offers, increasing revenue without a lot of manual work. Moreover, Hypernet’s robust fraud protection guarantees only genuine conversions are counted, thus dollar wasted on fraudulent traffic is lower.
Another advantage is Hypernet’s integration with top affiliate networks and traffic sources. Users do not suffer from complex configurations as they can link their accounts within a few clicks and begin tracking performance almost immediately.
Affiliates on the other hand, lack scope to plan budgets due to hidden fees incurred with some tracking platforms, however, they have a clear pricing model with no surprises alongside scales to focus on campaigns on Hypernet.
Maximizing Profits with the Right Analytics
Affiliate marketing is more than just posting ads everywhere and praying for them to be clicked; it requires comprehensive market research and calculated planning in order to be truly profitable. By concentrating on key performance indicators such as Earnings Per Click, Conversion Rate, and Return on Investment, affiliates can understand what works in their favor and what strategies yield no return.
When having benchmarks, performance can be evaluated in the right context. Furthermore, analyzing data in real time permits faster decision making. Hypernet offers real-time data insights, fraud detection, and automation, making it easy for affiliates to manage and grow their businesses.
Data makes all the difference when trying to make critical decisions. Using the right analytics enables the affiliates to act upon the observed insights, generating revenue in the long run instead of just gaining short term profits.
