NONE: ONLINE-ADS>> MW's CDnow Clickthrough and conversion rates
ONLINE-ADS>> MW's CDnow Clickthrough and conversion rates
Mark J. Welch (markwelch_at_ca-probate.com)
Wed, 29 Apr 1998 16:16:40 -0700
Here is some "actual experience" (e.g. anecdotal evidence)
regarding the use of an "affiliate" program for a targetted
web site with low traffic.
I maintain two web pages about Christian music artist
Michael W. Smith (whom I discovered when he briefly
crossed over into mainstream pop). My "MWS" pages have
a LinkExchange Deluxe banner, so that I have some
statistics on the traffic seeing banner ads (which validate
the pageview data from my site logs): just over 100 per
day average (about 3,000 pageviews per month).
In late December, I posted a prominent link to CDnow,
a music vendor that carries MWS titles (at that time,
CD Universe and other vendors did not carry MWS titles,
apparently due to a pending change in his recording
company). When a visitor clicks on the link to CD Now on
either MWS page at my site, they are sent directly to a
list of MWS music titles available from CD Now. (Note
that my CD Now link is NOT a banner ad, but a text
link with an optional search form). The vendor (CD Now)
has recently changed their reporting format so I now have
some more detailed statistics than in the past.
Of course, these statistics are based on a very, very small
sample size, and are not likely to be reliable in predicting
future performance. However, they do represent an actual
"real-life," "in-the-field" experience and I'm happy to share
this information (and I hope others will also share whatever
data they gather so web publishers can evaluate affiliate
programs effectively).
CD Now reports that I have earned a total $13.97 in
commissions (e.g. 6% of $232.83 total sales) since
mid-December. As of today, CD Now has given me
the following statistics for my traffic:
December * 54 clicks 1 order 1.85% sales conversion ratio
January 373 clicks 3 orders 0.8% conversion ratio
February 447 clicks 5 orders 1.12% conversion ratio
March 482 clicks 6 orders 1.24% conversion ratio
April * 303 clicks 5 orders 1.65% conversion ratio
* partial months only (December 97 and April 98)
Jan-Mar 1,302 clicks 14 orders (13 weeks) 13 x 700 = 9,100
pageviews
Jan-Apr 1,608 clicks 19 orders (16 weeks) 16 x 700 = 11,200
pageviews
This works out to a "conversion rate" just above one percent.
Assuming consistent traffic of 100 pageviews per day, I
would have generated 11,200 pageviews in the first 16
weeks of the year, so the 1,608 clicks represent a click-
through ratio of FOURTEEN PERCENT (14.36%).
Assuming 19 orders from overall traffic to my site of
11,200 pageviews, that's an impression-to-order rate
of 589:1 (one CD order per 589 visitors to my site).
Viewing the performance of my site another way,
I have earned $13.97 over 18 weeks (assumed to
equate to 12,600 pageviews) so my CD Now ad is
earning me $1.10 CPM ($1.10 is the cost per
thousand ad exposures).
-- Mark J. Welch, Web Site Banner Advertising
-- http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/
-- Mark Welch's Web Ad Forum http://www.markwelch.com/welchmtg.htm
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