Additional note on 24th September 2015:
Clickbank have currently removed the header.
They now claim – contrary to the email they sent out – that this was merely a test, not an ongoing requirement.
Personally, I’m removing any products I have on Clickbank and reducing any promotion I do of Clickbank products – I don’t trust them not to do something equally hare-brained in the future.
Clickbank are about to change how they treat affiliate clicks.
There is now an extra Clickbank header at the top of every page, screaming advert.
This is the header that will be shown at the top of every page you send an affiliate click to:
The marketplace link (which wasn’t in their original mockup) goes through to the Clickbank marketplace but doesn’t track the affiliate link so if anyone goes there, the vendor gets the full amount or the customer gets the option to promote the products they find.
Clickbank think it’s unobtrusive.
I think it’s the same as a magazine printing “advertisement feature” at the top of advertising pages but instead of the words being small and ignored, they are large and in-your-face.
Clickbank think it will help sales
Time will tell whether or not that is the case.
My personal feeling is that the opposite will happen.
Good sales pages take a lot of time and effort to create.
Every single change is tested – you need to be a certain type of person to do that!
I’ve seen tests where the colour of some text made a difference; others where changing the size or position of a graphic affected results; yet others where correcting a single spelling mistake in a re-run of an advert reduced response.
Yes.
Sales letters and pages really are that twitchy.
If the product you’re promoting converts well, there’s a very high chance that isn’t just luck. It’s almost certainly been tested and split tested for as long as the product has been around.
Each test may only give a small fraction of a change – some changes have a negative effect and are removed from the sales page – but over time those mount up and a relatively modest conversion percentage can double or even more.
Splattering a new, untested and unchangeable, banner at the top of the sales page is a major change.
I say untested because even if Clickbank have tested this it’s near enough impossible for them to have tested it in any meaningful way on the vast majority of pages and products that they host.
It would need split testing on each individual product over many hundreds or even thousands of visitors to find out whether or not it is going to positively affect sales or not.
Whether it works or not, it affects you
If it works – and I’d be shocked if it does – then it’s good for sales.
If it negatively affects the majority of products, that’s probably OK as Clickbank will probably make a fast retreat and reverse the idea.
If it randomly affects products, that’s bad
In my view this is the most likely scenario.
As I said earlier, sales letters are very sensitive things.
So there’s a decent chance that at least a few of them will be positively affected. Maybe the poorer quality ones.
And there’s a very good chance that at least a few of them will be negatively affected.
If you’re promoting a product that’s badly affected, the vendor has a problem.
They can’t change the uninvited guest that’s appeared on their pages.
They could re-test their sales letter to cope – but that’s difficult for a lot of the better selling products where the “sales page” is an auto-play video that doesn’t even have a buy button initially until the visitor has watched enough of the video.
A lot of products also have an exit pop up that tries to save the sale.
There are various scripts available (including some that are created in-house) so you don’t know how those will react until you test.
But if the new header hits sales too hard, there’s a good chance the vendor will jump ship and change payment processor.
Clickbank aren’t the only option available.
If the vendor is losing sales, they may leave Clickbank completely.
If that happens, any links you have may or may not go to the sales page but they won’t have your cookie attached so you won’t get a commission.
That probably won’t happen overnight.
It takes time to change things and test that everything is working.
So the shift might happen in a few weeks or a few months or even longer.
Or it may never happen.
But you won’t know unless you check.
There’s no notification system to tell you when a vendor leaves Clickbank.
It’s seller-beware.
If you sell any Clickbank products, you’ll need to diarise to check the links still work and that the final Clickbank purchase page still shows your affiliate ID.
And you’ll need to check regularly.
I’d suggest monthly if you don’t make too many sales, more frequently if you do. For each product you’re promoting.
Test your affiliate ID still shows. Test the exit pops still work as before. If there’s an affiliate page or newsletter, check it regularly for any upcoming changes.
It’s not fun but it needs to happen, otherwise you risk missing out on affiliate commissions.