Does affiliate marketing, "the oft unsung workhorse of online marketing" drive higher average order sizes and better converting traffic than other types of online sales channels???
According to a recent study - YES! Potential buyers that come to merchants after clicking affiliate links often are bigger spenders and are 43% more likely to convert online than consumers acquired by other online marketing methods. Affiliate-driven visitors also are more likely than the average Internet shopper to have average household income greater than $75,000, typically buy a larger average order size and are more likely to have kids in the family.
According to a recent study by comScore Networks, affiliate generated traffic is more qualified and spends more. The study was released at Affiliate Summit and Internet Retailer carried this story titled:
Affiliate shoppers earn more and spend more than typical online shoppers.
The study was commissioned by Performics, so you could argue that the study was biased and the facts were skewed. That's exactly what Jeff Molander did over at his ThoughtShapers blog where
he came down pretty hard on Performics and data gathering methods and questioned why our industry would even need to legitimize itself with such a study.
Chris Henger VP of Affiliate Marketing at Performics came back pretty hard on Jeff in the blog comments and defended the study, providing additional information. "It surprised me that Mr. Molander would create a post to intentionally provoke, rather than doing a little more homework on the subject. Any good writer researches their story."
I don't want to get into the he said - he said of this incident - that was not the intent of this blog. Simply wanted to share the data from the study and the argument that ensued, in case you missed it and let you form your own impressions.
Affiliate Traffic Buys More - Converts Better
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