What Does Gravity Mean on ClickBank? (How to Find High-Converting Affiliate Offers!)

If you have watched more than a handful of YouTube videos about ClickBank, you have heard the word “gravity” thrown around. People mention it constantly. Almost nobody explains what the number actually measures, where it comes from, or why a gravity score of 336 might mean something very different from what you think. Everyone gestures at it and moves on, which leaves you guessing at one of the most important filters in the whole ClickBank marketplace.

This post is going to fix that. We are going to cover the official ClickBank definition of gravity, what the number does and does not tell you, and then get into the metric that most tutorials completely skip: the initial sale. Those two numbers together will save you from promoting products that look exciting on paper but pay far less than advertised the first time a customer converts.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The official ClickBank definition of the gravity score, word for word
What a high gravity number actually signals about conversions
The built-in blind spot inside the gravity score that most people never notice
The critical difference between the average sale figure and the initial sale figure
Real marketplace examples showing the gap between average and initial payouts
A simple five-step checklist for filtering ClickBank products before you commit to promoting one
Honest answers to the eight questions affiliates ask most about gravity and commissions
A free tool to figure out which online income path fits your specific skills, at finder.platformproof.com

What Is ClickBank Gravity? The Official Definition

ClickBank publishes its own definition of gravity, and it is worth reading it exactly as written: “The gravity performance statistic is an approximate, relative measure of how many affiliates have successfully promoted products from an account, with a higher number meaning more conversions.” You can set a minimum and a maximum gravity value when searching the marketplace to narrow down your product choices.

Break that down into plain terms: gravity tells you how many distinct affiliates have made at least one successful sale promoting that product. If a weight loss supplement shows a gravity of 336, it means 336 different affiliates have successfully converted at least one sale with that offer. That is the core signal: proof that real people, using real traffic sources, have gotten this product in front of buyers and collected a commission.

It is not a sales volume number. It is not a revenue figure. It is a count of unique affiliates who converted. That distinction matters for how you interpret high and low gravity scores.

How to Read Gravity Numbers in the Marketplace

A high gravity score tells you the product is converting across multiple affiliates and multiple traffic sources. If gravity is 336, that product has been tested by hundreds of people using different strategies: paid ads, YouTube, email lists, blogs, social media. Many of those strategies produced paying customers. That is a meaningful signal that the sales page works, the offer is compelling, and the product is not a total refund trap.

A low gravity score means one of two things. Either nobody is promoting the product in significant numbers, or the people who tried it could not get conversions. A gravity of zero or near zero does not mean the product is new and untested in a good way. It usually means you would be figuring out the conversion puzzle from scratch, with no proof that it is solvable with standard affiliate traffic.

As a starting point, look for products with a gravity score above 20. That indicates a real pattern of affiliate success. Products in the 50 to 150 range are often a sweet spot: proven enough to know the offer converts, but not so saturated that every traffic source is already competing with hundreds of other affiliates pushing the same link.

The Built-In Blind Spot You Need to Know About

Here is something ClickBank does not highlight in the marketplace display: the gravity score has no time component attached to it. The official definition does not say “affiliates who converted in the last 90 days” or “in the last year.” It just says affiliates who have successfully promoted the product. Full stop.

That creates a real ambiguity. A product with a gravity of 336 could mean 336 affiliates converted sales last month. Or it could mean 336 affiliates converted sales over the last ten or fifteen years. In theory, a product could have a gravity score in the hundreds because a small number of affiliates made occasional sales over a decade-long stretch. The number does not tell you whether those conversions are happening right now or whether the offer peaked years ago.

In practice, very old and underperforming products tend to drift out of the active marketplace or see their scores stagnate at low numbers. High-gravity products that are still listed and actively searchable are usually converting in the present, because vendors have an incentive to keep their listings current and affiliates have an incentive to promote things that are working today. But you should treat gravity as one signal, not a guarantee, and combine it with the other numbers in the listing before you commit to building a campaign.

