Armando Ferreira, the man behind the popular YouTube channel Mondo Bytes, is having an excellent 2019. Armando, a Geniuslink client since early 2017, recently shared one simple change that helped him generate more income in the first six months of 2019 than he did in all of 2018 – and he was able to prove it.
Armando started trying something different with a few of his links in October of 2018 and immediately started seeing improvements. By the end of the year, he had updated the bulk of his links to take advantage of a new way of thinking about affiliate marketing – giving his audience a choice of retailers. As a result, his Amazon.com Associates commissions, which were bouncing in the low four figures range per month in 2018, jumped over 160% in the first half of 2019. At the same time, Armando also skyrocketed to being a top affiliate publisher for B&H Photo Video, another premium retailer for the products he commonly recommended.
The difference was simple; Armando started using Choice Pages.
“I will never NOT do a Choice Page, because it just makes sense.
It’s the only thing I’ve changed.” – Armando
A Choice Page is an optimized landing page that showcases a product and provides one or more purchasing options for consumers. Armando’s single change that skyrocketed his earnings was simply changing his geni.us links from direct Amazon links, to Choice Pages, where he could include links to B&H Photo Video for the same products.
Choice Pages are a type of “interstitial page” which have been a staple in the music marketing space for a number of years to help connect fans with the music they want to listen to, regardless of the preferred store or streaming service. Choice Pages have also quickly gained popularity with authors and publishers who want to connect readers with their story amid the fragmented landscape made of multiple mediums (digital/physical/audio) and major retailers (Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/etc.).
Now, creators and influencers are using these optimized landing pages to promote products to their audiences, and they already see results.
Choice Pages and Amazon
Amazon’s collection of independent international affiliate programs (aka the Associates Program) is a staple in the affiliate marketing space due to its ease of use, wide range of products offered in the store, sizable market share (currently pegged at 38% in the US), and ability to earn commissions from any purchase – not just the recommended product (also known as the “halo effect). However, there are considerable concerns about using it as a sole source of affiliate revenue.
Having seen clients deal with the devastating risks of putting too much reliance on a single set of affiliate programs firsthand, Geniuslink started refocusing their development efforts in 2018. The goal was to “level up” their Choice Page tool, which was predominantly used by their clients in the music and book space, to help other clients promote products. The theory was this would help creators diversify their affiliate revenue, improve conversion rates, and minimize the risk of violating Amazon’s stringent Operating Agreement. To date, Choice Pages have achieved all of these goals.
Why are Choice Pages working so well?
It was a bit of a surprise to learn that introducing the extra step of requiring an extra click from a consumer could also boost revenue from Amazon. But this additional upside wasn’t just limited to Armando. From initial testing, Geniuslink has found the results vary from seeing a 17% improvement in conversions for the selling the recommended product with one client to a 3X increase in earnings per click for another client, and a jump from a $0.12 EPC to over $0.40 EPC for a third.
Armando has a couple of theories on why this is happening and how to optimize it:
Cookie windows
Amazon’s affiliate program offers a 24-hour cookie window, or until the client clicks a new affiliate link (known as “last-click attribution) while the B&H affiliate program is much longer (60 hours).
Product category
Often they are high priced electronics and camera gear, like $3K tripods, not the types of things that one typically impulse buys.
Facilitating comparison shopping
Armando brainstormed with some of his peers on the best call to action and started replacing the default “Get it now” call to action with “Find the Best Deal Below!”. He believes this encourages consumers to do their price comparison research on the spot, making them confident buyers. Plus, his B&H affiliate links and their longer cookie window help ensure he still gets credit even if the consumer spends some time doing additional research before making the purchase.
While Armando continues to see considerable growth with his affiliate revenue, the team at Geniuslink will continue to refine the process of building Choice Pages and continue to test the upside of using the optimized landing pages. In the meantime, we encourage you to please share your experience using Choice Pages with us, and any feedback you have on how they can be made better!