Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates

Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates Tim Ash, President, SiteTuners.com

Overview
The mind of the super affiliate
Landing page testing basics
Case studies
Picking a testing method
Pitfalls to avoid
Q&A

The Mind of the Super Affiliate

Super Affiliates are …
Mercenary
Work for themselves, always looking for best opportunity
Busy
Always testing new programs, will quickly cut their losses
Greedy
Bombarded with offers, picky about testing new programs, expect better than “rack rate” deals
Lazy
Want to minimize up-front and ongoing work, do not want changes or surprises

Top-10 Ways to Attract Super Affiliates
#10 – Join an affiliate network
#9 – Offer better payouts
#8 – Pay up
#7 – Allow bidding on your brand
#6 – Don’t be “high maintenance”
#5 – Don’t change the rules of the game
#4 – Share sensitive information
#3 – Listen to suggestions
#2 – Go the extra mile
#1 – Fix your conversion rate

Impact of Improved Conversion Rate
BEFORE
Payout - $1.25 Cost - $1.00 Profit - $0.25
A 20% increase in conversion rate…
AFTER
Payout - $1.50 ($1.25 x 120%) Cost - $1.00
Profit - $0.50
… will DOUBLE the super affiliate’s profits!

Landing Page Testing Basics

What is Landing Page Testing?
Online Marketing Activities
Acquisition – Get people to your site
Conversion – Persuade them to take desired action
Retention – Increase lifetime value of relationship
Conversion Rate
Percentage of visitors who take desired action
Landing Page Testing
Improving conversion rate by testing website changes

Why should you care?
You have neglected your landing pages
Your conversion rate is too low
This is driving away super affiliates

Question: What is a Camel ? Answer: A Horse Designed by Committee

Who should design your site? I.T. Marketing Ad Agency Your Boss Webmaster

None of the above… Your website serves too many masters. It should be focused only on conversion. I.T. Marketing Ad Agency Your Boss Webmaster YOUR WEBSITE VISITORS

Case Studies

Case Study - RealAge.com
Conversion action: Completion of free RealAge Test registration
Test Size: 552,960 unique “recipes”

Before After

Results - RealAge
40% lift in conversion rate
$3,285,000 annual profit improvement

Case Study – Uniblue Registry Booster
Conversion Action: Free software download
Extensive previous page testing by client
Test Size: 3,110,400 unique “recipes”

Before After

Results - Uniblue Registry Booster
24% increase in conversion
CR improved from 30.3% to 37.7%
$182,000 annual profit improvement

Case Study - PowerOptions ®
Conversion action: Free 2-week trial sign-up
Tuning Method: A-B Split Testing
Test Size: 3 unique “recipes”

Before After

Results - PowerOptions ®
75% increase in post-trial sales
$200,000 annual profit improvement

Case Study – EngineReady
Industry: SEM Agency’s Debt Negotiation client
Conversion Action: Online form or phone lead
Large-scale PPC campaign
Test Size: 192 unique “recipes”

Before After

Results - EngineReady
51% increase in revenue per visitor
$48,000,000 annual revenue increase

Picking A Tuning Method

How do you tune?
Key Considerations:
Size of Test (total number of unique “recipes”)
Need to consider variable interactions

Example Size of Test Calculation
Page Header x 3
Navigation Bar x 2
Headline x 5
Call to Action x 4
Photo x 4
Sales Copy x 4
Endorsements x 2
Question Labels x 2
Question Delimiter x 3
Question Explanations x 2
Button Text x 3
Button Format x 4
12 Variables , 38 different values
552,960 unique “recipes”

“ Ferraris are Really Fast” Positive interaction between headline and picture Interaction Example (1of 4)

“ Ferraris are Really Fast” Negative interaction between headline and picture Interaction Example (2 of 4)

“ Volvos Are Really Safe” No interaction between headline and picture Interaction Example (3 of 4)

“ Volvos Are Really Safe” Positive interaction between headline and picture Interaction Example (4 of 4)

Interactions are Very Important
Best setting for variable depends on its context
Interactions exist & can be very strong
Ignoring interactions will lead to suboptimal results
A/B Splits & Parametric Multivariate testing assume that there are no interactions

A-B Split Testing
Test one variable at a time (with 2 or more values)
Send equal traffic to all versions
Very simple to implement & track
Minimum Data Rate:
10 conversions / day
Typical Test Size:
1-10 recipes

Parametric Multivariate Testing
A.K.A. “Design of Experiments” & “Taguchi Method”
Tests several variables at the same time
Ignores variable interactions
Minimum Data Rate:
Typical Test Size:
10-100 recipes

Non-parametric Tuning
Proprietary math for Internet marketing
Designed for large-scale tests
Takes variable interactions into account
Minimum Data Rate:
Typical Test Size:
1,000,000+ recipes

Avoiding The Pitfalls

Awareness Squandered… 146 clickable links!

… Focus on Visitor’s Goals

Pitfall #1 – Squandering Attention
Stop screaming at your visitors
Eliminate choices
Unclutter what remains

Frustrating User Experience …

Guide people safely to their goal…
Context sensitive search wizard
Text
Category
Brand
Size
Color
“ On Sale” & “New”

Pitfall #2 – Frustrating Users
Don’t make people feel stupid
Avoid painting them into corners

Invisible Risk Reducers …

Prominent Risk Reducers…

Pitfall #3 – Invisible Risk Reducers
Make risk reducers prominent
Show them on all pages

Prominent Client List …

Prominent Media Coverage…

Pitfall #4 – Lack of Social Proof
Transfer trust from larger brands
Endorsements
Affiliations
Media coverage
Transfer trust from your clients
Case studies
Client logos
Testimonials

Transaction Interruption…

Poor Transaction Design (1 of 2)

Poor Transaction Design (2 of 2)

Better Transaction Design * *However – best solution is to remove registration requirement altogether.

Pitfall #5 – Surprising or Confusing Visitors
No one likes surprises online
Don’t interrupt people unnecessarily
Clearly identify important roles
Test any interruption tactics to determine impact
Consider long-term implications

Pop Quiz
You test a change that increases CR …
Week 1 - CR = 4.63%
Week 2 - CR = 5.03%
Should you get a promotion?

Answer
No.
New Baseline Lift
Week 1 - 4.63% 3.59% +29%
Week 2 - 5.03% 6.18% -19%
Things have actually gotten much worse
relative to the baseline.

Pitfall #6 – Ignoring Your Baseline
Always devote some bandwidth to your current version (the “baseline”)
Measure relative to the baseline, not absolute performance

Pop Quiz
You are performing an A/B Split Test …
Option A - 90 conversions
Option B - 100 conversions
Is B really 10% better than A?

Answer
Don’t know.
1/3 of the time
this difference will be due to chance
and A is actually better than B.

Data Collection Example (1 of 2) 10% difference - 90 vs. 100 conversions Very wide and overlapping error bars

Data Collection Example (2 of 2) 10% difference - 1350 vs. 1500 conversions Error bars have gotten narrow and have “uncrossed”

Pitfall #7 – Not Collecting Enough Data
Do not make decisions based on too little data
Pick a confidence level (90%, 95%, 99%)
Wait to see which version is better

Summary
The mind of the super affiliate
Landing page testing basics
Case studies
Picking a testing method
Pitfalls to avoid
Q&A

Q&A & Additional Resources
“ How to Attract Super Affiliates” Whitepaper http:// SiteTuners.com/downloads.html
Landing Page Optimization Book http://LandingPageOptimizationBook.com

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Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates

by Affiliate Summit on Aug 07, 2008

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Landing Page Testing to Attract Super Affiliates — Presentation Transcript