The Metric Most ClickBank Tutorials Skip: Initial Sale

When you watch ClickBank tutorial videos or read blog posts about the platform, the presenter almost always shows you the average sale figure. It is a bigger number. It looks more exciting. It is right there in the marketplace listing. People talk about making sixty dollars a sale or a hundred dollars a sale and show the average sale as proof.

The average sale is not what you get paid the first time someone clicks your link and buys. It factors in upsells and rebills, which are additional purchases your customer may make after the initial transaction. Some customers take upsells. Many do not. Rebills only happen if the customer stays subscribed to a recurring product. You have zero control over either of those outcomes. All you can control as an affiliate is getting the right person in front of the sales page and having them take the initial offer.

That is why the initial sale figure matters more than the average sale when you are building a promotion plan. The initial sale is what ClickBank defines as: “the average dollar value of the initial sale, not including rebills, to the affiliate who drives the sale.” That number is what hits your account the first time a conversion fires. It is the baseline you can actually budget and plan around.

Real Marketplace Examples: Where the Gap Shows Up

Two examples from the ClickBank marketplace show exactly why this distinction matters in practice.

The first is the Numerologist product. The average sale in the listing shows $8.61. The initial sale shows $7.16. That is a small gap, which tells you the upsell structure on this product is not aggressive. Most of your earnings will come from the initial transaction, and the average sale is not misleading you by very much. If you drive traffic that converts to this product, you will collect roughly seven dollars per conversion on the first sale.

The second example is the 12-Minute Affiliate System, one of the most promoted products on ClickBank. The average sale in the listing is $60.53. That number gets cited constantly in tutorial videos. The initial sale is $15.11. That is a gap of more than forty-five dollars. If you build a campaign around expecting sixty dollars per conversion, you are going to be confused and disappointed when your affiliate dashboard shows fifteen dollars on every first-time sale. The rest of that average comes from upsells and recurring charges that happen at the customer’s discretion, weeks or months after the initial purchase, if they happen at all.

That forty-five dollar gap is not money you are leaving on the table through bad promotion. It is money that may never appear in your account depending on how each customer behaves after the initial purchase. The initial sale figure is the honest starting point for your commission calculations.

How Upsells and Rebills Create the Gap

Understanding why the gap exists helps you set realistic expectations for any product you promote. When a customer completes the initial purchase on a ClickBank offer, the vendor typically presents them with one or more upsell pages immediately after checkout. These are higher-priced upgrades, add-ons, or premium versions of what the customer just bought. Some customers take them. Others skip past all of them and land directly on the confirmation page. Your commission on an upsell fires only when the customer actually buys the upsell.

Rebills work differently. A subscription-based ClickBank product charges the customer a recurring fee monthly or annually. Every time that charge processes, you receive an affiliate commission for the rebill. Over many months, a single converted customer could generate multiple commission payments. The average sale figure rolls all of that projected rebill revenue into one blended number across all affiliates who promoted the product.

A large gap between average sale and initial sale tells you the vendor is relying heavily on upsells and rebills to generate that average. It does not mean the product is bad. It means your per-conversion income will start lower and potentially grow over time. A small gap means most of your affiliate income from this product comes at the point of the initial transaction, which gives you much cleaner math for estimating return on your traffic spend.

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A Five-Step Framework for Choosing ClickBank Products

Most people pick a ClickBank product by sorting the marketplace by gravity, clicking the highest number, and generating a hoplink. That is not a strategy. Here is a repeatable filter you can apply before committing to any offer:

Step 1: Set a gravity floor. Look for products with a gravity score above 20. Below that, you are guessing whether the product converts at all. Above 20, there is real evidence of affiliate success.
Step 2: Read the initial sale first. Ignore the average sale number until you know the initial sale. Ask yourself: if this is all I make on every first-time buyer, does this product still make sense for my traffic costs and promotion effort?
Step 3: Calculate the gap ratio. Divide the average sale by the initial sale. If the ratio is close to 1, most of your income comes at conversion. If the ratio is 3x or 4x, you are depending heavily on upsells and rebills you cannot control. Factor that into your expectations.
Step 4: Check for a rebill. If the product has a recurring billing structure, look at the rebill percentage in the listing. A high rebill rate with a low initial sale means the business model rewards long-term subscribers. That can be good passive income, but it also means slower cash flow early in your campaign.
Step 5: Match the product to your audience. A high-gravity product in a niche your audience does not care about will not convert for you. Gravity tells you the offer works for someone’s traffic. Only promote offers that align with what your specific readers, viewers, or subscribers are actually trying to solve.

