How to increase CTR

I am an affiliate interested in increasing CTR

[Widestrides]

I am an affiliate. My "mini-site" attracts traffic with regular search engine listings and pay per click search engine listings. I then refer visitors to my sponsoring merchant store where I receive a commission for each sale.

I am attracting good traffic to my mini-site and achieve a click-through rate (to my sponsoring merchant store) of about 55-60%.

Is this good, bad or average?
How can I improve it?
Any cute little phrases or enticements that will cause more folks to click-through to the sponsoring merchant store?

Thanks.

[DroffatsX3]

>>>Is this good, bad or average?

Not enough information to tell.

>>>How can I improve it?

Test, test, and test some more.

[jomaxx]

I would say 55-60% is pretty high, and in my experience any effort to increase the clickthrough rate beyond a certain point results in diminishing returns - in other words, the click rate may go up but the earnings per click will go down.

I would concentrate on simply pre-selling the product, filling in any information gaps in the merchant website, providing tips on how to use the site most effectively, and generally setting them up so that they're ready to close the sale by the time they click through. And as DroffatsX3 says: test, test and test.

[Smiley]

Another good way of improving click through is to only give them that option and make it big and obvious – such as a big click here to buy button.

…but your figures sound good to me, and the presell may improve your revenue better then a higher CTR.

[jonknee]

If you weren't such a small site, that CTR would be amazingly high. Most bigger sites would be estatic with 2-3%.

[Catalyst]

One of the best ways IMHO to increase click throughs and conversion rates is with testimonials. See if the merchant has any on their site. If not, see if they have any good customer comments in BizRate or Epinions. A Good creative, compelling text link with a re-inforcing positive customer comment underneath can help a lot. I incude this tip and give examples in affiliate newsletters I write for variousmerchants. The affiliates that use this technique usually see a good lift.

If there are no testimonials then puchase the product yourself (you'll sell more if you use it and like it - if applicable) then write some short personal endorsements about how well the product worked for you or how great the service, support or shipping was.

Last, don't settle for the links the merchant provides if they are boring. Don't know what kind of products they sell but here's an expample of the type I write for my luggage merchant. Instead of XYZ Luggage - Click here! (Which is the type of link some merchants provide)
How about "Travel 1st Class - Top Brand Luggage up to 70% off!" So get creative with links if the merchant isn't.

It sounds like you are already doing really well. Hope these tips help.

.

[Widestrides]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think testimonials are a good idea. I had them on my list to test.

[Chef_Brian]

Page layout also can have an effect on visitors navigate your site and ultimately "leave your site".

Often I target one or two search phrases per page, I then place that phase as a text link that leads my visitor to the merchant site near the top of my page.

Usally what happens is:

Visitors searches for "search phrase"

Finds my site via the search engines for "search phrase"

Notices a link "search phrase" right near the top of my page and clicks it.

This works very well for me on several different levels including seo, click though and yes ... the sale ;-)

Brian