The only way to truly tell if one strategy works better than another is to test and compare data. We recently asked select website owners if they would be willing to allow us to run some A/B tests on their sites. Specifically – we wanted to see how some of our AmaLinks Pro® elements performed versus plain text and image links. You see – we are aware that there is a belief in the affiliate community that just plain old text links work the best to get users to click over to Amazon. We wanted to see for ourselves.
There are many variables that could affect click-through-rates. So, we ran similar tests on several different sites. Link placement location and call-to-action text are just a few of the important variables that differ among sites and even posts.
Today, we’re reporting on results from a website in the home services niche. The products being promoted on the page we tested are common household products that typical consumers would use almost every day. The price range for the products listed on the page is considered very inexpensive. We will not be revealing the exact site or who the owner is. But, we’ll do our best to show you the results and point out the specific variables.
256.4% Increase in Clicks to Amazon!
This test ran for 93 days and the post had 4,076 total page views. Here is the breakdown for how it performed…
- Control Version (the original, unedited) – 2,009 page views with 63 clicks to Amazon – 3.14% CTR
- Variant Version (AmaLinks Pro®, edited) – 2,067 page views with 231 clicks to Amazon – 11.18% CTR
Here is a screenshot from the dashboard of the A/B testing plugin that we are using (with the name of the post and the screenshots blurred for confidentiality)…
As you can see – we were able to achieve an amazing 256.4% increase in clicks to Amazon on this one page.
What are we testing, exactly?
It’s simple, really. We set up this test to count the number of times a user (reader) clicks on an external link that contains ‘amazon’ in the URL. We verified that all links to Amazon in the original post were using the full Amazon URL and contained the word ‘amazon’ – and we know that all links created by AmaLinks Pro® use the full API-driven URL which contains ‘amazon’ in the URL.
How are we setting up our A/B tests?
Note: This post does contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service after clicking one of our links, we earn a commission. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
We’re using Nelio A/B Testing – a WordPress plugin for easily setting up and monitoring A/B tests from within your WordPress dashboard. We researched and tested a few different A/B testing tools and found that Nelio A/B Testing would be the easiest for us to use on multiple WordPress sites.
The Nelio A/B Testing plugin allows us to create as many variants as we want, per post (or page). For the tests that we are running, we are setting up just one variant. To make changes to the variant, the plugin opens up a post (or page) editor with the exact original version and we simply make all the changes that we want and then save it.
The plugin then automatically directs about 50% of traffic to the original post (the control version) and the other 50% of traffic to our edited post (the variant version). Readers of the website have no idea that there are 2 different versions of the post!
The coolest thing about the Nelio A/B Testing plugin?!? After you find which version of your post performs the best – you can set that version to be the new live version on your site with just a click!
How was the original post (control version) set up?
The post that we ran this test on is a list post. The title of the post looks something like this…
[number] Best [type of product] for [specific scenario]
An example for the title would look something like this (this is NOT the title of the post or even the same niche!)…
7 Best Ant Traps to Kill Ants in the Kitchen
After the title, there are a couple of paragraphs of intro text. Then, each product is listed with each being their own sub-section of the article. The name of the product IS the subheading and each subheading is linked to Amazon. Just below the subheading is a Site Stripe Text+Image link (left aligned) then just below that is a paragraph with some descriptive text for the product.
Here is an example of what each sub-section looks like in the original post (again, this is just an example – the actual site and product have nothing to do with killing ants)…
#1 Terro – Ant Killer, Liquid Ant Baits
Description text here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur…
PRO: Pro’s written here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit…
CON: Con’s written here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit…
So, that was it. The original version of this post listed several products exactly as shown above. It linked to Amazon in the H2 title of the subheading and in the Text+Image link from SiteStripe.
What changes did we make for the variant post?
We made a couple of big changes to the variant version of the post, using AmaLinks Pro®. First – we added a mobile responsive comparison table, with AmaLinks Pro®, towards the top of the post. We added it just after the intro paragraphs and just before the first product subheadings. The table contained just a few of the top recommended products that are featured later in the page. We also added a new subheading and one line of text just above the comparison table – as you’ll see in our example below.
Next, we removed the hyperlink to the product listing on Amazon from each subheading. We also removed the Text+Image SiteStripe links from each sub-section and replaced them with nice AmaLinks Pro® Showcase Boxes.
Here is an example of how our variant post is setup (again, this is just an example – the actual site and product have nothing to do with killing ants)…
Title of The Post Here
Intro paragraphs – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur…
In a hurry? See our top picks…
CLICK on any image below to see Ratings and Reviews on Amazon
More paragraph text here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur…
#1 Terro – Ant Killer, Liquid Ant Baits
Description text here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur…
PRO: Pro’s written here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit…
CON: Con’s written here – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit…
There you have it! We added a comparison table to the top of the post and replaced SiteStripe Text+Image links with AmaLinks Pro® Showcase Boxes. These changes alone resulted in a 256.4% increase in clicks to Amazon on this particular page!
Run Your Own A/B Tests!
Would you like to try setting up a similar A/B test on your own website or blog, to see if you can increase your clicks to Amazon? You only need a few things to get started.
- A post or page that gets decent traffic (at least a few hundred visitors per month)
- An A/B testing tool or plugin (like Nelio A/B Testing)
- Your own copy of AmaLinks Pro®
Check your analytics to find a post that gets decent traffic. If you’re not already promoting Amazon products on your high-traffic posts – take a look at our detailed guide to see exactly HOW you can be monetizing ANY post on your blog with Amazon.
Find a good A/B testing solution that will work well for you. The Nelio A/B Testing plugin that we use does have a VERY limited free version in the WordPress repository. If you choose to use Nelio A/B Testing – you will likely need to choose one of their Pro (paid) plans.
If you don’t already have your own copy of AmaLinks Pro® – I would suggest starting out with our Blogger plan. The Blogger plan gives you a license that you can use on only one site. If you have more than one website that you would like to use AmaLinks Pro® on – you can always upgrade your license later by simply paying the difference.
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