Average CTR, below average conversion

suggestions?

[dickbaker]

I have a fairly large site with a good amount of traffic. But I've been really struggling to find a good advertiser/affiliate partner.

I found an affiliate through CJ. It's an auction site that's related to my niche. They pay $1 for every person who completes the registration form on their site. Unfortunately, their banner ads take the visitor to the home page of their site, not to any page that explains why the visitor should register.

So, I created my own page on my site explaining the benefits of registration, directed the banner ads to that page, and then provided a link to the affiliate site.

Yesterday my site had a bit over 6,000 visitors, and about 25,000 page views. 127 visitors clicked on the banner, taking them to the new page on my site. 37 people clicked on the link to the affiliate's site. But only two people completed the registration.

I'm aware of the "banner blindness" phenomenon. I've considered putting text links into all of my various widget pages that say something like, "myaffiliate.com has great great deals on Acme widgets. And registering at myaffiliate.com is fast, free and easy. Click here to visit their site, and then click on the Register link."

Any suggestions?

[jimbeetle]

What page on the program sponsor's site are you linking to? If it's the home page you'll still have the same problems as before. If the sponsor only allows linking to the home page then I'd consider dropping the program entirely.

And yeah, text links are usually much stronger performers than banners, worth a shot at least. Are there any other ways you're allowed to link to the sponsor, say maybe specific types of auctions in which your site visitors might be interested? These would be the most effective as you can weave them into your content.

[dickbaker]

Thanks for the reply, jimbeetle.

I'm going through CJ with this advertiser, so I can't alter the link's URL. Last evening I emailed the affiliate manager at the auction site, and suggested that the URL be directed to a page on _their_ site that explains the benefits of registration. As it is now, people who click on the banner have to take the additional step of being directed to a page on my site that tries to sell them on registration, shows with a photograph which link on the auction site to click on, and then asks them to click on a link to the auction site. That has to cut down on the CTR.

I have over 1,000 pages of information about various models of widgets that the auction site deals in. I may just try inserting the paragraph I mentioned in the original post on a couple of hundred pages, and see what happens. If it improves the CTR, then I'll go ahead with all of the pages.

My site is in a low-paying niche for advertising. I had one potential banner advertiser tell me that they pay one to three cents per click.

The advertiser I have now pays $1 per completed registration. That's the best I've found.

[bmcgee]

Using CJ doesn't preclude you from altering the landing page. I believe it is the URL parameter that can be used to signify a landing page.

If the merchant currently doesn't allow landing page redirection (I think that's what they call it in CJ), then ask them to turn it on. It's the answer to lazy affiliate managers who won't create alternate links for you.

[jimbeetle]

As it is now, people who click on the banner have to take the additional step of being directed to a page on my site that tries to sell them on registration, shows with a photograph which link on the auction site to click on, and then asks them to click on a link to the auction site. That has to cut down on the CTR.

Yeah, and it'll be a heck of a long time before you earn enough pocket money for a six pack. ;-)

I'm not at all against an affiliate program that doesn't earn as well as others (not every one can be the biggest money maker), but I do know that some well integrated auction links can bring in some pretty good incremental income. But in order to integrate them well you have to have many different options, a la eBay, where you can build a link to virtually anything on the site.

You might suggest to the AM that he or she take a look at what eBay offers. They might not be able to offer everything, but possible be open to some of the options.

[dickbaker]

bmcgee, if the banner or text link sent the visitor to the registration page of the auction site, the visitor would see literally hundreds of lines of legalese, disclaimers of liability, etc. The auction site is for the buying and selling of guns. And, so, they need to post all of the legalese up front. I'm sure you understand the liability problems they face.

At the same time, though, they do a really lousy job of persuading visitors to register. And they have every reason to get people to register, as their simple search function will not return good results for a search for "Acme XYZ model." Only the advanced search function will do that, and only registered users can use that function.

jimbeetle, thanks again for your input. These folks have only been in the affiliate marketing game for a few months. Perhaps my suggestions, as well as those from other publishers, will help them do better.

My site's income is derived from paid subscribing advertisors. While it brings in enough revenue from individual gun and sporting goods advertisers for a young person to be happy with, I'm not young. I want to derive as much income from this site as possible.

In perfect hindsight, I chose the wrong niche. I've spent three years building traffic and rankings for this site, but now realize that it's almost impossible to make extra money from banner or contextual ads.

I hope this will be a reminder to those starting out that looking at the advertising value of their niche is important.