G got me thinking about LP's and creatives with her post so I wanted to share my thoughts on offer/LP evaluation. When you talk to your reps and they are telling you this offer or that offer are killing it, what questions are you asking in return? How much evaluation do you actually do before pulling and running an offer? I've told you before that I've got experience as an AOR/Advertiser so this is why things lie this interest me AND why I have some insight as to what works or what doesn't....but only in my opinion albeit based on the results I saw. So when I look over an offer I usually run through a few things with the rep to get as much information as I can about the offer, what's it's seen for traffic/testing (remember it might have stats but not MAIL stats), 1 pg. vs 2pg, etc. But what I really want to see is the LP. This tells me whether or not the offer REALLY stands a chance to work. I know my data, as you should, so I know from experience what type of offers it's responded to. Why not use this to do a little "prequalification" of offers? Now I'm not saying this is fool proof, fail safe, or guarateed to improve your datas response. What I am saying is that if you develope a routine when reviewing offers using your knowledge and experience it'll begin to pay off for you in the way of less "testing" as much as it is rotating in offers that have a higher propencity to succeed.
If you run CPA you are always at the mercy of how well LPs convert and how advertiser's backend performs. That's why I prefer CPC.
CPA/CPL, ya..you're right. But if you think about even with CPC you're STILL at the mercy of the LP because the advertiser will pay based on how your traffic converts for them (and that's their backend too fyi) and THAT is affected by the LP. No matter the version of the offer you run, it's STILL a LP thing. The only real difference is that YOU don't care about the LP on a CPC offer. So let's take CPC off the table. When evaluating an LP you need to look for a clear call to action. Is the content/CTA above the fold? Is it a long form or short form? Where do they convert? Is the LP similar to the creative? If not, why? I think it should be as if there's even a HINT of 'bait and switch' you lost that recipient. These things impact your bank account so get familiar with them. :shakehands:
If you mail CPC the LP is the advertiser's problem. You just have to rotate them, find creatives that generate clicks and let them worry about the backend.
Fine, I agree, but you're failing to see or recognize that the rate they pay you is based on how well your traffic AND the LP are working together. It's not like CPC doesn't have an LP....which is my point AND why I said let's take CPC off the table for the sake of this topic. Let's talk about how to look at 'em with regard to CPA/CPL offers.
I do not fail to recognize this. I just like the idea of outsourcing LP testing to advertiser so I can focus on delivery and getting clicks. I am sure you could capture a few extra bucks by focusing on CPA and picking LPs, but I prefer to have fewer moving parts to manage actively.
Hi Push, When I am told about the hot offer I need to run, I always take it with a grain of salt and then go about this process: If I look at the advertisers page and see it has good content above the fold, is compelling, has good copy, a clear call to action, a video, a headline that sucks the visitor in - something to capture and hold their attention, then it is a good sign that they know what they are doing and that I can start testing by direct linking to that. Here is where we differ from other affiliates: If during analysis the page sucks but the product is good, different, appeals to a specific niche that I know I can target with my mailings (perhaps from past successful experience) then I start thinking about: is this product worth the time to create a lander and drive traffic to it. I believe you can also make so much more money from segmenting your mailings and only sending the people who are interested that I would take the time to create a pre-sell landing page of my own that contains all the elements I specified above (as well as an autoresponder sequence to convince and convert the people who end up on MY lander). This would sound cost and time prohibitive but we created our own landing page software for such a purpose and it knocks out lps using templates, copy and proven page designs in a few minutes (NOT TRYING to turn this into an ad). When you can do this, then it lets you evaluate the next HOTTEST offer with a clearer eye. Yes of course I would love to only be brought offers that work but that is why it also pays to know how to market and create pages that sell and not just send email. It makes us stand out from other affiliates who will NOT take the time to do this. And if our lp works and the traffic doesn't convert on the advertiser side at least we have built a segmented list we KNOW is interested in this stuff and we can then direct them to another offer that we know works. Jedi.
