Landing Page Psychology, Statistics... Case Studies? (5)
Hey guys,
Complete newb to AM and I wanted to get a few things straight about landing pages before setting up my first campaign. It seems to be the general consensus on this forum and online in general that landing pages are a must if you want to maximize your conversions/revenue in affiliate marketing.
Unfortunatelly, I haven't been able to find any stats on how significant a landing page actually is for increasing conversions. I used the search function in a few of the subforums, but couldn't find quite what I was looking for.
The idea of a landing page with targeted copy makes sense, and it'd definitely be worth it to always use one if they always increase conversions. But when considering that markets are different subsets of the entire population that each have their own preferences and predispositions, it seems like there's the possibility that certain situations/campaigns/demographics might get more conversions without a landing page...
That is, if the person clicked on an ad they're at least somewhat interested in what the offer's about. Some groups of people are naturally less trusting of others, and going to a page specifically designed to sell to them seems like it may be counter-productive... especially if the offer in question already has it's own professional/friendly/trustworthy landing page/funnel in place.
Additionally, the huge online sites (amazon, ebay, paypal) have gone through great pains to make the buying process take as few clicks as possible. People who have their own sites to sell their own products make sure it doesn't take many clicks to get to their products...
It seems intuitive that the less resistance a prospect is presented with, the more likely it is that they'll end up converting 
. So, purposefully adding more text to read, pages to navigate, and links to click seems like it wouldn't always be the go-to solution to increase conversions.
I'm not trying to suggest that landing pages seem counterproductive for every offer or every demographic, but having a magic bullet that always increases revenue
almost seems too good to be true.
Basically, while there are definitely merits to a landing page, it seems like there could be situations where it's better not to use them as well... But, I'm also extremely new to this. If anyone with more experience has a different viewpoint I'd gladly listen with an open mind 
!
So... a few questions
- [* do landing pages help increase conversions universally?]
[* have there been any case studies where marketers have run offers with and without landing pages to analyze the difference in conversions/revenue/profit? links?
]
[* is it best to use different style landing pages for different demographics/markets? Not just copy/pictures which you'd obviously want to make unique to the offer in question... but also things like slang/dialect choice, formatting of the LP text, color choices, page design, etc..
Thanks in advanced for your responses... they're much appreciated!
1. No. There isn't a universal rule that landing pages work. However the more you want a user to do (e.g pull out a credit card, fill out a long form), the more likely a landing page will be effective.
2. I don't believe we have done a case study of DL vs Lander. I can confidently say that the majority of successful affiliates use landers more often than not. They proven that landers are more effective time and time again. Actually, in my experience, I've only had big direct linked success with low paying mobile offers (less than $1 CPA).
3. Yes for sure, you want to customise your landers as much as possible for your target audience.
I don't think you are going to get the clean black and white answer you are looking for. My advice would be to pick a niche, build a landing page, then set up a follow along campaign thread, and we can give you specific tips for your lander.
We haven't published any case studies on direct link vs landing pages that I'm aware of, but I can tell you from personal experience that I've seen campaigns where direct link was converting around 3%, and a landing page pushed that up to a 15% conversion rate.
That was a dating campaign, where it's rather expected that affiliates will run landers to presell the offer, so that's probably one of the greatest conversion rate increases you'll see.
Different verticals definitely benefit from different styles of landing page - although don't underestimate the universal nature of human psychology. Test, experiment, post your results, and we can help you out from there!
awesome! that's all I needed to hear hahaha. thanks guys
Also, the other thing you have to remember when comparing to say Ebay, Amazon etc. is that their purchase process is streamlined because the user is already there with intent.
A user browses and Amazon page for X product because they are considering buying it, something like it, and may also want to look at ratings/reviews.
As an advertiser you need to build that intent before you send them to an offer that requires them to do something like putting in lots of personal details or CC details. An advert alone often isn't enough, especially when the offer lander isn't a great sales drive.
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