10 Tips for Advertisers to Achieve Better Conversion Ratio with Affiliate Marketing

Google recently launched the PPA program in beta, we covered it here, and opened a new media for advertisers to use Google’s PPA program to advertise and sell their products. Compared to the PPC (Pay per Click) programs, PPA (Pay per Action) [could also be called as an affiliate program to a certain extent] have an advantage and it is that advertisers pay publishers only when a click converts to a sale. Advertisers run the affiliate program using various marketing programs and many do find their campaign to be successful but some struggle to convert a visitor to a customer. Here are some tips for advertisers to achieve better conversion rates using their affiliate marketing

1. Good wordings in Ad campaign - Using right kind of language and words go a long way in attracting visitors to your Ad and website. Avoid using negative and non-value adding terms in your ad campaigns. One example of bad wordings could be “We do SEO”, which could have been written as “Affordable SEO Solutions”. Imagine the impact that it would make when a visitors spots your Ad on a website, if your Ad is served along with 5 other Ads, there must be a difference between your ad and theirs. Isn’t it?
2. Provide accurate information - Always provide most accurate information about yourself, your products and company to the visitors. This helps in building trust between you and your would-be customers. If your product has known bugs, do mention about them. There is no point in hiding the negatives of your product, it only results in losing the trust and customers won’t come back even if you later on build a flawless and world class product.
3. Setup a separate landing page - For every ad campaign that you wish to run, setup a separate landing page for visitors to land from the ads they click on. This serves two advantages for you. First, visitors see a dedicated page containing information about the products or services that you advertised in your Ad, and second that you can update the information and keep the landing page up to date with latest information. Having a separate landing page avoids the confusion visitors might have by looking at several products on your site which could distract their attention from making a purchase decision.
4. Quality of your content - Are you providing very clear and precise information for visitors to make a purchasing decision when they are on your site? Putting up lot of content and documentation on the site does not help but ends up showing unnecessary information to users who may stop reading and navigate away from your site. On the landing page, put up a list of all important features of your product and/or services, comparison charts if applicable, discounts that you wish to offer and any other important information that will help them make a purchase decision right away.
5. Deliver what you had promised - I have often seen ads showing free copy of a product but when visited the site I found it to be a free trial copy of the product and that too a limited edition. Never promise what you are not offering. If you wish to offer a trial copy of the software, your ad must clearly state that. If your services have certain limitations, make a very clear statement about it on the landing page or in the advertisement. Attracting users by making fake promises does not serve you any good other than getting lot of useless traffic. You will simply lose your name and brand in the market.
6. Make it easily available - I had once clicked on an ad that promised a free report on some kind of marketing analysis data and landed on the website which asked me to fill out a so called short survey before I could download my free report. I started with the (short) survey and completed ~20 questions. Then hoping to see a download button, I clicked on the submit button at the end of the survey and the website asked me to register with them to see the link to free download. I simply closed the browser. Avoid such things as much as possible. Don’t put up surveys, registration process, compulsory email address forms, credit card info for trial accounts etc. You might receive 100 clicks, but only few might actually end up trying your product or services. Whatever you are selling must be easily accessible to your visitors, putting up lot of formalities before the actual product is delivered simply irritates the users and wastes their precious time.
7. Privacy Information Policy- If you are asking your visitors to enter their email address, home address, phone number or credit card number, display a link to a page that tells them what you will do with the their personal information that you are collecting on your site. Providing information on how you will keep their information confidential or your plans to safeguard their personal information proves very valuable at times.
8. Guide them to Buy - Many advertisers often do the mistake of not putting up a buy button on the landing pages. You should put up a ‘buy now’ button at the bottom of your features, comparison charts etc so as to let visitors, who have made a decision buy your product, place an order. For a clear example, visit any web hosting provider’s website and check out how they place the ‘Order now’ button below their comparison/features chart.
9. Policies, Terms & Conditions - If there are certain terms and conditions to use your services, they must be shown to your visitors. If you are hiding some information from them, it will only work against your reputation and market value. You should put up a page clearly dictating your terms and conditions that apply while using your products and services. An example would be the ‘Acceptable User Policy’ that most hosting providers ask their visitors to read and agree with before they buy an account with them. By doing so, you create win-win situation for both your customers and yourself.
10. After Sales Support - Ok, you have successfully sold a product/service but what about after sales support? How will you handle the support related issues that could arise while using your product? Will you offer any refund if your product fails or will you support the bugs and problem of your product by fixing them when user complaints? You must clearly provide this information to your visitors since it makes a lot of impact on their buying decision .

I hope this information will be valuable and help you achieve better results. If you have some tips for our readers, please don’t forget to post your comments here!