Time To Kick Network Conversion Rates Into Touch?
Posted under: Some of you might have gathered that affiliate program conversion rate tends not to be a big issue in the world of the duck. The only number we tend to look at is the one with a pound sign in front of it, and provided that’s moving upwards it’s good news. However, conversion data provided by networks for programs is I expect useful to some people in order to judge who to promote and not.
However is it time for that data to be kicked into touch?
For example Merchant X on a network has a conversion rate of 2% and an EPC of 0.15! What does that actually mean to you as an affiliate? Let’s assume you choose not to promote this merchant as the conversion rate is low and instead pick a competitor, Merchant Y, who’s conversion rate is much higher.
Now consider this – what if Merchant Y only has a higher conversion rate due to extensive work with vouchers or even cashback. In comparison Merchant X doesn’t work with these kind of sites, but it’s CR for say blog content is actually higher than Merchant Y.
| Merchant X | Merchant Y | |
| Loyalty | - | 7% |
| Vouchers | - | 5% |
| Blog | 2% | 0.1% |
| Average | 2% | 4% |
In the table above, Merchant X’s average CR is 2%. They don’t work with loyalty or vouchers so aren’t included in the average. Merchant Y does, but is poor for blog content and therefore has dragged down the average. Yet it still looks a better proposition than it’s competitor.
The above is a rough demonstration, and not based on any reality, but it serves a point. If you were going to write content for Merchant Y then you’d know that any text you put together that you should include their discount codes in order to improve the chances of conversion.
Although the table above only selects 3 areas of affiliate marketing there are of course plenty more. Email and Search for example. If you knew a merchant converts better via email than pure content then that could a great deal.
Opening up this kind of data to affiliates seems to me logical, but it’s probably akin to opening a can of worms, discovering pandora’s box inside and then opening that for good measure. Would networks and merchants be happy for this level of openness? Is the data there in the first place? Would it reveal more about a program than is currently available?
Then of course there’s the question would affiliates use the data? In theory it should help them make more astute decisions about who to promote and more importantly how. However, many affiliates prefer the suck it and see method. Sometimes a turkey for one affiliate is a golden goose for another.
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Jason, again from agency side, we’ve done this a few times, but this isn’t really something that can be done as ‘standard’ research unless the networks build the reporting tool to allow us to generate this kind of report on the fly. secondly, it also requires that each and every site for each and every affiliate is accurately labeled, and that affiliates use the correct link on the correct site (you’d need to differentiate between different links as well) – only after this would you get meaningful data.
now, once you’ve got that data, its a little bit of a can of worms what if you’ve got a merchant who doesn’t want to work with voucher code sites due to Brand, who through this research we discover voucher codes are the best converting sites. next if the conversion rates are poor for blogs, does that then discourage blog affiliates from signing up to the campaign?
i suspect its just too ‘messy’ a thing to get involved in, whilst its a great theory, really i think from agency-land, it may do more damage than good.
Hi Jason,
I understand the frustration but thought I should pipe up from an agency/network perspective.
I have spent the last four and a half years working both network and agency side until recently (!), and I can honestly say that in all that time no merchant has ever made a decision based on conversion rates.
Clearly merchants are aware of conversion rate, as it is a key metric in other channels such as search and display. However if the merchant has a rudimentary understanding of the channel then they will understand what you are saying above and will not take conversion rate as the be all and end all.
With the majority of merchants that I have worked with, they will ask questions about overall conversion rates but be more concerned if the conversion rate of an individual affiliate dropped significantly.
To answer your original question, no I don’t think it’s time to kick network conversion rates into touch. However it does need to be viewed in context.
Matt
Cheers Ken
“unless the networks build the reporting tool to allow us to generate this kind of report on the fly”
See that for me is quite interesting that the facility isn’t there for merchants or agencies (if it is then maybe a network will post). If it’s not there for you guys then there’s probably no hope for that info to get to the affiliate lol.
I understand what you mean about meaningful data, but then a rough idea for each type has to be better than an overall CR across all kinds of affiliates?
“discourage blog affiliates from signing up to the campaign” – double edger, yes it would but then it might mean an affiliate using their time to promote something else OR an affiliate may look at how others are promoting and see if they can find a better way to promote.
“i suspect its just too ‘messy’ a thing to get involved in” – quite possibly, although tbh I think the data would be fascinating to see.
Hi Matt – hope all’s well.
It’s interesting you and Ken both give an agency/network pov… but from an affiliate pov do you think knowing a merchant may be better promoted via email vs ppc or voucher vs content would be a useful thing?
As is there’s no data to demonstrate that to them?
On the flip side, I guess the more data we end up with the more confusions that arise.
Jason, I think one of the big issues is ‘data overload’ in that there is so much of it, unless the networks or ourselves develop tools to process this data into meaningful stats ‘live’ its very difficult to keep up. hopefully some of the networks will take heed and provide us with this kind of functionality.
i certainly agree that data on an individual affiliate level or even on a group level would give far more insight than a generic campaign level conversion rate.
i’d be happy to work with you and do some experimenting on this if you were interested.
as for from an affiliate prespective – now with my affiliate hat on – in some cases this would be very useful for me, as i only really use a blog i would only go for merchants where the CR was higher for blogs, on the flip side however if i had a generic voucher code site, i’d ignore it given that my site would only be valuable by being extensive.
i think the crux is different data sets are useful for different parts of the industry and the key is knowing what and which data to look at in order to make educated decisions.
in my 8 years in the industry, the only affiliates I’ve seen taking these figures seriously when choosing which merchant to work with are those who are trying to make a quick buck. Serious affiliates know that unless they get their own stats from the specific merchant, EPC, CR, AOV, click to sale time, validation %, time for payment, then whatever stats are published are not of much use.
No serious merchant takes them seriously either when comparing their performance to the competitors. Unless they have been told it’s a useful metric by their agency or network. Again, it’s all a matter of having targets and meeting them through your program.
Why are networks publishing them? Old habits die last.