Amazon direct links - bad conversion

[billnad]

I am sure this has been covered before but I can not find it here. I was using last years or maybe it was the year befores method of getting affiliate traffic. Set up a google adwords campaign, pick keywords and send the traffic through my affiliate link directly to Amazon. I believe that the traffic is fairly focussed as I am doing two digital cameras and focussing on the brand or type of camera. Although maybe my copy is so good that people are to easily enticed (I really doubt that!). I have over the last two weeks recieved 259 click throughs but have recieved no sales.

Is this common? I had expected at least a 2% click though with the targeting of the ads but am not converting at all.

[wrgvt]

Digital cameras are notorious for bad conversions.

[onlineleben]

I set up a digital camera campaign and was happy when the one and only sale happened.
It took ages as most people were probably comparing prices, but not buying. After this initial sale, I stopped the campaign with a 50% ROI and sought other niches that made more sales faster.
Good luck.

[BriGuy20]

Bill:

I used to be doing what you were doing (direct to Amazon), but the recent AdWords changes (namely, one ad per domain) has changed my strategy a little.

Despite pressuring from my father, I've stayed away from Cameras, I wasn't able to get them to convert.

I think that the best products to advertise are ones where the person knows the product name and can type it into a search engine. I think its sort of similar to a kid asking for something specific for Christmas (pick a fad item from the last 5 or 10 years) and they know the name, and they tell the parents to where even they can manage to get the item right. If the kid asks for something more general, he or she is more likely to get the wrong thing (an item from the category, but not the specific one s/he's looking for).

I also think that it's worth looking into building your own site for advertising. If you get your own domain, you can get by the one ad per URL restriction, and you can also offer a range of similar products with links to Amazon, pre-qualify people and giving you a better chance to get the direct link bonus (which can be up to 50% more money in your pocket).

While I've been successful at it, it's taken a lot of work and I've still made a lot of mistakes. Cut your losers, ride your winners, and keep learning - it takes some time, but you should eventually get the hang of it.

[RockyMtnRR]

I think that the best products to advertise are ones where the person knows the product name and can type it into a search engine. I think its sort of similar to a kid asking for something specific for Christmas (pick a fad item from the last 5 or 10 years) and they know the name, and they tell the parents to where even they can manage to get the item right. If the kid asks for something more general, he or she is more likely to get the wrong thing (an item from the category, but not the specific one s/he's looking for).

That's a really, really good idea. I'll be thinking about that aspect of a product for sure in the future.

[billnad]

Thanks for all of the input. I have been listening and reading a lot on the subject and have to agree that linking to my site and then moving the traffic to the affiliate with the proper introduction to it would be a much better move.

Wow this is a great forum for info. I suspect I will continue to tweak things with my add to see what helps my conversion rates from google to Amazon and write off these small losses (0.08 per click) as a learning curve.

I agree that if I can make even one sale in the next week or two I should cut my losses.

Thanks again for everything guys