APA News update
AffiliateSummit Vegas 50 spaces left
Don’t forget to grab Mike Blumenkrantz our ears and eyes at the event. If you want a plug on this blog during the event mike at Affiliateprogramadvice.com wants to talk to you, so look out for this man on the left! Shifty looking aint he :0)
Don’t feed him after midnight!EBTM.com Aff Program Update
With the affiliate program in full swing and affiliate ppc versus Agency ppc comparison about to get underway, interesting times lay ahead. Helen Porter campaign queen, has drafted up a fair comparison paid search model. We have selected a few affiliates to participate so I for one am excited and I’m getting ready to jump around the room when the results come in. Why is Helen so good at what she does? Read her book and find out! The Affiliate Manager’s Handbook
Description: The no-waffle independent guide to managing a successful affiliate program. Learn how to plan, implement and manage an affiliate program from one of the few bona-fide experts in the industry today! It’s an Ahhhhhhh bistow moment ideal for any merchant and any one finding themselves thrown into this arena that needs some savvy practical advice!
Price is £85.84p
Nice job Helen!AffiliateProgramAdvice.com website revamp.
Yeah I know, its been a long time coming. We will be changing the look and feel of the site in a week or so. Im busy migrating old blog posts and getting new blurb together. I really love the new look and I think
studio3k.com has got it spot on, as always.
But you can judge for yourself soon.Banner facts
“Ahhh Jess its text links that work best”. I would agree with this to a point, have a look at how many sales came through one of our clients banners.
Over the last 12 months 420 sales came from a 468×60 banner (generic style) and had an affiliate conversion rate of 3.26% The next was another generic 468×60 banner delivering 354 sales at a conversion of 3.34%. Followed by the sky scraper 120×600 delivering 115 sales with a conversion of 2.58%. Next is the 125×125 which gave us 97 sales and coverts at 3.75%. The micro bar 88×31 gave us 47 sales and has the highest click through ratio at 5.7% and for affiliates it converts at 3.24% So a good strong graphic does deliver sales and should be used as
a) as complimentary to text links
b) reinforces the brand building exercise But …
c) I feel this is where the debate gets interesting and there are a couple of points I would like to address. An assumption, is that the consumer is all bannered out, many articles have been written about the psychology blinding us with the psycho babble theory on why “we are tuned out” Our stats show a very different picture. We absorb images all the time subconsciously, so the consumer who is trawling websites and may perhaps not be in the buying mode, is still receiving information as he/she goes.
It could be that the consumer at some point is browsing through a glossy and comes across an ad. The brain will recognise the logo or name or some element of the add he/she had seen before.
Once the consumer is in a mindset to buy then the natural thing they are going to do is either refer to the magazine they had been reading but more commonly they will use a search engine. If they land on your page and you have a graphic that they have seen before, that will then jog the memory, hence the term affiliate marketing increases brand awareness. It also reinforces the trust factor and all contributes to the consumer feeling familiar and comfortable with the online shop.
Banners should be carefully constructed and if you get a good design agency that understands the consumer psychology, then you have cracked it. Often is the case where by some designers are great with the art work but lack understanding of the company, mixed messages and have no marketing expertise. It’s a very common problem, that some merchants themselves don’t know who they are or what they want from the designer. Graphics is a personal thing, but what you like and think should be representing your company is not always the way to go. Chances are what you like many will not. And having a go at the designer and making them make thousands of edits about font sizes, changing strap lines fifty times will just end up driving the poor designer up the wall and I bet your not their only client on their books.
I think what I am trying to say here, know who you are, what makes you different and how are you going to display this, dont trust yourself instead go get a designer that is trustworthy and knows what makes a good click through advert.
Same rule applies to promoting merchants, know who they are, what makes them unique, look at their graphics, its a good yard stick to measure their state of mind about their company and where they see themselves in the bigger scheme of things.
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