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Commission Junction's Performance Increases Prove Success of its Open Marketplace

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Oct. 15, 2001 - Commission Junction, the largest pay-for-performance ad network, announced network-wide performance increases since the launch of its open marketplace on July 1. Commission Junction's open marketplace provides payment and conversion statistics on all advertisers, publishers and ads in its network.

With the introduction of the open marketplace, Commission Junction began publishing average earning per 100 clicks (EPC) for advertisers, publishers and individual ads. EPC shows an advertiser's ability to convert visitors to revenue and a publisher's potential success in generating commissions. Additionally, a network earnings ranking denotes where an advertiser or publisher ranks relative to the rest of the network based on the volume of commissions paid or commissions earned, respectively. With these metrics, advertisers and publishers have been able to visibly benchmark the performance and effectiveness of every ad at converting visitors into revenue.

Major highlights since the open marketplace launch include:

Network EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) increased 28 percent Network CTR (click-through rate) increased 14 percent Average sale commission increased 9 percent Average lead commission increased 196 percent According to Lex Sisney, Commission Junction CEO and co-founder, these increases can be attributed to the metrics both advertisers and publishers can now access in the network. "Both sides can see whether an ad is succeeding or failing, and can access the trends and tools necessary to make better decisions about the purchase and placement of pay-for-performance advertising."

"The availability of these metrics had an immediate affect on our clients success," said Sisney. "The upward trends point to publishers who are converting their traffic into revenue, while advertisers are acquiring more customers and lowering their customer acquisition costs."

The Commission Junction network boasts a significantly higher click-through rate at 1.9 percent, more than seven times greater compared to the industry average of 0.24 percent. Most notable is Commission Junction's 3.2 percent conversion rate, which shows the ability to convert traffic into sales. Year-to-date Commission Junction network statistics are equally impressive, with the Company serving nearly 44 billion impressions in nine months, ranking it among the largest ad networks in the world operating on a pay-for-performance basis.

Commission Junction Year-to-Date Statistics (Jan. - Sept. 2001):

• Total impressions served and tracked: 43,997,287,959
• Click-through rate: 1.9%
• Conversion rate: 3.2%
• Total sales transactions: 2,054,858
• Total sales amount: $97,615,235
• Total lead transactions: 24,452,986

About Commission Junction

Commission Junction, the largest pay-for-performance advertising network, allows online advertisers to acquire more customers and online publishers to earn the most revenue from their audience. By publishing payment and conversion statistics on advertisers, publishers, and ads within its network, Commission Junction offers the first open marketplace for online advertising. Both advertisers and publishers can quickly gauge the quality and potential of each relationship, allowing them to maximize performance of their online advertising campaigns.

Commission Junction acts as a trusted third party managing the network, tracking and reporting on the ads in real time, and handling monthly commission payments to network members. The company serves billions of impressions each month, ranking it among the largest ad networks in the world operating on a pay-for-performance basis. Clients include leading online marketers eBay, Capital One, NextCard, and The New York Times Home Delivery. Commission Junction is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA, with offices in San Francisco, New York and London. For additional information, visit www.cj.com or call 800/761-1072.

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