Offer Network Assessment: Net-30 Reliability and Scrub Rates
A review of performance and payment reliability across three major affiliate networks. Analyzing scrub rates and the impact of delayed net-30 payout cycles on cash flow.
Offer Network Assessment: Net-30 Reliability and Scrub Rates
Cash flow is the lifeblood of a solo portfolio. When operating on Net-30 or Net-60 terms, the delay between ad spend and revenue recovery creates a significant capital requirement. This assessment covers the performance of three networks currently in rotation for the insurance and finance niches.
Network A: The High-Payer with High Scrubber
Network A offers the highest payouts per lead ($45). However, the scrub rate—leads rejected for “quality” or “duplicates”—sits at a consistent 22%.
Calculated Effective Payout: $35.10. Payment Reliability: High. Net-30 is consistent, usually arriving by the 5th of the following month.
The high scrub rate requires aggressive monitoring of traffic sources. If a specific sub-ID jumps to a 40% scrub rate, the source is cut immediately.
Network B: The Reliable Mid-Tier
Network B pays $32 per lead with a negligible scrub rate (under 3%). Effective Payout: $31.04. Payment Reliability: Exceptional. They offer Net-15 for accounts with over $5k/month in volume.
The stability of Network B makes it the “baseline” for all new traffic tests. While the headline payout is lower than Network A, the lack of volatility in the scrub rate makes campaign planning much simpler.
Network C: The Legacy Player
Network C is a large, public-facing network. Payouts are average ($28), and the scrub rate is moderate (8%). Effective Payout: $25.76. Payment Reliability: Slow. Net-30 often stretches to Net-45 without explanation.
I keep Network C in rotation only for specific “exclusive” offers that aren’t available elsewhere. For standard verticals, the friction of their payment cycle and the mediocre effective payout makes them a secondary choice.
The “Scrub” Investigation
A deep dive into the scrub logs of Network A revealed that 60% of rejections were “system-flagged” as duplicates. By cross-referencing this with my own tracking (Pirsch), I found that many of these were users who hit the landing page, left, and returned via a different ad 48 hours later.
Solution: Implement a “lead lock” on the landing page side. If a user has submitted in the last 30 days (verified via hashed email/IP), they are redirected to a secondary offer on Network B to avoid the scrub.
Summary of Findings
Reliability > Payout. The $10 difference in headline payout between Network A and Network B is largely an illusion when accounting for the scrub rate and the mental overhead of tracking rejections. Moving forward, 70% of volume will be directed to Network B, with Network A used only for high-intent, low-volume search traffic where quality rejections are less likely.