£25 sale - 50p commission! What's the point

**opensesame** · 06-01-12

Its nothing new to me but every time I look at a sale that comes from a electronics company I just think what's the point.

Seriously 2% comm is a joke, im sure some of these companies have a lot more margin then 2%.

It's getting to the point now, when considering a new site in the electronics industry to run adsense instead of aff links.

For any electronics merchants reading this - I only need to do 2 clicks on an adsense ad to make that 50p.

**csn** · 06-01-12

Originally Posted by opensesame

Seriously 2% comm is a joke, im sure some of these companies have a lot more margin then 2%.

It's getting to the point now, when considering a new site in the electronics industry to run adsense instead of aff links.

Electronics are notorious for low commissions of around 2-3%. Some I work with pay 0.5% and others pay 0% on some or all of their range.

**opensesame** · 06-01-12

Do you not find running adsense is more profitable in some cases?

**ChrisJohnson** · 06-01-12

Originally Posted by opensesame

Do you not find running adsense is more profitable in some cases?

Depends what you're advertising on your site, and ultimately what they're buying. Adsense certainly wouldn't be the choice if you had the chance of selling some mid to high-end electronic products.

**csn** · 06-01-12

Originally Posted by opensesame

Do you not find running adsense is more profitable in some cases?

I agree with Chris. At least with affiliate marketing you can push customers towards specific products from specific companies. With adsense you have to take what you're given in terms of adverts.

**allthediscounts** · 06-01-12

Originally Posted by opensesame

Seriously 2% comm is a joke, im sure some of these companies have a lot more margin then 2%.
.

There isn't any point!!!

If a company is making 2% before advertising costs on a product that has a selling price of £25, and it's their main revenue stream, then they are doomed from the outset.

It's not worth picking up the phone for 50p, let alone conversing with anyone, or spending time packing tiawanese junk only to find it doesn't work when it gets to the the other end because it made a comfy seat for Fat Fred at Parcel Force to eat his sandwiches off (.... or Man-Mountain Dave at UPS, or Big Terry at Yodel).

I quickly googled dropship and surprise surprise, I found a dropshipper offering up to 70% on electronics accessories, 25%+ on ipods. Obviously someone's having a laugh... but which one?

Either way, if they can't/won't pay more than half a percent of nothing, drop them/cut the products out, let them find their own customers via Google and get on with something more profitable!

You may be a tiny bit poorer, but you'll be a hell of a lot happier.

**MattSweet** · 06-01-12

You could give eBay Partner Network a whirl. There are a lot of new products on there these days.

You also get the Amazon-like benefit of cross-selling as the cookie will cover almost an infinite number of items.

Traffic needs to be decent quality - it depends whether your users would consider eBay viable - and if the products in question are competitive on there - as it's all worked out using a complicated algo. EPC can be pretty good for high value goods though.

**robryan** · 07-01-12

Yeah it's a joke really.
If this really is the margin they can afford to give to drive a sale and potentially earn a recurring customer then they won't get far in affiliate marketing. Often though it seems merchants are just dipping their feet into affiliate marketing and want to see if they can get something for nothing. Many merchants though if you reach out to and are able to drive a decent amount of traffic they will offer a better rate than advertised.

**aotagain** · 16-01-12

Merchants get a lot of free logos all over the net, even if the purchase doesn't even get to them. Just think, for every page of a price comparison site, there could be one purchase and 10 logo impressions for different merchants.

**mrh** · 17-01-12

the soloution is to get more traffic and sell more. simple.

**allthediscounts** · 17-01-12

Originally Posted by mrh

the soloution is to get more traffic and sell more. simple.

Sure it's a solution, but its a solution to someone elses problem. Let the retailer deal with it, get on with something more profitable.

**accelerator** · 20-01-12

A sale is a sale, but it's always a good idea to check that you are sending traffic to the best performing merchants in a given sector, i.e. test different merchants.

Rgds