TRAFFIC
AN UNTAPPED POTENTIAL FOR AFFILIATES
Affi liates try to attract more traffi c before they have even considered maximising their conversion rate, which is a much easier source of extra revenue to attract, says Dave Gowans of Browser to Buyer
CONVERSION RATE OPTIMISATION( CRO) has become a vital part of any e-commerce business, allowing everyone from online stores to estate agents to get more sales from their traffic. But affiliate marketing has traditionally placed more focus on traffic volume to generate revenue. Researching visitors and A / B testing new pages is traditionally something that few affiliates have been actively doing.
The potential, however, is huge. Traffic is expensive, the market is competitive and an effective CRO programme can deliver at least 10-30 % more conversions with the same number of visitors— often far more.
The challenge CRO traditionally relies on gathering a lot of data about user intent and interaction, whether through analytics, qualitative data( such as surveys of existing customers) and user testing. New pages, which promote key differentiators for the product or service, are then tested: For affiliates, it’ s very different:
● The market is extremely competitive and commoditised— affiliates struggle to differentiate themselves from each other
● Clicks don’ t mean conversions— you can do everything right when sending a potential customer to an operator, but they can easily drop out before signing up, or never place a bet
● There’ s no long-term customer relationship— and this cuts off a key source of qualitative and quantitative data
● Many sites focus on getting visitors to operators as quickly as possible— there’ s little opportunity to influence the user
The potential for affiliates Despite these challenges, the potential for affiliates is huge. Well-researched and well-executed tests can have a huge impact on conversions. Just adding one element to a page for a leading web hosting affiliate increased clickouts by over 20 %. A change to a price comparison table for a financial comparison site increased revenue by 10 %. And one affiliate saw $ 20,000(£ 15,000) per week in revenue just from A / B testing and CRO. Many sites have the traffic to run 10-20 tests per year, often more, and with results like these from individual tests, the upside is clear( see Figure 1).
So how does an affiliate realise this sort of value? It’ s not through simple button colour testing and UX changes. Every site is unique and it’ s vital to research and understand your users, run the right type of tests to make a difference and prioritise the right testing.
Practical testing for gaming affiliates Through years of testing with gaming, web hosting, finance and shopping affiliates as well as working with top casinos, I’ ve identified some of the most effective types of tests that affiliate sites can run to significantly increase conversions:
● Promote features and content that are the most important to users The parts of a site that matter most to users will differ hugely depending on the type of site and source of traffic. Identifying the key motivating factors is vital. Is it review ratings, bonus size, availability of games or editorial content that really make people convert? Affiliates need to use research tools to understand what makes users more likely to click out. These things can be made more prominent on-site and affiliates can focus their time and energy where it really makes a difference.
Figure 1: By“ upselling” affiliate clicks from low-paying providers to higherpaying ones, a web hosting affiliate site significantly increased revenue
iGB Affiliate Issue 65 OCT / NOV 2017
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