They Think You're The Offer Owner! (5)
Here's one thing that I find really helpful to remember when I'm setting up campaigns, making landing pages, or writing copy: most people have no idea that affiliates exist.
Look at this article on Evony. It's pretty clear that what we're seeing there is an evolution of affiliate ads, as different affiliates try to out-compete each other on an angle that's working.
But the writers of the article - who are reasonably savvy overall - just assume that the entire campaign was designed, orchestrated, and tightly controlled by the makers of Evony themselves.
They believe that any ads for an offer were created by the offer owner.
What does this mean for your campaigns?
When the general public sees your ad, clicks through, and sees your lander, they assume one of the following things:
- This is a sales page set up by the advertiser themselves.
- This is a scam designed to look like it's set up by the advertiser, but actually does Something Malicious.
- I have no idea what this is! Argh! Confusion!
- Something Else.
Options 2 and 3 are very bad for you. There's a lot of scaremongering, much of it justified, over phishing and similar attacks, which means that anyone assuming #2 is very, very unlikely to click through any further. And Option #3 is bad on the "don't make me think" front - if your visitor doesn't believe they know what's going on, they're likely to walk away.
If your ad to lander to offer funnel is showing a low CVR / CTR, these problems might well be one of the major reasons why.
So what can you do?
There are two basic approaches that can work here.
Firstly, present yourself as the advertiser. This is the approach that we're taking when we design our landers to match the style of the offer page - we're indicating that the lander is part of the offer.
Small details matter here. Make sure that you're matching fonts and the way that images are presented on the advertiser's site. Make sure your tone matches the advertiser too - professional, friendly, brief, informal, whatever.
This also presents the opportunity to borrow trust from the advertiser. Be confident in your copy. Speak as if you're representing the brand you're advertising. Think how the offer you're pushing would present the angle you're using. Is there press that the offer's had that you can use? Are there social proof statistics on their site you can quote?
Alternatively, you can take another approach, one that's fallen out of favour since the flog (fake blog) and farticle (fake article) mostly went away - present yourself as a third party.
You can be a review site, you can be a recommendation service, you can be a public service announcement. Just make sure - if you're not presenting yourself as the advertiser, explain to the viewer who you are and what you're doing there.
_Note: if you're claiming to offer reviews of a service, you must disclose your financial motivations (ie that you're paid for people converting). Not doing that will get you in deep trouble with several large government agencies around the world. However, this doesn't have to reduce trust - indeed, if you do the disclosure right it can increase trust._
The key point here? Don't leave them confused as to who's behind your lander. Confused, untrusting people don't convert.
Just a quick tip - but I hope it was useful! Questions, comments, suggestions on ways to implement this in your campaigns? Post 'em in below!
I thought this post was going to be about how to represent yourself to smaller ad networks and with direct media buys. It's especially helpful in that context.
Edit: I'm not talking about lying. Saying the offer's company is a client is far better than saying that you're a random affiliate.
I remember when i used to run a product on clickbank ~5 years ago or so.. It was the only thing i've ever ran on clickbank. I saw this product doing well, but the landing pages on clickbank looked like complete garbage, full blown scam feel to them.
I tried the product and instantly did 100% roi on Facebook. I knew i had to try my own more professional landing page. The product was something that i knew would convert better with a professional landing page (even though ugly works quite often).
I ended up getting rights to a similar book, made my own page and converted a LOT better. I think it was 250% ROI or more. I really wish i understood things better back then and would have turned it into my own product on clickbank!
Anyways this was the first time your theory clicked. Some products NEED to look professional and that you're the product owner!
Yeah, this is definitely more important in some verticals - particularly those that require higher trust on the part of the person signing up.
If you're persuading someone to part with significant cash or give out a lot of personal details, it's important that they don't have any fuzzy areas of uncertainty when they look at your proposal!
Originally Posted by caurmen
A 'news source' will be more trusted then even the product owner.
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