Find Your X

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good gravity score on ClickBank?

There is no single magic number, but a gravity score above 20 indicates that multiple affiliates have successfully converted sales with the product. Scores between 50 and 150 are often a reasonable target for new affiliates: enough proof of conversion success that you are not starting from scratch, but not so high that every paid traffic source is saturated with competing affiliates pushing the same hoplink.

Does a high gravity score guarantee I will make sales?

No. Gravity tells you that the product has converted for other affiliates. It does not tell you anything about whether your specific audience, traffic source, or promotion method will produce conversions. A product with a gravity of 300 that is completely mismatched to your audience will perform worse than a product with a gravity of 40 that is perfectly aligned with what your readers are looking for. Use gravity as a filter for product quality, not as a forecast of your personal results.

What is the difference between initial sale and average sale on ClickBank?

The initial sale is the average payout you receive when a customer makes their very first purchase through your affiliate link, not counting any upsells or future rebills. The average sale is a blended number that includes upsells and recurring subscription charges across all affiliates promoting the product. The initial sale is what you can actually plan around. The average sale is what you might earn over time if customers continue buying additional offerings from the vendor.

Can I filter ClickBank products by gravity score when searching the marketplace?

Yes. The ClickBank marketplace search interface lets you set a minimum and a maximum gravity value when browsing offers. This makes it straightforward to exclude low-gravity products that lack conversion proof and, if you choose, to exclude extremely high-gravity products where affiliate competition is very intense. Combine the gravity filter with a category filter to find proven offers in your specific niche.

Why does the gravity number not tell me how many total sales were made?

ClickBank’s gravity statistic counts the number of distinct affiliates who converted at least one sale, not the total number of sales transactions. An affiliate who converted 500 sales counts the same as an affiliate who converted one sale. The metric measures breadth of affiliate success, not volume. That is intentional: it tells you whether the product works across many different promoters, which is a signal of consistent conversions rather than one affiliate with a huge email list distorting the number.

Should I avoid products with very high gravity because competition is too intense?

Not necessarily. Very high gravity products are popular because they convert, and that underlying conversion rate benefits you as an affiliate just as much as it benefits everyone else. Competition is only a problem if you are relying on organic search rankings or the same ad placements as every other affiliate. If you have a unique audience or an unconventional traffic source, you can promote a high-gravity product without competing head to head with the hundreds of other affiliates already promoting it.

What does “rebill” mean on ClickBank, and how does it affect my commissions?

A rebill is a recurring charge on a subscription-based ClickBank product. When a customer you referred continues paying their monthly or annual subscription, ClickBank credits you with an affiliate commission on each recurring payment. Rebills are reflected in the average sale figure but not in the initial sale. Products with strong rebill rates can build consistent background income over time, but because the initial payout is lower, you need more upfront conversions to see strong early cash flow compared to a one-time purchase product with a higher initial commission.

How do I know if a ClickBank product is legitimate before I promote it?

Start by actually buying and reviewing the product yourself before promoting it. Check the refund rate if it is visible in the listing: high refund rates signal customer dissatisfaction. Search for independent reviews outside of affiliate review sites, which often exist purely to earn the commission. Look at the vendor’s sales page critically: are the claims specific and reasonable, or are they vague and over-the-top? A legitimate product has a clear explanation of what customers receive, a real vendor with an identifiable brand, and a refund policy that does not require customers to jump through hoops.

Sources

ClickBank Marketplace: accounts.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm
ClickBank official gravity definition (as cited in video)
ClickBank official initial sale definition (as cited in video)
Marketplace examples referenced in video: Numerologist (avg $8.61, initial $7.16), 12-Minute Affiliate System (avg $60.53, initial $15.11)