Signing up for Geniuslink marks the start of your 14 day free trial. This trial is provided so that you can try out our service to ensure it’s a good long-term fit for your needs. It also gives you chance to see first hand the value that Geniuslink can provide.
Everyone has slightly different ways to “test” a service but the following outline is our suggestion for getting the most out of our free trial.
Note: this example is focused on clients using Geniuslink for promoting products inside the Amazon ecosystem to a global audience.
Day 0 - 3
Apply for the international Amazon Associates programs. The US, Canada, UK, German, French, Italian, and Spanish programs are easiest to get set up with. Additional information about signing up for these international programs can be found here - Amazon Associates: Getting Started.
Add the affiliate tracking IDs from the international programs into your Geniuslink account. Complete details can be found here - Adding your Amazon Affiliate Parameters to Geniuslink.
Build links or implement one of our tools. You can take advantage the Geniuslink technology in a few different ways. Chose the tool that best fits your workflow and needs.
Learn more about the Quick Build format, the Javascript Snippet, our Amazon Link Engine and iTunes Link Engine Wordpress plugins, the Link Creator Tool or our API.
Day 4 - 13
Once your links are live, the next couple weeks should be focused on watching your “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs).
During this time period keep an eye out for these changing metrics (assumes that your click levels stay about the same as before):
Increase in Earnings Per Click. After you start using Geniuslink you shouldn’t see any change in your average daily commissions coming from the Associates program that you started with. However, the Earnings Per Click (EPC), or how much on average you earn for every click you get on an affiliated link, is calculated by your total commissions divided by your total clicks for a time period. Ideally, this should start increasing. This happens because Geniuslink is intelligently directing your international clicks elsewhere. It means that less clicks are required to earn the same amount of commissions than before.
Conversion Rate Increases. Along with your EPC increasing after “turning on” Geniuslink you should also start to see an increase in your conversion rates for the Associates program you started with. This follows the same logic as the increase in EPC. By filtering out your international clicks and sending them to the appropriate international storefront you are using less clicks to see the same number of sales.
Revenue accruing internationally. Those clicks from international visitors who were previously being sent to the wrong storefront are now getting sent to their local storefronts and if you added the appropriate affiliate tracking IDs you’ll start earning commissions from any subsequent sales. As a result you’ll start to see commissions accruing in the international associates program.
Note: If you haven’t already, now is a good time to set up your Commission Reporting (more info here: iTunes Commissions Reporting).
Day 14
By this point you should have had at least two full weeks of using the service. While there are many ways to evaluate whether or not the service works for you (new business intelligence, time savings, cost savings, opportunity cost, opening up new markets, etc.) one of the most quantifiable is doing a dollar for dollar “Return On Investment” (ROI) analysis.
ROI is calculated by taking your “gain” minus your “cost” then dividing that by the cost. Let’s walk through an example together.
If you received ten thousand clicks from five countries and were set up with three of the international programs you might see something like this:
In this example an additional $100 was generated from the international programs. This would be your “gain.”
While your 14 day trial is free you can estimate what your costs might be based off the number of clicks you drive.
To calculate your ROI, use the following formula:
(gain - cost) / cost
($100 - $9) / $9
This gives you a ROI of over 10X! For this example, for every dollar you spent with Geniuslink you’d earn over $10 extra via the international Associates programs.
It’s important to note that many factors, such as percentage of international traffic and the types of products you are promoting, will impact your ROI. In general, our clients that focus on the Amazon Associates Program will see between 4X and 6X ROI from using the Geniuslink service. However, we’ve seen clients reach as high as 16 to 18X. If you find that your ROI is less than 2X please contact us as there may have been an issue in set up.
As always, please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns at any time.