Fonetastic Mobile

[Dynamoo]

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I've tried pretty hard with this programme and really nothing is happening. 4,380 visitors this month and one confirmed sale. - 0.02% conversion. Last month was 0.05%.

The hard fact of the matter is that they are not converting. My other merchants (not naming names) convert at 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.5%, 0.7%, 0.7%, 0.8% , 0.8% and 1.1%.

Even my worst performing merchant which gets a similar quality of traffic to Fonetastic gets 5 times better conversions. An "average" merchant converts 25 times better.

There's more. I though Fonetastic had a "no reversals" policy once the sale had been passed, but a sale mysteriously dropped out of last month's stats since yesterday.

Now, I suspect that Fonetastic might not be able to distinguish bot clicks from real visitors, but even so, conversions are a an order of magnitude less than the competition.

So.. is it just me or are Fonetastic not converting?

[stevesa]

Hi Dynamoo, what you suspect is correct, if a bot comes in and spiders the entire site then yes you will get lots of hits and low conversions, and also remember as your sub-domain is able to be spidered you will also get a lot of untargeted traffic, unlike any other mobile retailers, therefor you can prob say as a rule of thumb 50% of your traffic is "free" SEO traffic and not highly targeted traffic that you would normally sent to a phone shop

Any questions then give me a bell on 01427-892976

Steve

[Dynamoo]

Hi Steve,

OK, I understand that.. but if this is happening, then you really need to filter out bot traffic somehow, because else the figures are getting distorted.

But I wonder if anyone else would like to share how they're doing?

[zaq]

Dynamoo you better off joining a ppc affiliate program at directing your mobile phone traffic to them you make more money.

[Chris Clarkson]

May 2004


Unique Visitors 9,379
Leads 19
Pending 0
Passed 6
Failed 13
Commission £180


June 2004


Unique Visitors 3,967
Leads 9
Pending 1
Passed 1
Failed 7
Commission £35

Not brilliant as you can see, but it's targeted at "free mobiles" which brings out lots of Nigerian orders probably, and all seo traffic.

[missey]

Still seeing very poor results too.

[DutchRomano]

Very poor conversions.

When I got no commission conversions seemed a lot higher.

[Ballswinger]

IMHO - I think that conversions are low because browsers are becoming more savvy - that's to say that they are price comparing on the handset that they want and Mobile Shop / Fonetastic just aren't competitive.

On some deals they can be £40 - £80 more expensive on initial purchase price.

This does confuse me a little, MS are not a small outfit, and obviously put through the volume needed for decent network commissions. The only thing I can put it down to is that they work on a higher profit margin than other mobile retailers.

Andrew

[Bosh123]

Andrew don't forget the delivery charge of £10.00 on top.

[Dynamoo]

Yes but I'm not just saying that conversions are low.. they're an order of magnitude lower than any of their competition.

The main MobileShop site converts way better on clickthroughs. Fonetastic just isn't converting. Which is a shame because I think it *should* be converting - it's certainly good at attracting traffic, it's pretty good at getting new models in and it looks nice. Just nobody wants to buy.

[Ballswinger]

I may be putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5 but - the mobileshop deals are exactly the same as the fonetastic deals, I can only presume that the extra £10 delivery charge is to cover the extra bonus they are paying all affiliates??

Andrew

[Dynamoo]

Yes, that's the best explanation I can see so far.

I don't exactly buy a lot of mobile phones personally

[Bosh123]

In reality are we getting the extra bonus? I personally don't think so.

My failed sales are 60-65%, which leaves me with avarage commissions per application of less then other mobile programs pay. Wonder whats going to happen when the bonus period is over.