Stealing conversions through 800 number

[Hayek]

There is an offer that I would really like to promote. I know it converts fairly well though search from past experience, but the conversions were incredibly unreliable. The offer prominently displays a 800 number on the merchant's landing page, and I assume I am losing conversions to their call center.

I am trying to negotiate a coupon code or something that will give my users an incentive to sign up through the website, but I have not had success as of yet.

How do you guys deal with 800 numbers? Should I just find another offer and move on?

 

[Garrett]

Maybe ask the merchant if they can set a special 800# so they can track you that way. Or maybe recreate their lp and modify it to do a simple javascript hide/show link and track how many people are "showing" the 800 number link. Then come at them with some data to negotiate working with you.

 

[Kyle]

Normally merchants will remove obvious phone numbers from their website if the visitor arrives through an affiliate link (very easy to do). If not, as you said, they are knowingly stealing leads.

I would lean on the network to get this fixed - they are losing out on revenue too (potentially much more than you across all of their affiliates). If they aren't willing to do anything about this, then there isn't much you can do AFAIK. I would just move on, on principal, but let them know that as the website currently stands, you can't do business with them.

Also, Garret's adhustler-style idea is a good although potentially costly one. That data would help you put a lot of pressure on the network as it would indicate to them what percentage of revenue they could be losing as the site stands.

Don't be surprised though that if they agree to remove the phone number, the payout gets decreased too. This might result in a lower ROI for you (overall, the payout drop across all of your leads may total more than what you gain from the extra leads) BUT this is better for you as your conversion data will be more accurate over the long term, and you can optimize accordingly.

 

[mont7071]

The person who would order from a phone #, but not online, is not a sale you would have ever gotten credited for as an affiliate anyways, so asking the merchant to remove the #800 typically isn't going to get you credit for more sales, its just going to cost the merchant the sales that might have come from a phone call but no other way. Granted, if they are somehow pushing visitors to call instead of order online (e.g. "call and mention coupon code") to avoid paying commissions then you have an issue, but I don't think it's accurate to say they are "stealing" leads from affiliates just because they want to make ordering options available to ALL potential customers who hit their site, not just those who will order online via an affiliate link.