Choosing between affiliates

Frequencies

Frequencies

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Which one do you choose before you start A / B testing?

A. lowest price guarantee, but no possibility of deep linking. (link to home page, so many distractions and more time spent to order)

B. Most products are slightly more expensive than A, but it is possible to link directly to the product. (not a lowest price guarantee, but compared with more expensive competitors)

C. A and B together on one page

D. .......

I will ask whether A make deep linking possible, but I don't have time to wait for that.
 
@Frequencies I'd choose B. I have no interest in selling the lowest price item, since that means I'm making less affiliate commissions and I have to push more volume just to hopefully get a good sized commission.

Example, if an item is $10 and the commission is 20%, I'd be getting $2 per sale. In order to make $1,000 I need to make 500 sales. That's a lot of sales mate, anyway you look at it. If you could push 500 sales, would you really want to only sell an item that nets you $2 per sale? Let's also say you are able to convert at 2% of your traffic. To get 500 sales you'd need to generate 25,000 visitors. That's about 834 visitors a day for 30 days. That's a lot of work for simply $1,000.

Whereas if I am promoting an item that costs $50 and a commission of 20%, that's $10 per sale. In order to make $1,000 I need 100 sales. That overall sounds like a lot less work versus 500 sales. As well not everyone is looking for the "cheapest" product. There are people looking for higher quality goods, services, and products. I personally would rather pay a bit more for a service which has great customer support and feedback versus just going with the cheap version and impossible to talk to support. Using the same 2% conversion, I'd need to generate 5,000 visitors. That' about 167 visitors a day for 30 days. That's a lot less work overall.

Now for a $100 item - 20% commission. Revenue is $20 per sale, only need 50 sales, 2% conversion comes to 2,500 visitors (84 visits a day). WAY WAY less work.

I feel like a lot of affiliate marketers fail cause they try to sell the cheapest product simple because they thing it's going to "sell more" or "sell faster". But that low price comes with the negative that you'll need more volume in terms of traffic and sales just to generate the same amount of money as a higher ticket item. If the only option you see is to "discount" or use a "coupon" as a sales angle than you have further reduced your commission and lengthened your road to ROI. When you are stumped on how to get more sales look at what the high-end luxury markets do with their marketing. Try mimicking them.

"Do you ever see Rolls Royce giving a promotion?" - Dan Peña

Don't get scared selling a higher ticket item, it's all about presentation, hitting on the pressure points, and harping in on quality. Apple products are not cheap when compared to their inferior counterparts, but they are one of the largest companies in the world for a reason. They've mastered the art of showcasing quality. If you can mimic Apple's level of customer care, attention to detail on all levels - even down to the packaging the products come in, you too can sell high ticket items without a problem.

Also dealing on the higher-end of the market the mindset of the consumer is completely different. Price rarely matters, it's about getting the job done for them. You also aren't dealing with the discounters or coupon-ers that want a further discount on the $10 items. Refunds are few, unless your product simple did not deliver, just because of the higher caliber consumers.

Some of this may seem foreign to someone that grew up poor or didn't have the luxury of getting high-end products as they grew up, but this "discount" is the "only way to go" mentality will hurt you in the long run. I've had times where I asked customer support a couple of questions about their product while I was ready to buy and the person on the other end was so desperate to make a sale they just offer a discount just because. Basically they just lost a bit of extra revenue cause they got a bit nervous - I took the discount of course, but really the only thing I cared about was that the product did the job I needed it to do, which was the only reason I was asking questions to them in the first place.
 
CCarter said:
@Frequencies I'd choose B. I have no interest in selling the lowest price item, since that means I'm making less affiliate commissions and I have to push more volume just to hopefully get a good sized commission.

Example, if an item is $10 and the commission is 20%, I'd be getting $2 per sale. In order to make $1,000 I need to make 500 sales. That's a lot of sales mate, anyway you look at it. If you could push 500 sales, would you really want to only sell an item that nets you $2 per sale? Let's also say you are able to convert at 2% of your traffic. To get 500 sales you'd need to generate 25,000 visitors. That's about 834 visitors a day for 30 days. That's a lot of work for simply $1,000.

Whereas if I am promoting an item that costs $50 and a commission of 20%, that's $10 per sale. In order to make $1,000 I need 100 sales. That overall sounds like a lot less work versus 500 sales. As well not everyone is looking for the "cheapest" product. There are people looking for higher quality goods, services, and products. I personally would rather pay a bit more for a service which has great customer support and feedback versus just going with the cheap version and impossible to talk to support. Using the same 2% conversion, I'd need to generate 5,000 visitors. That' about 167 visitors a day for 30 days. That's a lot less work overall.

Now for a $100 item - 20% commission. Revenue is $20 per sale, only need 50 sales, 2% conversion comes to 2,500 visitors (84 visits a day). WAY WAY less work.

I feel like a lot of affiliate marketers fail cause they try to sell the cheapest product simple because they thing it's going to "sell more" or "sell faster". But that low price comes with the negative that you'll need more volume in terms of traffic and sales just to generate the same amount of money as a higher ticket item. If the only option you see is to "discount" or use a "coupon" as a sales angle than you have further reduced your commission and lengthened your road to ROI. When you are stumped on how to get more sales look at what the high-end luxury markets do with their marketing. Try mimicking them.

