eBay Introduces New Quality Click Pricing Affiliate Program
By Anna Johnson on August 20th, 2009Yesterday, eBay announced the introduction of ‘Quality Click Pricing’ – effectively a pay-per-click affiliate program for eBay affiliates.
eBay’s Quality Click Pricing program – whereby affiliates will be paid for each click sent to an eBay site – will replace its traditional affiliate program of paying for sales and leads.
The actual price paid per click will be based on the short-term and long-term revenue of the traffic that the affiliate drives to eBay, as well as the incremental value of that traffic to eBay, i.e. the extent to which sales result from the clicks delivered by the affiliate.
As you might imagine, the greater the incremental revenue and the higher the expected lifetime value of the customers sent by an affiliate, the higher the price or earnings per click (EPC) (and total earnings) the affiliate will get. Day to day, the EPC will be set based on the previous day’s traffic.
eBay seems to have introduced Quality Click Pricing to reinvigorate its affiliate program and attract higher performing affiliates, whilst also ensuring payouts are aligned with performance.
So, is this good news or bad news for affiliate marketers?
On the one hand, it will probably be easier to make a buck as an eBay affiliate since all you need to do is generate a click (rather than a lead or sale).
On the other hand, eBay will certainly pay according to the quality of the clicks you generate – i.e. clicks that result in sales = higher quality clicks = higher EPCs. Who knows what eBay will end up paying for low quality clicks but it could end up being just a few cents, if that.
On that basis, Quality Click Pricing is unlikely to mean any kind of significant pay-day for affiliates who just drive any old traffic to eBay.
Correspondingly, eBay’s payment structure is no doubt calculated to deter dodgy and just-plain fraudulent affiliates who attempt to send arbitrary or even fake clicks to eBay. Remember, unlike Google Adsense and its ilk, this time eBay is paying for the traffic, so it’s way less likely to stand for affiliates behaving badly.
Actually, as a result of Quality Click Pricing we can probably expect to see eBay tightening its affiliate terms as well, and coming down hard on affiliates who try to scam the system.
All in all, it’s an interesting move and, if you’re an affiliate marketer, worth testing. Time – and results – will tell whether or not eBay’s Quality Click Pricing ends up being a winner for you.
The eBay Quality Click Pricing program will be introduced in phases starting in September for new eBay affiliates and October for existing affiliates.
August 20th, 2009 at 6:11 am
Good things… Bad things… But main problem – they didn’t accept my blog aout eBay in their network(
October 1st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Quality Click Pricing is designed to do one thing only – allow ebay to pay affiliates less and make more for themselves. Why? Because they can and there is nothing you can do about it as an affiliate. Example, I earned 92.00 for sept.
Quality Click Pricing predicts my payment would be 32.00 for the same traffic. What is wrong with that? The 92.00 is based on actual earnings for auctions won by people who come to ebay through my links.
Why is it ok for ebay to now claim that traffic is worth only 32.00?
I will be removing every ebay auction link I have and replacing them with something else. Probably aff links from a source who sells something from my site’s niche but anything is better then dealing with a company who just wants me to be happy being screwed. ebay, you suck!
October 1st, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Quality Click Pricing is designed to do one thing only – allow ebay to pay affiliates less and make more for themselves. Why? Because they can and there is nothing you can do about it as an affiliate.
Example, I earned 92.00 for sept. Quality Click Pricing predicts my payment would be 32.00 for the same traffic.
What is wrong with that?
The 92.00 is based on actual earnings for auctions won by people who come to ebay through my links. Quality Click Pricing is based on Voodoo
Why is it ok for ebay to now claim that traffic that last month was worth 92.00 is worth only 32.00?
There can be only one reason since the 92.00 figure was based on actual auctions closed, a verifiable metric. ebay now simply wants to be able to pay affiliates less for the same amount of auctions closed. ebay is trying to claim the traffic is not performing but the fact is the traffic is performing exactly the same but will be paid out at a much lower rate. A rate that is about 2/3 lower then before.
I will be removing every ebay auction link I have and replacing them with affiliate links from a source who sells something from my site’s niche or adsense. Anything is better then dealing with a company who just wants me to be happy being screwed.
ebay, you suck!
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