A few months ago I wrote how an affiliate campaign can be killed with a landing page, an unthoughtfully created one, or an altogether nonexistent one (scenario when the homepage of the website is used instead). Yesterday I’ve had two people ask me exactly the same question:
1. Do you have any samples of good landing pages for coupon campaigns?
2. Wanted to get some feedback on landing pages from you. I know how important it is for successful landing pages. The success of an affiliate campaign depends a lot on how well that landing page converts otherwise all the affiliate traffic can go to waste. There are a lot of useful articles on your blog… Is there any other info that you can share on the landing pages?
Some 4,000 years ago an early Emperor of the Xia Dynasty in China said that “a picture speaks a thousand words”. I have therefore decided to make this post concise in the wording/recommendations (eloquent and straight to the point), but abundant in examples/screenshots of well-created landing pages.
When running a coupon campaign through your affiliate program, you must have a landing page different from the homepage of your website. The coupon-specific landing page should:
- Reinforce the details of the promo/campaign
- Provide instructions on how to redeem the coupon
- Spell out any restrictions the customer should be aware of
- Have a clear call to action
Over 95% of the merchants whose coupon landing pages I have reviewed — and I’ve studied more than 100 coupon campaigns over the past 2.5 hours — either have only one, or none of the above-mentioned points covered. Very few merchants do it the right way, but those that do, register higher conversion rates. This makes both the merchant, and the affiliate happy, and builds up an affiliate program.
The following exemplary landing pages — created by merchants for affiliate coupon campaigns — either cover all of the above-mentioned points, or apply the coupon/discount automatically:
Buy.com Dollar Off Coupon
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UnseenOnTV.com % Off Coupon
(applied automatically)
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Hocks.com’s Deal of the Day
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Avenue.com Dollar Off Coupon
(note: graphics, no text, no organic SE competition with affiliates)
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Sierra Trading Post % Off Coupon
I’ll be honest with you: this post took me longer than any other post in my blog to date. When I first starting writing, I didn’t expect it to get this difficult to find merchants with good landing pages for affiliate coupon campaigns.
If you are not yet providing these, you are hurting your own affiliate program.
Great post Geno. So many times it seems landing pages are created for the sake of having one and they don’t provide any real value add. The problem with that is they become a barrier to the customer.
Patrick,
Thank you for your comment. I cannot agree more! Same happens when the customer clicks a very targeted coupon campaign link (pushed by an affiliate) and lands on a merchant’s homepage. What should he/she do next? How would he/she apply the coupon?
You’re right — it’s usability question, after all. Is your website pushing them towards or away from that sale?
Thanks again, and I have also sent you an e-mail just now.
Thanks for this wonderful post Geno! And I couldn’t agree with you anymore that how difficult it is to find merchants with good landing pages.
Making sure that there is a strong call to action and having no leaks on the landing page can help the program convert so much better. Even if the brand is strong, a weak landing page will just lead the affiliate to direct their efforts elsewhere where there will be better conversions.
Kunal,
Thanks for chiming in. Glad you liked the post. Yes, it took me quite some time to find the above examples. I am surprised affiliates are not writing more about this topic in affiliate marketing forums. There is obviously a disparate need for good landing pages.
Great Post Geno – I love the visual examples. Your checklist of points keeps things simple but complete, just shows that a little thought and planning can make a promotion convert that much more.
Thanks, Kristen, and once again, it is just amazing how many merchants are not paying attention to this! Coming up with great coupons for affiliates to promote is only half the job done. The second half — or setting up the infrastructure for the conversion to take place — is overlooked by literally thousands upon thousands of merchants.
very useful post Geno, thanks. Something that does stick out in my head though is the flexibility, or lack thereof from certain merchants who don’t have the ability to create these unique landing pages for customers/affiliates based on offers.
Do you think it would be any less useful if the affiliate created the ‘landing page’ and linked out purely to product, after giving all the needed info? Afterall, the purpose of the landing page is to push the customer to a conversion by way of explaining what needs to be done, what he will achieve, and how to do this while smashing in the USP’s (It may also help establish the link between the affiliate and the merchant, but for me this is not the number one priority unless the merchant needs the affiliates brand connection).
Doing this might ensure the affiliate can add as much info as he KNOWS his audience needs, and does not rely on the merchant for the landing page. In terms of pushing towards a conversion, it may work as well as the merchant utilising a landing page – which obviously is the preferred option still, but surely there needs to be a trial of a workaround. Wonder if anyone conducted any split testing on this subject…
wow – just realised how old this post was! Sorry for digging it up, just saw it on my Twitter feed.
Regardless of the post’s “age” it is still extremely relevant (hence, my Tweet of it). So very few merchants are devoting attention to this!
Yes, Shaeeb, with very few merchants offering affiliates coupon landing pages, many affiliates end up doing exactly what you’ve described — create their own landing pages, doing their pre-sale/pre-conversion job. I do not know of any spit testing data on this versus merchants doing it, and then, of course, both options working together. I’m sure some of the savvier affiliates may have such data… My opinion is that it can happily be a “both.., and…” situation (where both affiliates do their pre-sale job well, and merchants facilitate conversion by putting coupon landing pages in place). Unfortunately, however, it is often an “either.., or…” case.