Conversion rates LARGELY rest on the merchant - not the affiliate.
If the merchant site is not designed to convert well even a good affiliate will not get decent conversions.
Average merchant conversion rates are around 2% but it varies by industry.
So IF the merchant converts at 2% some affiliates that do PPC or have super targeted traffic could convert a little better than that but the average affiliate that just sticks a banner on a general non-targeted site could get horrible conversion rates.
So then if you look at average conversion rates for your program specifically your overall conversions could have LOTS to do with how well you manager your program. If you have lots of strong partners and give them the right tools your average comversions could be high. If you accept anyone under the sun and have crappy banners that just go to the homepage, no datafeed
and don't pro-actively manage your affiliates then your average conversion rate could be pulled WAY down even if you have some good affiliates.
Affiliates can certainly impact their conversions by doing good ad placement, good pre-sell, using testimonials and all of that FOR SURE. But if you have tons of affiliates just throwing up a home page banner it will water down your overall conversion average. Make sense?
You like the way I put most of the conversion responsibility back on you, the merchant?
That probably wasn't the answer you wanted!
