What I meant is that the people and companies who approach affiliate programs with the attitude that "I am paying the most money, therefore that will drive volume" often fail to recognize that the conversion rate of the page is far more important to their volume than the amount of the payout.
Think as if you are the merchant....
If you assume that you are paying $XX per conversion, but you are profiting $XX+$10, and you are then getting tons of visitors per day to your page, none of which you pay for unless they convert.
Then you as a non-internet savvy marketer are likely to try to drive more traffic by upping the payout. This is what the sales reps at CJ are suggesting if you want more volume.
It is amazing how often the landing page is the first and only page ever used for a site. Most firms are not savvy enough to understand that they can actually pay less per sale, if your landing page converts better.
Extreme Example - same product - $10 payout vs $5 payout
First one converts at 2%, second one at 5%.
Send 1000 visitors to each site. Cost is about the same either way.
Program 1 = 1000*.02*10=$200 in revenue for affiliates, $200 profit for vendor.
Program 2 = 1000*.05*5=$250 in revenue for affiliate, $750 profit for vendor.
Getting merchants to understand that conversion is the most important factor, not payout, should be the job of the affiliate networks, but in general they drop the ball here.
This is why as a White label affiliate I create the conversion, I control the process, and I can send traffic to the merchant willing to compensate me for volume. In essence I get the 5% conversion rate & the $10 payout.
