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2007-06-19 Release SummaryClickBank recurring billing is a fully-automated system that takes care of your billing and subscription management responsibilities. It is easy to implement for both affiliates and publishers, which allows you to focus on running your business. Release Summary Contents
If you have any questions or comments about this document, please contact customer service. 2 How Recurring Billing WorksRecurring billing makes managing subscription-based transactions easy. ClickBank communicates with you and the customer each step of the way. Plus, the information gathered throughout the process is summarized in subscription reporting, allowing you to manage your recurring customers with ease. In order to best explain how to use recurring billing first the "rules" outlining its use are defined and then step-by-step instructions for implementation are detailed. Next, a discussion of what publishers, affiliates, and customers will see. Lastly, the notifications and reporting that are available are described. 2.1 Program DetailsThe following program details apply to ClickBank recurring billing products and services. Each of the following was put in place to maximize your successful use of the program. Please be sure to review them prior to implementing recurring billing products. Recurring Billing Product FieldsRecurring billing products utilize the following fields.
Commission Commissions range from 1% to 75% and are determined by the publisher of the product. The minimum commission for a single sale is $0.25, and the maximum is $100.00. If you are selling a recurring billing product, affiliates will earn commission for the initial payment and all additional rebill payments. The commission rate offered at the time of the initial payment remains the same for the rebills. If a recurring billing product or subscription is cancelled, no future commissions will be awarded. Rebill Markup Model For most recurring billing products, ClickBank purchases the product from the publisher at a wholesale price equal to 92.5% of retail, less a $1 stocking charge. However, for rebills associated with a recurring billing product where the rebill is less than $40, ClickBank purchases the rebill product from the publisher at a wholesale price equal to 90.1% of retail. For affiliate directed sales, the commission percentage is subtracted from the net sale price. Here is an example of how commissions would be calculated if a publisher offered a 55% commission for a 12 month subscription where the initial payment is $29.95, and the rebill payments are $9.95:
Initial Payment: $29.95 Frequencies Payment Types Product Approval Payment Process Timing a. Normal Timing The following is an example of normal payment timing:The recurring terms are:
The Customer signs up on May 1, and is billed as follows:
b. Unavailable Date Timing If you have a subscription payment scheduled for a day that does not occur in a given month (e.g. the 30th does not occur in February), the bill will occur on the last available day of the month. Thereafter, the payment will occur on the newly established day of the month The following is an example of unavailable date timing: The recurring terms are:
The customer signs up on Jan. 30, and is billed as follows:
c. Payment Failure Timing Unlike many of our competitors, we don't give up after one payment failure. ClickBank understands that scheduled payments may fail for several reasons, including insufficient funds, so we have optimized our recurring billing process to reduce authorization declines and increase your revenue. Authorization Failures In the event that the customer's credit card cannot support the payment request, we will attempt authorization again three days after the first failure date. After a second failure, we will reattempt four days after the second failure date. After a third failure, we will try once more seven days after the third failure date. A fourth failure will lead to an automatic cancellation of the subscription or installment purchase. We send notifications to the customer and publisher on the final two attempts. The following is an example of payment failure timing due to an authorization failure:
Card Validation Failure In the event that customer's credit card becomes invalid, we will deliver the customer up to four notifications requesting new credit card data. The notifications are delivered once a week. If there is no response after the fourth notice, the subscription or installment purchase is automatically canceled. In order to keep the publisher informed, we also send them each notification. If updated credit card data is received from the customer, the rebills from that point forward are executed from the date of the successful authorization. The following is an example of payment failure timing due to a card validation failure:The installment terms are:
The Customer signs up on May 1, and is billed as follows:
Returns The return policy for recurring billing allows for the most recent payment to be returned. Multiple payment returns can be provided as long as they are within the standard 8 week return period. A refund results in a cancellation. Cancellation Recurring billing subscription may be canceled at any time. A cancellation means that no future rebills will be charged to the customer's account.Subscription Modifications Other than the product description, changes to a recurring billing product will not be permitted. If you wish to change the price of a product for future sales, you will need to create a new product in the "My Products" section of your account. If a change is made to a recurring billing product, it will not affect any subscriptions that are currently in progress. All subscription terms are captured at the time of purchase and preserved for the life of the subscription.Membership Access Membership access and product delivery will be managed by the publishers. 2.2 Getting StartedThis section defines how to create, test, and request approval for your recurring billing product or service.
2.3 During the PurchaseWhat the Customer Sees This section outlines how customers will interact with both your recurring billing product or service and ClickBank during the initial purchase and the remainder of the subscription.
Note: Please refer to the program details for notification delivery logic (see Section 2.5). What the Publisher Sees This section outlines what you can expect to see during a customer's purchase of your recurring billing product or service.
Note: Please refer to the business rules for notification delivery logic (see Section 2.1).
2.4 The MarketplaceIn order to accommodate recurring billing, each Marketplace listing will display two new fields. The fields and their descriptions are listed below. Future $: The average total rebill revenue earned by the affiliate. (This does not include revenue from the initial sale.) Total $: The sum of all sales and rebills divided by the number of sales. It is the average total $ per sale, including all rebills that may come from that sale. Marketplace Statistic Examples Future with Rebills: Future without Rebills: To locate recurring billing products in the marketplace refer to products that contain a value in the "future$" statistic. 2.5 Email Notifications and ReportingThis section outlines how publishers and affiliates can access or will be notified of recurring billing transaction activity. You can retrieve information about your recurring billing transactions from email notifications (publishers only) or via the information available on the reporting tab. Email Notifications Email notifications are sent to the publisher for the following recurring billing actions.
Rebill notifications are only sent to the customer if the order is over $40.00. Publishers receive rebill notifications every time. Notifications for rebills are delivered after the rebill transaction has occurred, not before. ReportingTransaction Search Transaction records are logged for every recurring billing order.
The initial transaction for recurring billing product sales appear in the "Txn Type" column as "Sale - RB" and rebill transactions will appear in the column as "Rebill". An additional indicator has been placed in the receipt column value, which follows the traditional receipt with a "-@###" value ("@###" represents the rebill number within the subscription). For example: The recurring terms are:
The customer is billed as follows:
The first, second, and third transaction receipts would look like this: (see Screenshot 2.5.1)
Analytics: Subscriptions
2.6 Additional InformationPlease refer to the following links for additional information about recurring billing. |
