Amazon - Conversion Stats - Is it normal?

Discussion in 'Amazon' started by anandsoft, Dec 24, 2008.

  1. #1
    The conversions for Book sales affiliate on a certification websites is as below:

    Visitors:651
    Unique visitors:551
    Items ordered Amazon :7
    3rd Party : 1
    Total : 8
    Conversion: 1.23%

    What are the conversion rates that are typical for direct links? Per click earnings are working out to about 2c. By the way, the averge adwords PPC rates for the niche are about 16c. It appears that the above rates are very low. Any suggestions for improvement?
     
    anandsoft, Dec 24, 2008 IP
  2. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #2
    Anyone to share the experience?..:confused:
     
    anandsoft, Dec 25, 2008 IP
  3. Sebastin

    Sebastin Peon

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    #3
    id say its ok, I get more than 1000 uniques/day but iam still stuck at less that 0.80% conversion rate
     
    Sebastin, Dec 25, 2008 IP
  4. ciscopower

    ciscopower Active Member

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    #4
    For target visitors, the conversion rate is about 5-10%, for normal traffic, the conversion rate is below 4%.
    For beginner, if you don't target your traffic, the conversion rate is just below 1%.
     
    ciscopower, Dec 25, 2008 IP
  5. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #5
    Hello...We get highly targeted visitors. Further, according to an article at: http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/02/0...ers-by-conversion-rate-january-2008-analysis/

    the conversion rates for various sites are as given below:

    1. Proflowers.com - 14.1%
    2. Coldwater Creek - 13.3%
    3. FTD.com - 13.0%
    4. QVC - 12.8%
    5. Office Depot - 12.4%
    6. eBay - 11.5%
    7. Lands’ End - 11.5%
    8. Tickets.com - 11.2%
    9. 1800flowers.com - 10.0%
    10. Amazon - 9.6%

    For targeted visitors, the conversions are around 10% as per the above stats. Considering this, a conversion rate of 1-2% appears very small.

    Any suggestions abuot the alternatives available for technical books affiliate programs other than Amazon?
     
    anandsoft, Dec 26, 2008 IP
  6. Parka

    Parka Well-Known Member

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    #6
    How do you know you're getting targeted traffic? What evidence do you have of that?

    Are the search keywords people using the same as the items you're writing about?

    If you're running a blog, do the readers comment by saying your blog is helpful?
     
    Parka, Dec 26, 2008 IP
  7. Parka

    Parka Well-Known Member

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    #7
    PPC with Adwords is not recommended unless you're planning on selling high priced items, or if you're good at converting.

    I would recommend you work on your conversion rates first. How? Provide your readers with information that enables them to make a sale. Think from their buying perspective.
     
    Parka, Dec 26, 2008 IP
  8. takingaction

    takingaction Peon

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    #8
    I agree with Parka. I don't use PPC for anything under $150. With the competition and the referral rate being what it is it's almost impossible to make a significant profit selling books on Amazon as an affiliate using PPC.

    My conversion with PPC right now is about 15%, but it took a lot of research and higher priced items.
     
    takingaction, Dec 27, 2008 IP
  9. EdenView

    EdenView Peon

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    #9
    Have you considered the location of your visitors? My biggest headache came in discovering that I had 80% British traffic on a site that I was using an Amazon affiliate program with, and unless I had signed up with Amazon Associates at amazon.co.uk the commission did not pass-through :(
    Otherwise, I have conversion rates as low as .2% on high-dollar topics, to as high as 30% on everyday type purchases.
     
    EdenView, Dec 27, 2008 IP
  10. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #10
    We look at stats as well as SE ranking for competitive keywords. Most of the traffic is organic, and very small amount of PPC. Further, I think the likelihood of conversion is high when a visitor clicks on an explicit amazon product (book) link. (which is the case in the current website). As far as presale is concerned, Amazon themselves provide writeup for most of the products, and the same is used. As far as traffic goes, it's primarily US followed by EU, India, and other countries.

    Any suggestions on alternatives for Amazon? I know of B and N, but we need to go through Google. There is no direct affiliate subscription.
     
    anandsoft, Dec 30, 2008 IP
  11. sweetfunny

    sweetfunny Banned

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    #11
    Half the problem with Amazon is the 24 hour cookie duration, many people click through and checkout the product but don't buy instantly. They research it a bit more, sleep on it and when they but it tomorrow you don't get credit for the sale you originally referred.

    Also the affiliate percentage is low, and many of the sales are low dollar items which all add up to poor results from Amazon for most people.
     
    sweetfunny, Dec 30, 2008 IP
  12. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #12
    It's surprising that the cookie duration is only 24hours. It seems Amazon is making good use of affiliates!
     
    anandsoft, Jan 2, 2009 IP
  13. sweetfunny

    sweetfunny Banned

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    #13
    Yes it's "very" low, i believe there is no other affiliate program that has a cookie duration that short. Even Ebay gives you 7 days for purchases and 30 days for signups.
     
    sweetfunny, Jan 2, 2009 IP
  14. origimist

    origimist Peon

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    #14
    anandsoft, those numbers look about right actually based on my experience and match what is reported in the conversion list for Amazon.

    Remember, you can't compare your conversion rate with the Amazon site conversion rate directly. If you're lucky, 10% of your visitors will click through and 10% of those will buy an item. So if you have 1000 visitors, you'll have 100 click through and only 10 purchases.

    With targeted traffic, I get about a 12% rate of page views clicking through a site to Amazon, then a 12% rate of people that click though actually buying stuff at Amazon. Which works out to about 1.5% conversion/visitor ratio.

    Bad if you have only 600 page views for items worth $10 each. Not bad at all if you have 50,000 page views and are promoting items over $100.

    Check out my blog (in my sig below) for some more detailed info on my various sites Amazon conversion numbers.
     
    origimist, Jan 2, 2009 IP
  15. Parka

    Parka Well-Known Member

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    #15
    Just to add on.

    The time spent on research will have to do with the type of item. E.g. A DVD is a simple item. A PS3 is a more complicated item.

    People will need more information when they are purchasing a complicated item. That is unless the website they are visiting can provide them with that kind of information. That's why I think Amazon is a great website with lots of information on the product.

    I always tell my blog readers to check out Amazon to read more reviews. If they buy, it's a bonus for me. If they don't buy, at least I helped them and they might come back to my site again.
     
    Parka, Jan 3, 2009 IP
  16. Sebastin

    Sebastin Peon

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    #16
    Sebastin, Jan 3, 2009 IP
  17. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #17
    The stats show the actual number of click on Amazon product links. They are direct product links from highly relevant pages. For example, we sell widget1, and the book links for widget1 are provided. Considering the type of linking, and the quality of visitors, conversion rates appear very low.
     
    anandsoft, Jan 17, 2009 IP
  18. bizkidzee

    bizkidzee Peon

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    #18
    I am too struggling to get started with amazon. I wish they had 7 days cookie duration like ebay..It could have made a lot of difference..

    Anyways I am working on it.
     
    bizkidzee, Jan 17, 2009 IP
  19. anandsoft

    anandsoft Guest

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    #19
    Yes, it would have been nice if the cookie is atleast valid for 7 days. Further, does anybody know whether Amazon links pass PR? For example, if we provide a link to widget1 from mydomain.com to Amazon, will that link pass PR to Amazon?
    For example, consider the following code:

    <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=mydomain&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=1587201846&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
     
    anandsoft, Jan 20, 2009 IP
  20. mg_

    mg_ Peon

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    #20
    I have usually 1-2% with amazon with SE traffic
     
    mg_, Jan 22, 2009 IP