Coming at this as someone buying paid traffic rather than doing organic, so my list is probably weighted differently to most:
1. Payment terms, before payout rate. This is the one networks always get backwards in their pitch. If I'm spending daily on ads, I'm floating that spend until you pay me. Net-30 on a higher payout is worse than weekly on a lower one, because cash flow is what caps how fast I can scale. A 10% better rate I collect in 45 days is not better.
2. Do you actually pay, and do you scrub. Reputation beats payout every time. I'd rather take less from a network people vouch for than chase a great rate from one where conversions quietly go missing at volume.
3. Is the lander tested, and what's the real EPC. I control the traffic and the creative. I don't control your page. If your funnel converts badly I can send perfect traffic and still lose - so I want to know the page has been optimised, not just that the offer exists.
4. Caps and geo clarity up front. Nothing worse than getting something working, scaling it, then hitting a cap nobody mentioned or finding the geo is closed.
5. An AM who actually knows the offer. Not "let me know if you need anything" - someone who can tell me what angle is working for other buyers right now and what's burnt out.
6. Compliance clarity, especially anything regulated. If I'm running health or finance, I need to know exactly what claims I can and can't make in the creative before I build it. Vague answers here cost real money, because you find out via ad rejections or a flagged account rather than via the network.
Honestly the ranking shifts by traffic type. Someone running SEO or email can tolerate slow payments because their traffic cost is sunk. Paid buyers can't, and that's usually the disconnect when networks wonder why media buyers churn off an offer that looks good on paper.
