Convertion rates DROP! Sales are in the toilet.

Hi all,

I hate these kinds of posts but I just have to get some input for other affiliate marketers here.

For the last week (maybe 2) I have seen some serious fluctuations in my affiliate sales. I use PPC a lot (several thousands $$ monthly) and I usually get pretty good returns, but it's totally crazy right now.

Products that were getting 2-3% conversions are now 1 in 500 (or 0.2%) which is unacceptable. Not all of my conversions have dropped this bad, but there are a few and I *do* feel it!

I know summer time is cr*p for sales but this is crazy. Overall I'd say my profits are down by 1/2... and it's a trend that's about a week old now.

Anyone else seeing similar results or am I alone here?

I haven't seen this, but we don't use much PPC right now. I have heard that a spike in traffic followed by low conversion rates could very well mean lots of click fraud - watch out.

I've already disabled a few of my ads, for a couple of days anyway. I figure, why pay for them if I'm not sure about the returns...

I will come back full force shortly and I hope it gets better but I'm not sure it will. I have been generating slightly less traffic also and I know this contributes to the lower profits but I find it strange that the conversions have dropped so drastically.

Oh well, I guess I'll have to hunt down some more advertising networks and see if that helps.

People, please feel free to promote your favourite advertising networks... besides Google AdWords and Overture.

~you can PM me if you don't want to make it public~

You need to check these if you have not already...

Shopping cart working properly

Credit card transactions working properly

Aggressive competitors with much lower prices

New product model out and what you sell is no longer attractive

If I see this type of stuff or don't hear the cash register ringing I examine my own site first... then look to competitors... the answer is usually there 99% of the time.

Yah, I thought of *most* of that stuff.

At first I thought that my affiliate links weren't working properly so I checked them and the URLs resolved fine, and pretty quickly (yes I clear my cache, and check from other PCs)

Then I checked the merchant sites, seems fine... payment processing is also ok.

The only things I can think of is one of three things:

- Really bad 10 days, a fluke (I hope so!)
- Better products available
- Outdated Products and People are starting to see it.

Honestly there is a chance of #3 being true and #2 hurting me as well... BUT these was never the *best* products to begin with. I think they all performed because they were decent products, good price and really good marketing... none of that has changed and that is why I just can't figure it out.

I will just see what happens, and keep you all posted.

Thanks again.
Pete

I am feeling the same way.,...
What field are you in?

Hi zivkovicp,

You said:


Since everything has not dropped I am wondering if there are any similarities. For instance are most of the ones that are dropping on the same networK? Could be a bunch of new ad blockers or cookie eating anti-spyware programs are targeting that network. What about cookie length of the programs that are down? Do most of them have longer or shorter cookie lengths. Any similarities you can think of???

Our conversion rates tank this time of year -- are you sure what you're selling isn't somewhat seasonal?

In the first quarter of the year, we generally do 11-16% conversion rates, but this time of year (when everyone wants the product) we're only doing 2-3% conversions. Funny thing is, traffic this time of year is much higher than Q1.

With regards to click fraud, look at where the ip's are coming from in the last few days and compare that to a previous period. Most of the overseas groups use proxies, but if you pay attention, you can spot some pretty big trends!

The past week and the next two weeks are holiday time. People are spending money on vacations. That is what we have noticed.

Another possibility is that you have tied into some highly UNqualified traffic. I'd run the logs in detail to see where it is coming from and the path through the site. If it is free traffic let it flow but if you are paying for the clicks cork off the unproductive channels.