Why I’m Not Excited About Quality Click Pricing

If you’re part of the Ebay Partner Network then you’ve no doubt heard about the switch from the commission and lead-based remuneration structure to pay-per-click. There are mixed opinions on this switch, but my opinion is that it rewards people for a lack of conversion.

The idea behind Quality Click Pricing is that the people sending quality conversions to Ebay will get a higher payment per click than those who send non-converting traffic. The problem, though, is that they already do this. The range for a new, bidding subscriber is $25-$40. The new cost per click method will give you between $.05 and $.40/click.

Here’s an example of why that sucks, using the high-range of both methods.

If you had 1000 clicks, and 5% were new user conversions, that’d be 50 people. $40 per new user equals $2000. Being paid per click rather than per conversion gives you $400; a loss of $1600 (an 80% loss)

Now if you had no new-subscriber conversions and were paid just on the tiny profit commission that Ebay gives, I’m sure you’d be happy. I’d imagine that’s not most people’s EPN business model though.

Now maybe I’m just not getting something here; I haven’t looked into it in too much detail beyond the Quality Click Pricing Preview Report. I can’t speak on it in too much detail until the switch actually happens next month but as of right now I’m not happy.

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