Conversions – Holy Grail of Affiliate Marketing
Conversions are what all affiliate marketers shoot for – the holy grail. Usually, they are sales, sometimes they are sign-ups for your opt-in list or other lead acquisitions. But always they are the desired end result of a web visitor’s action when he or she visits your website. In the upcoming issue of Affiliate Classroom magazine, you’ll get dozens of tips for how to increase conversions. In the meantime, here is something to whet your appetite.
The most common conversion by far is that of a sale taking place. The visitor clicks through from your site to the merchant’s site and buys a product, and the merchant gives you the monetary “thank you” you’re seeking.
As I mentioned in my post of December 22 (“Life is Good When Things Are Clicking (Through)”), the conversion rate (the percentage of web visitors that you bring to your merchant’s website whose activity results in a conversion) is an important statistic to which affiliate marketers should pay attention. In many ways, the conversion rate is the ultimate indicator of your success, or lack thereof, in promoting a merchant’s product. But how you interpret the conversion rate can be as important as the rate itself.
Naturally you want to promote a product that results in the best possible conversion rate, right? That’s part of the equation, but not necessarily the entire equation. A large conversion rate for a product would be sweet, but if the product retails for only $20 or $25, and the commission paid on a sale is, say, under 30 percent, the large number of conversions you generate may not provide enough of a return to justify constantly “priming the pump.”
On the other hand, a product that generates fewer conversions may still be appealing, particularly if it comes with a high commission percentage and/or a higher price point. Such products would enable you to earn larger revenues with fewer sales, but it would also take greater effort on your part to bring in the sales.
In the end, you have to determine what conversion rate has to be in place for your affiliate business to be successful. As they say, one person’s chicken you-know-what can be another person’s chicken salad; and while a 1 percent conversion rate may be pretty small for most folks, it may be golden for you.
When considering the conversion potential of products to offer to your selected market, a number of other factors need to be considered besides the conversion rate. I’ll touch on these other factors in a future post.