I've written about this before but wanted to do an actual test just to get people to actually test their CPA network. I still see so many people blindly running with networks just because they like their AM or they want to hang with the cool kids.
This is business and I'm doing this to make money. I can be friends with anyone I want, but I am going to run with the network that gives me the best results.
With that in mind, I tested the average offer page load time for 4 popular networks. I am going to leave these anonymous so you can do your own testing and reach your own conclusions. Chances are, you are running with one of these networks though.
I tested 4 offers in different niches for each network. I used the same offer if it was available on the networks.
The best network had an average offer page load speed of 1.7 s. The worst network had an average of 2.9. That's a full second slower than the second slowest network. If you don't think that would have an effect on conversions..well, 1. You're wrong and 2. Split test it for yourself.
Here is a chart showing the results
I see over and over again in the forums people who say “I've done so many campaigns and I can't get anything to work!'. There can be a lot of reasons for this, but one of the simplest it to split test offers on different CPA networks.
I really encourage you to test your offer page load times. It can make a HUGE difference in your conversion rates.
*edit* After reading the comments, I realized I should show you how you can test. You can use http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/ (you can pick where it runs the test from).
I also use Live HTTP Headers and http://wheregoes.com/ to see the redirects. You won't believe how many redirects some affiliate links go through.
Interesting. . .
I think one of the reasons it’s taking so long for the networks is that they are redirecting multiple times and this slows it down. The best thing to do is to find the network that has the offer direct as it’s more likely to be faster.
How did you test out the speed?
Yep, that seems to be the #1 reason. Use Live HTTP headers to see where the offer is coming from or how many redirects it’s going through. A simple way to test load time is with http://tools.pingdom.com/fpt/
Names, please! I’m sure I’m not the only one who would like to know the name of the slow network…and it might give them a reason to get their act together.
Can you send me the list of networks? I can keep a secret.
Yeah, this would have been 3x more useful if you threw some names in. Of course we’d have to go testing for ourselves but it might have helped save a little time by narrowing down the field.
also thought I’d throw in http://whichloadsfaster.com/ is another pretty slick tool for testing load times side-by-side.
I thought about ‘naming names’ but decided against it for a few reasons. The main purpose of this post was to get people to check the networks they run on, and overall just start looking at who they run offers with closer.
If I were to name the networks that loaded slowly, the argument (from the networks) might be that I only picked 4 offers and that’s not enough to go by. As you can see, there is a lot of variation within the networks too. So if I said ‘don’t run with ‘network X’ because their offers load slow, it might not be a fair statement.
This whole test took me like 10 min (the blog post took longer to write) so take the time and get the answers for the networks you run with 🙂
I noticed that some networks been pulling offers from networks into their networks and that explain of course the redirects.
so if i need to test that offer very bad i usually go to the main provider.
You can’t be more right
I bet the slow network was EWA – or some other network that syndicates a lot of their offers. I like to ask the advertiser which networks they’re going direct with (and which LPs are direct vs. syndicated, since some will syndicate to get access to LPs that other networks have).
It gives you a good place to start, and you can ask them for tips on running the offer while you’re at it. The advertiser knows a hell of a lot more about the offer than the average “Communications major” bimbo AMs most networks have (not knocking the rare smart AMs, but even for them it’s literally impossible to know all of the hundreds of offers they work with).
Rather than naming out the slow networks, can you just suggest some networks you like running with?
that’s why i have joined multiple network never keep your eggs in just one basket ..