Example how 100% UNREALISTIC CB Vendor's Earnings Claims are...

One thing which really, really ****es me off about clickbank VENDORS is the fact that each and any vendor claims that his product has insane conversions like 1:20 - and how "supposedly easy" it is just to promote HIS product with Adwords/PPC to make "big big money".

The reality is that i personally think that a huge majority of clickbank vendors dont give a *** about affiliates and probably NEVER have seen the affiliate site of things themselves - let alone did PPC.

A very typical example i just randomly picked was a site for a registry cleaner where the owner of the product says how great it is and how great it converts - with claims of conversion rates up to 23% and how "easy" it is to make money just by taking his keywords and start PPC.

This is the harsh reality:



Now go and have fun selling this product and "get rich".

Here, by the way, the current "registry repair" products as taken from cbengine and what you actually MAKE by selling one of them:



Now, go have fun bidding $1.50-$2 PER BID to even show up on adwords and hope that you make $15 with each sale. Even with pre-school kindergarten math you might come to the conclusion that if you were to do this you will be broke quicker than you can blink.

But...no panic Since we have a great miracle conversion rate of 23%.... <--- as the vendor claims...

I am posting this since i see this kind of things over and over - and the above is just ONE typical example of a huge "reality gap" in vendor's claims and harsh affiliate reality ESPECIALLY with PPC.

 

Another good post!...I am a product owner and even I don't do PPC for my products......after doing the math it just doesn't make sense. I see affiliates doing it for me but I know they are taking a bath as they are getting 50% of what I would receive from PPC.

The other "DARK SIDE" is that many vendors will ask their web users to opt-in for some sort of free offer. Or they use those annoying faux chat utilities. They then follow up with them via email later to try to sell their product again. The email or chat window has a hop link with their own affiliate ID so it essentially overwrites the ID already on the users PC. BY USING THIS TACTIC THEY ESSENTIALLY STEAL THE SALE FROM THE AFFILIATE THAT ORIGINALLY SENT THAT CUSTOMER. (Very stupid tactic since your taffic will dry up quickly from the best affiliates if they don't see sales)

Best to use your own landing pages and send traffic to the CB order form yourself.

 

Good post. If I saw even 15-20 percent coversion when promoting something I would probably quit my job.

 

Here is some benchmark data for site conversions....a bit dated but still about the same from the latest Marketing Sherpa research. Note, this is for main stream consumer brands mostly and not "home grown" CB products.

http://www.metamend.com/conversion-optimization/

 

A handy ROI calculator as well if you are too lazy to do the math.

http://www.metamend.com/seo-tools/ppc-roi/

(note, I am not affiliated with this site)

 

I post conversion rates as a target to aim for. If you can't reach them then don't be bitter but instead try to achieve them.

They are not BS but I don't claim my conversion rates are average. Far from it. They are the conversion rates of my best affiliates. There's no reason why anyone can't do as good as my best affiliates if they want to.

And to say that most vendors don't care about affiliates I don't agree with. My best product has a referred rate of over 95% I think. I most certainly care about my affiliates. I've got a huge to do list of things to do for my affiliates that they request of me because I listen to them.

I never claim promoting is "easy" either. I agree that such claims are foolhardy. Having said that, it ain't difficult either.

 

claims of conversion rates are completely worthless
With most products, if you are sending superior, targeted traffic, conversion rates can be as low as 1:5
However, most traffic sources are much closer to 1:200+
So this does mean it's fair to advertise rates of 1:5? No.
You just can't take your highest converting affiliate and call him the baseline.
Anyone claiming conversion rates of <100 should revise their estimate, or state that affiliates should bring along 'miracle' traffic

 

Well I am probably more cynical than most, but I take literally everything I read online with a grain of salt. Unless I have experienced it myself, I will not trust it. What I hate most are the faked CB screenshots that all the internet marketing guides use.

As a general statement, the affiliate pages that list keywords are listing the keywords they know that they cannot afford themselves to put up.

 

Its a shame that CB allows vendors to state misleading conversion rates. They should not allow it.

 

Good post, with refreshing clarity.

My challenge is delivering leads for Business Advisers and Management Consultants. I would willingly pay reasonable pay per click rates if I could find decent search terms. My challenge is that I as yet have not managed to find a term that IS a popular search term used by a business owner or senior manager.

Anyone got any ideas for me?

 

I don't care what vendors say about their products, because I always check out stats from CB-Analytics

Also don't pay much attention to "converting" keywords in affiliate section, because in 9/10 cases, that's just random list from a keyword tool.

 

Great inputs! Really is an eye opener especially for newbies in clickbank promotion like me. Thanks again!

 

I agree, just because YOU can't achieve a 23% conversion rate, or 1:20 doesn't mean others aren't. Marketers (which we all are) will always list the BEST conversion rate they are getting not the WORST. If I ever got 1:200 out of my PPC traffic I'd just quit using PPC, that is a horrid number. Now if I was spamming Craigslist I'd expect 1:200.

 

thanks for sharing - looks interesting

 

You can't make a blanket statement like that. What matters is how good the affiliate is. I have some affiliates that do make as high as 25 - 30 percent conversion rates on a consistent basis. I also have some affiliates that have sent me thousands of hops without a single sale. You can have the best product in the world, but if you try to sell it to people that don't want it, then your conversion rate is going to be extremely low. That's not the fault of the vendor, but of the person trying to sell it. If I have an affiliate that tries to sell an xbox guide on a support forum for people with missing thumbs, then there's not much I can do about that. But I can say with all honesty that if you promote my products to the right audience, then you'll have a very good conversion rate.

 

LOL...you are doing the same thing on your site!! You show a text bubble that claims 941 sales for $15K. But the CB screenshot shows only $7K in sales and NOT all of them are affiliates????

 

What's wrong with vendors listing their best conversion rates? It gives affiliates something aim for, and proves that the product converts well if they promote it in the best way. I'd rather see a product that converts great for some people than one that doesn't convert at all.

My products do 1:20 and 1:30 for some affiliates. Not all affiliates of course, but some who have great promotional campaigns set up. That's not to say that you can throw badly targeted traffic at them and get the same results, but I think most affiliates know that. It's about quality, not quantity.

 

Actually the screen shot shows exactly what it says - the amount $7k is how much I made, but there was actually $15k in sales made before affiliates are paid. That's actually an old screenshot. I make more sales than that now. And no not all of them are affiliates. But every-thing I claim on my page is absolutely true.

 

Yep I agree with this.

You have to understand that even with the registry example at the top the main phrases are always going to cost a lot as you have more people bidding on them on PPC.

However you can find "long tail" gems that your conversions will be very high.

It really does depend how you send traffic and how targetted the traffic is, venrooy, made a good point above as I too have affiliates that convert as low as 1 in 5 to about 1 in 10 alot of the time, and then I have affiliates that send alot of hops that don't convert.

It is all down to making your keywords and promotions as targeted as possible.

Just my 2 pence.

All the best

Chris

 

I was an affiliate for three years before I entered the vendor side (I still make more money as an affiliate than as a vendor) so I tried to take these things into consideration which is why I don't include any unrealistic conversion BS on my affiliate page. I know I probably lose some affiliates that way, but I try to keep it real. And I'm excited that I'm finally over the 10 gravity mark as of today (actually I'm over 11!)

And I can actually say I have two affiliates with 100% conversion rates! OK, this is very suspicious... I have two affiliates who have sent a single hop which converted into a sale. Bought from themselves to see what it's about? Possibly...

Anyway, way off topic I am. I agree with the premise ... and I think PPC is extremely difficult. I don't even bother with it anymore.