Counting the clicks to predict sales can be tricky.
For some publishers, it happens after only a few clicks, while for others it may take hundreds or even thousands of clicks before the first sales conversion occurs. Why such a big difference? Well, the factors that influence how often a sale occurs are innumerable. Your conversion rate (see explanation of this term below) is MOST affected by...
- Quality of your traffic source
- Matching the type of traffic you are sending with the advertiser that is receiving it
- Amount of traffic being high enough to be statistically relevant
- Time of day, week and year that the click is occurring
- Demographic and geographic factors, including native language
- Quality of the actual ad creative they saw before clicking
- Matching the best ad creative with the best landing page
- Strong advertiser landing page that is good at closing sales
- Good product and price
- Many, many more measurable and immeasurable factors
In other words, if you're not getting as many sales as you like, test more ads, more landing pages (where the ads go), rotate and test your traffic sources, change when and where the ads appear... test, test, test all the time! Do more of what works and less of what does not.
While we might suggest allowing for at least 1,000 clicks over at least two weeks of time before making changes, ultimately you decide when it's not working! If testing doesn't turn the ad campaign into a winner, change your traffic source or change the advertiser. Example: If Nike shoes don't work, maybe Reebok will! Try some or all of the brands and let them compete for your traffic.
BUT I KNOW A SALE OCCURRED AND YOU DIDN'T TRACK IT!
If you have the order number, amount spent, and other information about a sale that occurred -- and it's not been tracked in our system like you expected -- please visit this question and answer: Why don't I see the sale I expected?
A WORD ABOUT TERMS
A "conversion rate" in affiliate marketing is the rate at which visitors take a desired action. In most cases, with regards to FlexOffers, this is rate at which visitor clicks (visits to the Advertiser's site) become a lead or sale (depending on what action the advertiser rewards).
For instance, let's say you are approved to run a program called ACME. The number of people who click the ACME ad is compared to the number of people who make a purchase. The rate, expressed as a percentage, is the conversion rate: how often that traffic buys. If you deliver 1,000 clicks and get 10 sales, you have a 1% conversion rate (10/1,000).
Being able to improve your conversion rate through testing (traffic, campaigns, ads, landing pages, promotions, etc.) is the key to being a success in affiliate marketing.