[surfnturf]

In your opinion what is a reasonable CTR for the following ad types:

Banner (in context) -?

Text (in context) - ?

Email (to previous buyers of similar product) - ?

Email (to previous buyers of store but not similar product) - ?


I would greatly appreciate any input you could offer.

Signed...


Noob

[2busy]

43

Sorry, but your question is totally removed from any context and realistically only you can answer your question. It's like "how long is a piece of string?". CTR depends on the sample size (number of possibles) and interest (targeting the possibles) and the topic. Also involves message optimization and for sites, the traffic volume and source.

[surfnturf]

I appreciate your candor.

Perhaps you can give me some insight into how CTR relates to conversion?

Thoughts?

[OICUAM2]

There was an old forumla that said you genrally needed to drive 100 clicks in order to get a conversion (1%), but this isn't very helpful because each market, merchant, and source of traffic is different.

I think that in context text links work the best along with text links in emails sent to a good email list.

[surfnturf]

Thanks for your response it is very helpful as I was just looking for something general to gauge our performance.

There is so much talk about parasites and the like, I don't know what real is to the affiliate at large. We received about 450 clicks in our first month as an experimental affiliate, making one sale. We have 11 banners or links for products that are relevant to our audience, receiving an 8-25% CTR for many of the links and an overall CTR of .98%.

Based on the numbers above I think I have relevant links to the content on the site and should have made at least 3 more sales. Part of the problem is the site caters to both English and Spanish speaking visitors with an emphasis on the Latino. All the links are in English, I have not found much in the way of Spanish language links.

Questions:

1. Is the CTR I mention above low, medium or high based on your experience?

2. Are there any Spanish language affiliates or affiliate networks worth working with?

3. How receptive do you feel merchants would be to working with us to create campaigns aimed at the US Hispanic market?


Any thoughts on the above would be greatly appreciated...

[hairy_hermit]

Hi surfnturf,

I was just looking at some of my site and link stats tonight.

I have an affiliate banner + context text link above-the-fold on a home page that invites visitors to download a software free trial.
Referring to your description, I would cetainly call it 'banner-in-context'.
It gets 3% to 6% clickthrough. (But no sales this month out of 2500 impressions.)

How does click-through relate to conversion here? Evidently less than one person in 150 will be a buyer from that that page. Why? I don't know for sure yet.

Other factors I think about relating to that page: there is un-targeted traffic arriving at that page; the page is informational - not what you could call 'sales copy'; maybe the vendor's sales page (that the links go to) has some problem and discourages purchasers.

There are so many variables. And 2busy is right: sample size, topic, context are some of them.

I'm speaking as a person with a site that's about a specific topic and has some affiliate links sprinkled through it.

From my perspective, if I saw 25% click-through from ANY link I would be VERY interested in that. I'd be thinking "Now there's my latest 'featured product' that I will promote."

(Of course my interest would also depend on sample-size, commission that can be earned per sale, whether the product is reputable, whether vendor's purchase page works smoothly etc.)

Re Spanish: I don't really know about that. However, I have promoted Panda computer security software: the company is from Spain. An affiliate manager from Panda hangs out on these forums.
He was very helpful to me as a newbie affiliate - even though the problem I had wasn't his responsibility (and I have only ever made one or two sales of Panda products).
In fact, my exchange with him was one of the experiences that reminded me that this business, full of rogues and half-baked schemes as it is, can also be a civilised business where we deal with helpful, ethical people.

Anyway, good luck with your efforts. I'm just learning too.

[April Weber]

Hello,

I wanted to address your question regarding the email click through rate. I work with many email publishers and we typically look more for the EPC or earnings per click to judge how the campaign is doing. There are many factors that can change and alter the EPC. Creatives, from, subject lines, can change the conversion rates as well as the customer demo you are sending to. Offers that are purchase offers vs offers that are lead gen offers will also change the conversion rates. So as far as mailing the offers there are many factors that would be involved in what epc's or conversions to expect. Your AM should be able to help you determine what ones will work best for you and your traffic and give you stats specifically on your traffic type which will help you determine where you should be.

April Weber
Clickbooth Affiliate Strategist