First post: January 6, 2016. Last updated: June 12, 2019
If you're getting hits but not conversions, you're missing an essential piece of the puzzle. It's your job to find out why. Like any problem, it’s fundamental to get to the root issue and try to address it.
It helps to have traffic — but if you don’t, you gotta know how to generate it.
This, generally speaking, takes time & money. One of the most frustrating dilemmas a marketer can find him or herself in is having the traffic, but not having the conversions.
Expectation is the mother of all frustration. - Antonio Banderas
While the quote above remains true, there’s usually an explanation for everything, and sometimes it’s just a matter of finding out what’s wrong first before determining a fix.
Luckily for you, we have 7 questions that we think you should ask yourself to help direct your success in achieving more conversions.
Here they are:
#1 - How Well Do You Really Know Your Traffic and Audience?
Steady conversions require a strong understanding of one's audience. Do you know the age, geographic and general interests of your traffic? If not, get a better picture on this, it's a fantastic place to start.
The worst thing you can do is promote something to an audience that is completely out of left field; If your traffic doesn’t have a predisposition to adult or x-rated content, you—or shall we say your conversions—are going to suffer.
Know your audience. Know their mood.
#2 - Does Your Funnel need Improvement?
Maybe you're doing an awesome job generating exactly the kind of traffic you want, but that traffic just ain't converting? This likely stems from an ineffective funnel.
Good news is, funnels can always be improved. It's time to look at your traffic behavior to determine how your traffic actually reacts through your sales funnel.
Check your User flow
The way your site is constructed can have a fairly large impact on how your traffic navigates through. In fact, this whole process can sometimes be the determining factor whether they complete a conversion... or don't.
Great user flow doesn’t happen by chance. It requires thoughtfulness and a greater understanding on how your traffic will be using your site.
To establish a rock solid flow, know your objective for each page. No matter the objective, your goal for each user is to figure out how you can seal the deal on the conversion and move them on to the next step.
#3 - Are You Promoting Your Chosen Vertical Effectively?
While it’s never wise to put all of your eggs in one basket, successful web marketers usually choose a main vertical of focus.
This focus usually brings expertise and, consequently, success!
But there’s a catch… Not all verticals are equal.
Each of them have some specifics to take into account.
Cams
Cams — arguably the most popular and most-promoted vertical in recent years — has typically seen the highest conversion ratios out of the bunch. It’s actually quite unusual to see a long-term trend of an absence in conversions.
Conversions can be defined and counted as two things here:
- The conversion of a hit to a free, registered member on a free cam site.
- The conversion of a free, registered member to that of a spending member on a free cam site. Typically speaking, most marketers who promote this niche thrive.
Affiliates are paid for their leads because free membership is easy to obtain as the visitor only has to register with a free email (and confirm that it wasn’t a fake address entered - that’s called DOI). Many creatives/landing pages do a good job at conveying the ease of becoming a free member.
But the big takeaway here is we actually see just as many spending users as well. Free members have a front row seat to chatrooms with the other spending members. They see how many people tip, how socially acceptable it is to tip after a good show, and most importantly, they see what they’re missing out on when they don’t tip.
In other words: what not tipping gets them vs. actually tipping!
Therefore, if long term cam profits are desired, choose a strategy that expands on this (by conveying the importance of tipping) and how this simple act of appreciation can enhance the user experience by a long shot!
Dating
This is a vertical where geo-targeting is absolutely PARAMOUNT.
Think about it…If a male from the US ends up on a landing and sees a woman from Kazakhstan ready to hook up — do you really think this gives him full confidence to register and/or sign up with a credit card to see more pics & enjoy full member benefits?!
Probably not.
Indeed, visitors to tend to search for dates who are living close to them and not on the other side of the planet. To avoid this hilariously embarrassing situation, ensure that all aspects of your campaigns are geo-targeted and functional when promoting Dating!
Adult Gaming
Adult Gaming is a fairly new vertical that has gained a lot of traction lately. In 2018 alone, the sales made in this particular niche have seen an 87% increase.
With this vertical, interactivity is the key.
You need to appeal to your user’s inner-gamer within. The best way to achieve this is by promoting games. Interesting games. Hell, even shockingly explicit games. Games that simulate sexual acts.
These do terrific.
It also helps to promote games related to popular series or movies: people always love to see their favorite characters in a less traditional manner.
This vertical also gives you the opportunity to be more inventive and imaginative in regards to the ad tools used. Indeed, reality is not a barrier in the adult gaming vertical…
Paysites
With the vast amounts of free content readily available on the web, this vertical tends to stand out and typically outshines in the conversions department (when you promote content that is not only high caliber, but niched).
Anyone can find your average, run-of-the-mill, “vanilla” sex video on any number of the established tubes. But imagine this not quite cutting it for your average porn-goer.
Imagine this experienced, super-adventurous porn-goer wanting something a bit more out there, targeted… extreme… perhaps involving over-sized objects (and in HD).
Sound familiar?
When you promote a targeted product and show your visitor there’s plenty more where that came from, watch what happens.
#4 – Are you Promoting the Right Product...
Once you’ve assessed that the vertical isn’t the problem, it’s time to check if the offer you’re promoting has any restrictions that prevents you from generating conversions (and income).
…with the right GEOs?
Some providers don’t accept traffic from certain countries and – consequently – aren’t paying for the conversions generated from these countries. So make sure that your offer fits the traffic you’re sending.
…with the right niche?
Some verticals can offer a great variety of niche-specific landings:
e.g., ebony, couples, BBW, asian, blondes, teens, and so on.
Make sure that your creatives and campaigns go hand-in-hand with the niche-specific offers you’re trying to promote!
…with the right/allowed promotional method?
Some providers may restrict how an offer can be promoted.
Maybe you’ll find promoting an offer using Mailing traffic is prohibited?
On the flip side, we include both restrictions AND recommendations on the most effective and successful promotional methods on each of our offers pages.
You’ll see those recommendations in the section called “Additional Information” like this one:
Always make sure that you’re complying, following the confines of a TOS, and keeping recommendations in mind when you’re presented with them!
#5 – Is Your Campaign Optimized?
This, my friends, is the icing on the cake.
Once you’ve qualified your traffic and chose the right vertical and offers to promote, the next step is making sure that your landing page is spot on.
The best way to achieve this? By A/B testing your ads!
You’ll find the winning formula that’s generating the most clicks & conversions.
#6 – Do You Have Enough Traffic?
Say you’re doing everything right … your campaigns are targeted … and your traffic is qualified.
Perhaps the problem lies in your traffic volume?
Indeed, some fully optimized campaigns can see around 1 or 2 leads per every 100 clicks.
Every campaign is different though, and you shouldn’t be alarmed if your ratios don’t mirror this.
The important thing to realize is you shouldn’t expect to generate a lot of conversions if you’re driving only a few dozen or few hundred visitors each month. Remember folks, this is CPA, not PPC! So if traffic is what you’re lacking, you’ll want to look more closely at a traffic generation strategy such as SEO.
#7 – Did You Consult Your Affiliate Manager?
Once you’ve reviewed all the points mentioned above and if you still haven’t determined what is causing your conversions to suffer, it’s time to contact a professional.
At CrakRevenue, we have an Affiliate Management team known for their eagle eye when it comes to analyzing stats. So don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re ever in a pickle!
Use Without Moderation
Using this whole process as a guideline, you should be able to discover all of those potential hiccups that could be impacting your conversions.
Indeed, even the most successful affiliates never stop questioning their approach. Not becoming complacent is the best path to earning a whole lot of money!