EPC, earnings per click, folds conversion rate and payout into a single figure. That is precisely what makes it the right yardstick: an offer's headline payout says what a completion is worth, while EPC says what a click is worth, and clicks are what a publisher actually has to allocate.

How to calculate EPC

EPC = Revenue / Clicks

EPC = Revenue / Clicks

EPC = Revenue / Clicks

A worked example

Two offers, same traffic. Offer A pays $5.00 and converts 2% of clicks. Offer B pays $1.00 and converts 15%:

Offer A: 5.00 x 0.02 = $0.10 EPC
Offer B: 1.00 x 0.15 = $0.15 EPC

Offer A: 5.00 x 0.02 = $0.10 EPC
Offer B: 1.00 x 0.15 = $0.15 EPC

Offer A: 5.00 x 0.02 = $0.10 EPC
Offer B: 1.00 x 0.15 = $0.15 EPC

Offer B pays a fifth as much per completion and earns 50% more per click. A wall sorted by payout puts Offer A first and leaves money on the table every single day, which is the most common avoidable mistake in offerwall operation.

What counts as a good EPC?

• It varies enormously by market. The same offer produces very different EPCs across geographies, so blend carefully.

• Compare within, not across. EPC is for ranking your own offers against each other on the same traffic.

• Volume matters before the number means anything. A handful of clicks and one lucky conversion produces a figure you should ignore.

• It is provisional. A reversal removes revenue after the fact, so today's EPC can fall next week.

EPC vs. eCPM

eCPM measures earnings per thousand impressions and is the right tool for comparing placements and formats against each other. EPC measures earnings per click and is the right tool for ranking offers inside a placement. A wall with a strong eCPM and badly ordered offers is leaving revenue behind, and only EPC reveals it.

How to improve it

• Rank the wall by EPC, not payout. The single highest-return change most publishers can make.

• Segment by geography and platform. A global EPC average hides offers that are excellent in one market and dead in another.

• Remove capped and out-of-window offers. Clicks sent to an exhausted offer cap earn nothing and drag EPC down.

• Watch it after every mix change. EPC responds faster than revenue and gives you the signal sooner.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Ranking offers by payout. It systematically favours offers that almost nobody completes.

• Averaging EPC across wildly different traffic. The blended figure describes no real segment.

• Treating EPC as settled. Reversals arrive late and revise it downward.