"Do you ever see Rolls Royce giving a promotion?" - Dan Peña

Don't get scared selling a higher ticket item, it's all about presentation, hitting on the pressure points, and harping in on quality. Apple products are not cheap when compared to their inferior counterparts, but they are one of the largest companies in the world for a reason. They've mastered the art of showcasing quality. If you can mimic Apple's level of customer care, attention to detail on all levels - even down to the packaging the products come in, you too can sell high ticket items without a problem.

Also dealing on the higher-end of the market the mindset of the consumer is completely different. Price rarely matters, it's about getting the job done for them. You also aren't dealing with the discounters or coupon-ers that want a further discount on the $10 items. Refunds are few, unless your product simple did not deliver, just because of the higher caliber consumers.

Some of this may seem foreign to someone that grew up poor or didn't have the luxury of getting high-end products as they grew up, but this "discount" is the "only way to go" mentality will hurt you in the long run. I've had times where I asked customer support a couple of questions about their product while I was ready to buy and the person on the other end was so desperate to make a sale they just offer a discount just because. Basically they just lost a bit of extra revenue cause they got a bit nervous - I took the discount of course, but really the only thing I cared about was that the product did the job I needed it to do, which was the only reason I was asking questions to them in the first place.
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This is me. I always try to promote the cheapest stuff because I have this idea that no one will buy the expensive product
 
CCarter said:
But didn't you buy an iMac a while back?
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True lol. When I worked as a supplement rep I always used to get moaned at for promoting the cheapest stuff and not the high priced items, so I need to change that mindset
 
B = more money for you if most things remain equal, a shorter sales funnel with you pre-selling and them hard-closing.

If you tweak your copywriting to impact the emotional sector of the brain harder than the intellectual, you can get them too excited to even worry about looking for cheaper options.

While there are people who will drive all the way across town to save an extra penny on a gallon of gas, most of us call those people crazy, losing $5 to save 5¢.

There's a lot of us think "hmm, my time is too valuable to go hunting for coupons and deals. I'm going to buy here and move on with my life." Those are easy conversions.

It's the people with more money in their account, who earn more money, who are the easiest to convert.

The scarcity mentality of peddling cheap shit to broke people is why a lot of IM's fail and can't get traction. Abundance!!!!
 
Ryuzaki said:
If you tweak your copywriting to impact the emotional sector of the brain harder than the intellectual, you can get them too excited to even worry about looking for cheaper options.
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I totally agree. It's also worth mentioning that a lot of people like to buy the best, and they determine which product is best by looking at the price.

Back in the 80s, a French beer called Stella Artois launched in the UK. It was a little bit stronger than most competing beers. Sadly this meant it was taxed at a higher rate, and these costs were reflected in the sale price. It sold poorly.

Alcohol advertising rules meant that the obvious solution ("this shit gets you drunk quicker!") wasn't available. So they had to get thinking, and they came up with a bold solution. Their new tagline was "Reassuringly expensive", and a humorous ad campaign was built around it.

People saw the campaign, looked at the price, and reasoned they were paying for quality. Of course, if you know your beer, you'll know that it's nothing special. But they sold tons of it, and it's still one of the biggest selling beer brands in the UK.
 
Thanks for the clear explanation.

(OK not A, due to the lack of the ability to link directly to the product. Although the commission of 23%)

Now, the next with an Option D:

The price difference between B and D is up to 20% per product.

The products are exactly the same at both providers.

The product prices range from 5 to 120 Euro

B (the price fighter) 20% CPS with a measurement period of 100 days. (product € 60 x 20% = € 12, -)

D 15% CPS + € 0.30 per CPL newsletter subscription with a measurement time of 30 days. This company is an authority and gives a lot more money on offline marketing. Almost everyone knows the name of this company. (Product € 72 x 15% = € 10.80)

What do you think?
 
The truth?

I think you asked this question in May 2015 and should have been split testing all those options over the last eight months. Then you wouldn't still be looking for an answer to a question that should have been split test from the start.

You never choose one before you start to split test. You just start to split test.
 
Frequencies said:
B (the price fighter) 20% CPS with a measurement period of 100 days. (product € 60 x 20% = € 12, -)

D 15% CPS + € 0.30 per CPL newsletter subscription with a measurement time of 30 days. This company is an authority and gives a lot more money on offline marketing. Almost everyone knows the name of this company. (Product € 72 x 15% = € 10.80)
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At this point, I'd be thinking that a 100 day cookie theoretically sounds nice but is pretty impractical at this level of spend. Anyone that's going to buy is going to go ahead and buy within the 30 day cookie range of the other site. Seems like we could safely disregard cookie length here.

It all boils down to conversion rates at that point. Is Site D going to convert enough more due to it's authority and trust enough to make up for the $2 per sale difference? Site D charges more but everyone trusts it more. That's helping you make up the gap between 20% and 15% already. I wouldn't even worry about the newsletter subs.

In this thought experiment, I'd go with D. However, the proper answer is get the traffic stream together and test both.
 
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