Conversion tracking is a crucial component of any affiliate marketing strategy. It enables you to understand how effective your marketing efforts are at generating sales and earning commissions.
ClickBank, one of the world’s most popular affiliate marketing networks, provides in-depth conversion tracking and reporting tools to help its affiliates optimize their campaigns. Properly leveraging these features can greatly impact your earnings as a ClickBank affiliate.
With over 6 million clients driving billions in sales to affiliates, ClickBank is a premier choice for monetizing your website or blog with affiliate marketing.
Let’s talk about how you can maximize your success!
What is Conversion Tracking and Why Does it Matter?
In affiliate marketing, a conversion occurs when a visitor who clicks your affiliate link completes a target action. This could be making a purchase, signing up for a free trial, subscribing to a newsletter, etc.
Conversion tracking allows you to monitor these actions by tracking how many visitors go on to convert after clicking your affiliate links.
Understanding your conversion rates is crucial for several reasons:
- It shows how well your affiliate offers and marketing content convert visitors into paying customers.
- You can identify which products, posts, or marketing channels drive the most conversions.
- Tracking conversions over time enables you to benchmark performance and optimize your affiliate strategy.
Essentially, proper conversion tracking provides the data you need to determine what’s working and what’s not. This allows you to double down on effective campaigns and reduce investment in areas that aren’t performing.
Overview of ClickBank Conversion Tracking Metrics
ClickBank provides in-depth tracking and reporting on the key conversion metrics that indicate how well your affiliate marketing efforts are working:
- Sales – Total number of confirmed purchases generated from your affiliate links, which directly translates to affiliate commissions earned.
- Conversion Rate – Percentage of affiliate link clicks that result in a defined conversion action. Example:
Visitors who clicked the affiliate link: 1,000
Visitors who purchased the product: 100
Conversion rate: 100/1,000 = 10%
- Earnings per Click (EPC) – The average earnings generated for each click on one of your affiliate links. This demonstrates the profitability of your links and marketing content.
- Average Sale Amount – The average dollar amount of confirmed purchases from your affiliate links. Understanding your average order value helps gauge potential future earnings.
Regularly assessing these metrics is crucial for determining the ROI of your affiliate efforts and identifying optimization opportunities.
How to Set Up Conversion Tracking in ClickBank
Taking full advantage of ClickBank conversion tracking functionality takes just a few simple steps:
Step 1: Sign up for a ClickBank account
- Go to ClickBank.com and click Sign up in the top right corner.
- Choose a unique “nickname” that will be used in your ClickBank hoplinks.
- Fill in the rest of your account details to complete the signup.
Step 2: Generate unique affiliate links
- Within your ClickBank account, find the product you want to promote and generate your unique affiliate link (called a “hop link”) using the provided tools.
- Alternatively, you can use ClickBank’s automated HopLink Generator tool to quickly create affiliate links.
Step 3: Incorporate tracking IDs (sub IDs)
- ClickBank allows you to easily append sub IDs onto your hop links to track performance by specific parameters:
- Campaigns
- Affiliate sites
- Advertisements
- Keywords
- More…
- For example:
Generic Hoplink:
http://vendor.com/product-name
Hoplink with Sub ID:
http://vendor.com/product-name?subid=MYTRACKINGID
Now that hoplinks are created, they are ready to start tracking conversions!
Analyzing Your ClickBank Conversion Statistics
With conversion tracking setup, you gain access to the ClickBank Marketplace reporting tools:
![clickbank-reporting.png][]
You can leverage these insights to:
- See exactly which marketing channels drive conversions
- Discover which types of affiliate offers, products, or posts perform best
- Benchmark goal completion rates over time
- Identify issues and areas in need of optimization
Here are 5 proven techniques for mining your reports to increase conversions:
1. Track Conversion Rates By Traffic Source
Add UTM tracking parameters or ClickBank sub-IDs to understand exactly which publishers, campaigns, keywords, or links are generating conversions.
For example, you may find your guest posts convert better than paid display ads. Reallocate the marketing budget accordingly!
2. Monitor Goal Completion Rates
Don’t just track sales! Install event tracking for other important actions like email list sign-ups or content downloads.
Gauge completion rates over time and aim for continuous improvement. If your email squeeze page conversion dips below 15%, it’s time to test a new layout.
3. Filter Performance By Category Or Gravity
Dig into vendor, product, and niche-specific metrics rather than relying on aggregate data alone.
You might discover self-help products cost 5X more than internet marketing courses. Curate affiliate recommendations appropriately.
4. Fluctuate Payouts Based On Results
Not getting the results you want from a paid traffic source? Scale back spending and shift the budget to channels delivering better returns.
Mix and match combinations of display ads, influencer posts, retargeting, and email marketing to optimize affiliate promotion.
5. A/B Test Landing Pages
An excellent way to lift conversions over time is by testing different landing page designs and call-to-action placements.
Send a portion of traffic to the original page and the remaining visitors to a modified variant. The winner becomes your new control for further testing.
Following this data-driven methodology, you can continually improve conversion rates across channels.
Ideal Practices for Boosting ClickBank Affiliate Sales
Beyond making good use of conversion tracking data, here are powerful strategies to increase sales of your affiliate products and services:
Promote Highly Profitable Offers
Obviously, you want to focus on products that are poised to generate the highest commissions. But beyond earnings, consider:
- Gravity Score – ClickBank metric indicating a product’s popularity based on its conversion rate. The higher the score, the better it converts.
- Average Sale Amount – Look for products with higher selling prices and margins. A $97 info product nets almost 10X more profit than a $10 eBook.
- Recurring Billing – Promote software, memberships, and services by offering ongoing monthly commissions to maximize long-term value.
Write Engaging, Helpful Content
Content that provides genuine value rather than a hard sales pitch fosters trust and reciprocity with readers – encouraging conversions when the time is right.
Strategy examples:
- Publish in-depth product reviews
- Create “How to” articles and video tutorials solving reader challenges
- Develop free tool calculators aiding purchase decisions
Prominently Display Trust Symbols
Positive social proof in the form of testimonials, security badges, and certifications increases affiliate conversion rates by 15% or more.
Visually promote:
- Star ratings and customer reviews
- Trust guard security seals
- Recognition from major media brands
The more credibility cues, the better!
Retarget Abandoned Visitors
Don’t let prospective customers slip away! Retargeting ads tempt visitors who previously clicked affiliate links but didn’t complete the purchase.
Top retargeting tactics:
- Send automated email reminders
- Display social media pop-up/banner ads
- Offer time-limited discounts for returning users
Make Mobile Compatibility a Priority
With 4 out of 5 users purchasing online via smartphone, a mobile-friendly landing page is no longer optional. If customers struggle to read or click affiliate links on their devices, conversions crater.
Ensure your website and landing pages have the following:
- Responsive design
- Touch-optimized navigation
- Clear calls-to-action
Following these best practices will maximize your ClickBank results over both the short and long term.
My name is Andrea Thompson and I’m a home based freelance writer. I’m 23 years old, married to my best friend, and mother to a wonderfully independent and opinionated 3 year old girl and step-mother to a sweet seven year old boy. I live in a tiny, little town in Kentucky, where I spend my free time fishing with my kids.
Writing has always been my passion, which I followed through high school, and for a while in college. Life happened, and once I discovered we were pregnant, I switched directions; opting for the healthcare industry because of the stability.
Finally, years later, I was in a place where I could leave the day job that never truly made me happy, and pursue my dreams. I’ve built, and am still building, my writing career from scratch. But, I’m passionate and I’m good at what I do. And, in the end, I can prove to my daughter that she can do anything she wants with this life.
