Getting potential buyers to your affiliate offers is how we make money as marketers.
Some people tell you that affiliate landing pages are the best method to do this and no other way works. Other people will inform you that a direct affiliate link is the most straightforward way to point someone to buy a product while you still receive the commission.
So, what works better?
We are going to look at the differences between an affiliate landing page and a direct affiliate link and let you decide what is the most effective and better strategy to use.
What is an affiliate landing page?
A landing page is easy – it’s a page that someone ‘lands’ on when they see your website.
In the realms of affiliate marketing, landing pages are sales pages that try to sell a product and that include an affiliate link where a customer can click on and then purchase as a product or service. There are great examples of the best affiliate landing pages out there that you can see how they work.
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to this, however, there are basic steps that have been proven to work time and time again in making successful landing pages. If you want to know how to create a landing page then there is a ton of information out there that will show you what elements need to be included for maximum success.
What is a direct affiliate link?
Marketing with a direct affiliate link works a bit differently.
With a landing page, you use advertising, SEO and other methods to direct people to your page first and then onto the affiliate page whereas with this strategy you are sending people straight to the offer.
Think about it like this. With the landing page strategy you have something that acts as a ‘middleman’ (your website) and then the person is moved onto the affiliate link while direct affiliate marketing removes this middle man.
Which one is better?
There is a lot of discussion about whether affiliate marketing landing pages are more effective or if sending them straight to the offer itself, is better.
On one hand, by directing people to a landing page then you are creating an extra step so the chances of them dropping out of the sales process are increased. However, if your offer requires some explanation and needs to be a bit more salesy to push a conversion over the line then a landing page can be of immense value.
What strategy you choose to implement will depend a lot on what you are trying to sell.
Creating landing pages can take some time and effort and mobile landing pages need to be structured a bit differently but in many cases, the end result is worth it.
There are a lot of factors that can determine what method is best to use – the offer itself, how much you will need to convince them to buy and also perhaps their geo-location – however just because you decide on one strategy don’t completely discount the other.
