AdSense and Amazon?

[Theinc]

Do you think it's wise to combine Amazon affiliate links into your websites that already have AdSense to attempt increasing revenue? For those that have done it have you experienced an increase in revenue or just a decrease in CTR and AdSense earnings?

[MediaSpree]

Well for me the Amazon payout was too low to justify. I would get 30 clicks through to amazon, sell 1 $5.00 book and make .28... that is less that 1 cent per click! I would much rather a .20+ cent click on adsense :)

[berto]

Pros: You diversify. You don't have all of your eggs in one basket. You have something to fall back on if Google drops you from the program. You have an alternative for pages displaying off-topic or crappy (hence 0% CTR) Adsense ads. Depending on the niche, you might be surprised to find Amazon more profitable.

Cons: There is a click tradeoff. Some visitors who might leave your site by way of an Adsense ad might leave by way of an Amazon ad instead, and vice-versa. There may or may not be a SERP penalty for having (too many) Amazon ads. With both Adsense and Amazon, will your site look too commercial? You complicate your site management.

Having said all that, I do both programs, in order to diversify, also to have an alternative for pages that don't work well with Adsense. I can't (or won't) give hard figures about how one performs versus the other. It mainly depends on the niche you're in anyway.

[berto]

Well for me the Amazon payout was too low to justify. I would get 30 clicks through to amazon, sell 1 $5.00 book and make .28... that is less that 1 cent per click! I would much rather a .20+ cent click on adsense

But that sort of assumes a one-to-one ratio of Amazon to Adsense clicks.

Until recently, my Amazon clicks have outnumbered my Adsense clicks by 5X to 10X. So even though I make much less per Amazon click (because of the low Amazon conversion rate, also the low sales price of the Amazon goods I advertise), overall my Amazon revenues have tended to equal my Adsense revenues.

Lately, I'm in an Amazon low-conversion-rate summer slump, and my Adsense CTRs have recently spiked upward (thanks largely to horizontal AdLinks), so now my Adsense revenues outnumber my Amazon revenues by several multiples. But that Amazon 20-25% of total revenues is still worth pursuing.

Again, so much depends on your site niche and other factors.

[rogerd]

I find Amazon to be low revenue per exposure, but on some pages it works fairly well. As others have said, diversity is good. Try and maximize your Amazon revenue by having highly targeted products and using a "Buy it Now" button that reduces the chance of the customer bailing out before purchasing.