Most affiliate marketers pick programs the exact same way: they look at the commission rate, see a big number, and sign up. Six months later, they wonder why they haven't made a dollar.
Here's the uncomfortable truth — commission rate is probably the least predictive metric of how much you'll actually earn. A 50% commission on a product nobody buys is worth less than a 5% commission on something that converts at 15%.
The top 10% of affiliate earners look at a completely different set of numbers. This guide breaks down the 7 metrics that actually matter, what counts as "good" for each, and how to use them together to pick programs that pay.
1. Earnings Per Click (EPC)
If you only track one metric, track this one. EPC — earnings per click — tells you how much the average affiliate makes for every click they send to a program. It's the single best predictor of real-world earnings because it already combines conversion rate, commission size, and average order value into one number.
How to read it:
- $0.10–$0.50 EPC — Low performer. Either the product doesn't convert, commissions are tiny, or the audience match is off.
- $0.50–$1.50 EPC — Solid. Most reputable programs sit here. Reliable income at scale.
- $1.50–$5.00 EPC — Strong. Usually high-ticket items, recurring SaaS, or niche-perfect audiences.
- $5.00+ EPC — Exceptional. Luxury goods, B2B software, or financial products with massive order values.
Why it beats commission rate: A 40% commission on a $20 ebook gets you $8 per sale. If it converts at 2%, your EPC is $0.16. A 10% commission on a $300 course that converts at 5% gives you a $1.50 EPC — almost 10x better.
Most networks publish EPC inside their dashboards. Programs that hide it are usually hiding bad numbers. Walk away.
2. Commission Structure (Not Just Rate)
Forget the headline percentage for a second. The real question is: how does this program pay? There are four structures and they are not created equal.
Flat fee per sale. You earn a fixed amount regardless of order size. Good for low-ticket products where order value doesn't vary much. Example: $50 flat for any web hosting signup.
Percentage of sale. You earn a cut of whatever the customer spends. Best for programs where upsells and bundles are common — your payout scales with order value.
Recurring commission. You keep earning every time the customer renews. This is the holy grail for SaaS affiliates. A 20% recurring on a $99/month product pays you $19.80 every single month, possibly for years. Compare that to a one-time $50 signup bonus and it's not close.
Tiered / performance-based. Your commission rate goes up as you drive more sales. These reward volume affiliates but can penalize beginners who never hit the bonus tiers.
What to look for: If you're playing the long game, prioritize recurring commissions over everything else. A portfolio of 50 subscribers earning you $10/month recurring is worth infinitely more than 50 one-time $50 payouts, because the first one compounds and the second one disappears.
3. Cookie Duration
Cookie duration is how long after someone clicks your link that you still get credit for the sale. Amazon's infamous 24-hour cookie is the reason most Amazon affiliates struggle — if a visitor doesn't buy the same day, you get nothing.
Benchmarks that actually matter:
- 1–7 days — Short. Works only if your audience buys impulsively (Amazon, low-price physical goods).
- 30 days — The industry standard. Fine for most affiliate marketing.
- 60–90 days — Strong. Great for considered purchases like software or courses where people research for weeks.
- Lifetime / "first click wins" — Elite. If a user eventually signs up months later, you still get paid. Rare and worth chasing.
The hidden cookie trap: Some programs advertise 30-day cookies but use "last click attribution." That means if your reader clicks your link today, then clicks a competing affiliate's link in 29 days, the other affiliate gets the sale. Look for "first click" programs whenever possible — your click wins the attribution battle.
4. Conversion Rate
This is the program's conversion rate, not yours. It tells you what percentage of the traffic you send actually converts into a paying customer. Programs rarely publish this directly, but networks like ShareASale and Impact show it in affiliate dashboards, and you can estimate it from public case studies.
What's normal:
- Sub-1% — Red flag. Either the landing page is broken, the product is overpriced, or the audience match is wrong.
- 1–3% — Normal for broad consumer products.
- 3–7% — Good. Most well-run affiliate programs sit here.
- 7–15% — Excellent. Usually free trials, freemium products, or audiences with strong buyer intent.
