Comments on: What Is A Good Affiliate Program Conversion Rate?

By: Geno

Geno — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:54:06 +0000

I believe by “specialty” they mean niche sites (e.g.: gift baskets, hardwood floors, hair accessories, etc), while by “catalog” they imply larger all-in-one type “online malls” like Amazon, Overstock, Walmart.com, etc

By: Nate White

Nate White — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:38:54 +0000

Interesting to see how these conversion rates have changed over the years. Do you happen to know what sites would be categorized as Catalog and Specialty? Theoretically, any site can have a catalog. And unless you’re someone like Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc., every site can be lumped into Specialty.

By: Geno

Geno — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:52:28 +0000

Many of the above-quoted “top brands” do a lot to achieve these high conversion rates (e.g.: Amazon continuously runs tens of thousands of split tests to increase conversion). Plus, brand recognition contributes at lot to it too.

By: David

David — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 06:32:27 +0000

I am early days in my affiliate program and it will be interesting to see what conversion I get. For now, I am having a hard time getting my head around the conversion rates discussed here. From the 28% conversion for the top-brand to the 3% average conversion is quite a gap. In general, what that is telling me is that the few top-brands get most of the business and many others get very little.

By: Geno

Geno — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:39:07 +0000

It would definitely be interesting to put together a similar comparison of lead gen conversion rates (by vertical). What do you register, Brian, and in what niche/field/vertical?

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:38:42 +0000

Lead generation seems to have a much lower conversion rate from what I see.

By: Geno

Geno — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:48:08 +0000

Good points, Viktor. This is precisely why I always say that the responsibility for conversion is always mutual or shared between the affiliate (who is supposed to be sending targeted traffic to the merchant) and the merchant (who is to ensure that his/her website actually converts).

By: Viktor Zeman

Viktor Zeman — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:09:18 +0000

If conversion on your website through affiliate links is not great, it doesn’t mean, that conversion of website is wrong.
Conversion depends on quality of traffic delivered by affiliate.

e.g. some of our affiliates deliver traffic with conversion up to 10% and some of them less than 1%.

If you see, that particular affiliate delivers high traffic with low conversion, it is worth to make custom landing page for this affiliate and try to optimize it for his type of visitors.

By: Geno

Geno — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:43:11 +0000

Thanks for this insight, Ed. I’m sure many readers will find this data of help.

By: Ed Austin

Ed Austin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:17:52 +0000

In Travel (Hotels) the average affiliate probably converts in the region of around 1.5-2.0% with a maximum of around 3%.

After a few years working with major Hotel providers I have yet to see anything convert above 2% (from quality targeted traffic that I provide).

Hotels simply don’t convert easily – likely due to the vast choice (of sites) and the shop around mentality consumers (rightly) have.