In my previous post on Reputation, I looked at how researching a PPC provider's background can provide a potential affiliate with valuable information on that provider's RIP - reliablity, integrity and performance. This post will examine the financial aspects, focusing on rev-share and payment variables.

Money

If you’ve found some good candidates who have a strong online reputation, it’s now time to address the money, namely how much they’re going to pay you and when you’re going to get it.

Revenue-share is always a tricky indicator of a company. Too much and one tends to become suspicious – too little, and it’s simply not worth your while to work with them. To say blandly that there is an industry standard rev-share is untrue; rev-share depends on the size of the PPC provider, the number of affiliates and traffic they get, the amount of their bids, and a ton of myriad factors. Generally, anything under 50% is not worth your time, and anything over 80% should raise an eyebrow.

Keep in mind that what a company first offers you as a rev-share is almost never what they’re willing to give you. See our post on negotiation for more information.

As far as payments go, make sure the company has clear policies on their payment options. Payment methods and schedules are great selling points for a PPC provider, and any company that doesn’t advertise this as an advantage to partner with them probably has something to hide. You’ll want to make sure that payments are issued on a net-30 basis at least (payments made once a month) and the method is secure and reliable. Also, that payments will never be held – that is, one the company says you will be paid, that’s when you will be paid. One trick is to read over their Terms and Conditions to assess their legal policies regarding payments. You wouldn’t want to be denied your check simply because you’ve improperly configured the feed or forget to dot an “i”. By becoming familiar with how a particular PPC provider operates, you can their integrity and see if they’re sound partners to go into business with.

Going back to reputation, more often than not, complaints on a particular PPC Affiliate Program stem from lost payments, payments never issued, payments held, etc. If an overwhelming number of reviews and posts are made in regards to payments, re-examine this PPC provider’s credibility.