- 15%+ — Usually a lead gen program (sign up for a free quote, download a guide, etc.) where the advertiser pays per lead, not per purchase.
Conversion rate is a product quality signal. A program with a 0.5% conversion rate is telling you the sales page doesn't work. No amount of traffic will fix that. Move on.
5. Payment Terms & Minimum Threshold
Nothing kills an affiliate's motivation like earning $47 that you can't touch because the minimum payout is $100. Check these before you sign up:
Payout frequency. Monthly is standard. Weekly is generous. Net 60 or Net 90 (where you wait two to three months after the month you earned the commissions) is common in CPA networks — you're basically giving the network an interest-free loan on your earnings.
Minimum payout threshold. Anything above $100 is a yellow flag for beginners. Aim for $25–$50 minimums. Amazon is notorious for its $10 direct deposit threshold (great) but $100 gift card threshold for some countries (bad).
Payment methods. PayPal, direct deposit, Wise, and check are standard. If a program only offers one method and it doesn't work in your country, the commission rate is irrelevant — you can't collect it.
Refund / chargeback policy. Some programs claw back commissions if the customer refunds within 30, 60, or even 180 days. This is fair, but worth knowing. Programs with aggressive clawback windows can make your earnings report look like a rollercoaster.
6. Approval Rate & Program Terms
This one catches beginners off guard. You can spend hours creating content for a program you don't even qualify for.
Approval rate. Most programs approve new affiliates automatically. But premium programs (especially high-ticket SaaS, luxury brands, and finance) manually review every application. They look at your traffic, content quality, and niche fit. If you're brand new with no audience, expect rejections — and don't take them personally.
Terms of service red flags to watch for:
- No paid search bidding on brand keywords (common and fair)
- No coupon sites (locks you out if that's your strategy)
- No email marketing (kills the highest-converting channel)
- No "incentivized" traffic (rules out most cashback/rewards sites)
- Exclusive geographic restrictions (US-only programs won't pay you for international clicks)
Read the terms before you write the content. A single violated rule can nuke months of earnings retroactively.
7. Brand Recognition & Audience Trust
This is the squishiest metric, but it matters more than people admit. Your conversion rate on an unknown brand is a fraction of what it is on a trusted one, even if the product is objectively better.
How to gauge it:
- Search the brand name on Reddit. Are people recommending it, or complaining about it?
- Check Trustpilot, G2, Capterra. Anything under 4.0 stars is a warning.
- Look at their organic traffic in a tool like Ahrefs or SimilarWeb. A brand getting 500K monthly visitors is already doing the trust-building work for you.
- Check how long they've been running their affiliate program. Under a year = risky. Over three years with consistent payouts = safe.
The brand trust multiplier: A well-known SaaS tool can convert at 2–3x the rate of an unknown competitor with better features. Your job as an affiliate is to borrow that trust, not rebuild it from scratch.
How to Use These 7 Metrics Together
Don't try to optimize for all seven. You'll end up with nothing to promote. Instead, use this simple framework:
Step 1 — Filter on hard requirements. Eliminate anything with a cookie duration under 30 days, a minimum payout above $100, or a terms of service that blocks your main traffic channel.
Step 2 — Score the rest on EPC and commission structure. EPC is your primary predictor. Recurring commissions tip the scale in close calls.
Step 3 — Sanity-check on brand trust. If the top scorer has sketchy Trustpilot reviews, drop it. Your credibility is worth more than any single commission.
Step 4 — Test with real traffic. The only metric that ultimately matters is your own EPC from your own audience. Send 500–1,000 clicks, measure what happens, and double down on what works.
Skip the Spreadsheet
This kind of analysis is exactly why we built AffiliateRoll. We track these metrics — commission rates, cookie durations, payment terms, and more — for 164+ affiliate programs so you can filter and compare them in seconds instead of spending a week researching one program.
Start with our featured programs if you want our highest-scoring picks, or browse by category if you already know your niche. Either way, the goal is the same: stop picking programs by commission rate alone and start picking them by the numbers that actually predict earnings.
The affiliates who win at this game are the ones who treat program selection like portfolio management — every program is an investment, and the best investments aren't the ones with the flashiest headline number.
