Affiliate Odyssey

Blimey!

It’s been a seriously busy two weeks work-wise and so the affiliate marketing and blogging has had to take a back seat but, yesterday, I stole an hour to set up a quick and dirty AdWords campaign to try to cash in on the Christmas rush.

There’s a fair bit of conflicting information about the potential for frame redirects and PPC so I thought I’d have a punt to see what happened.

Digital photo frames are all the rage, Amazon have a wide range - it seemed a dead cert that sending a load of clicks their way would result in lots of sales and juicy commissions.

WRONG!

My AdWords ad worked a treat - 18.8% CTR with 66 clicks going straight through to Amazon but…

NO SALES.

I think there are 2 related reasons this didn’t work:

1. Amazon are the “go to” site after eBay - most people clicking on my ad had probably already been to Amazon and didn’t find what they were after.
2. A feeling of trust being breached - imagine looking for digital frames on Amazon, not finding what you want, then clicking on an ad that seemingly offers a different range, from a dedicated supplier and being presented with the same Amazon page you’ve just seen.

This second point, in retrospect, leaves me feeling a little bit “dirty” and a little bit sad inside.

I can see that redirects could be a useful tool for testing whether a merchant site converts, but I genuinely doubt whether they are a  profitable, ongoing proposition or indeed morally justified.

What do you think? Do they work for you and do you have a moral problem with them?