ClickBank Hops Explained (& Why You’ve Got Hops But No Sales)

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Dale is a former electrician that has since gone on to generate over $1 million in all-time affiliate commissions & become officially recognized as a Super Affiliate by the world's largest affiliate marketing training platform. Alongside running his own affiliate marketing empire, he now also teaches affiliate marketing to others through the Commission Academy platform.

If you’ve signed up to the ClickBank network or you’ve found yourself indulging in some ClickBank material online then no doubt hops & HopLinks are terms you’ve likely stumbled across.

But just what exactly are hops on ClickBank?

And why might you get hops but no sales? What does it mean?

If those are some of the things that you’ve found yourself wondering then you can rest assured that you’ve landed in exactly the right place as we’re going to cover all of those things & more right here on this page.

But to understand what ClickBank hops are, we’ll first need to cover ClickBank HopLinks.

So let’s dive right in.

What Are HopLinks on ClickBank?

HopLinks are essentially ClickBank’s version of affiliate tracking URLs. They’re the URLs that you’d share as an affiliate to promote a product from the ClickBank marketplace.

So, as an example, let’s say your affiliate ID is “topaffiliate” and the ID of the vendor (the company that you’re promoting) is “topproducts”.

Your ClickBank HopLink URL would look like this:

hop.clickbank.net/?affiliate=topaffiliate&vendor=topproducts

So if you were to share this link online & somebody clicked it, ClickBank would redirect the user to the sales page for “topproducts” & you, as “topaffiliate” would stand the chance to earn a commission if that visitor then happened to make a purchase.

Pretty simple, right?

But ClickBank understands that not everybody wants to have their affiliate ID or the vendor ID showing in the HopLink URL so, alongside the example above, they also offer the option to create encrypted HopLinks as well.

And encrypted HopLinks work in exactly the same way, it’s just that they look slightly different.

An encrypted ClickBank HopLink (made using the HopLink Shield tool) generally looks like this:

xyz.hop.clickbank.net

Despite its different appearance, however, this will go to exactly the same place as the non-encrypted version.

So all in all, HopLinks are pretty simple – and the term HopLink is ClickBank’s own trademarked term.

This means that you won’t see any other affiliate programs using the term HopLink or HopLinks because ClickBank has coined it as their own.

But anyway, onto the next point.

What Are Hops on ClickBank?

A hop on ClickBank simply means that somebody has clicked your HopLink. The more hops you get, the more visits your HopLink has received.

But the important point to note is that hops are not unique.

This means that 4 hops on ClickBank does not necessarily 4 different visitors. It could simply be one person clicking your HopLink 4 times.

Of course, the more hops you have, the better it is because whether it’s the same person or not, your goal should be to constantly attract new visitors & to also re-expose past visitors to the sales page via the HopLink.

So as a ClickBank affiliate, you should have 1 simple aim.

Your aim should be to drive as much targeted traffic as possible through to your HopLink & generate as many hops as possible, in order to generate sales.

And that brings us to the next question.

Why Do I Have Hops But No Sales?

The reason you have hops but no sales on ClickBank is simple. The traffic that you are sending to your HopLinks is not converting into sales.

Of course, there could be a number of reasons why the traffic is not converting & we’ll run through them below.

1. You’re Sending Low-Quality or Non-Targeted Traffic

First off, let’s talk about traffic quality. If you’re promoting an expensive item but attracting visitors from poor countries, this could be deemed low-quality traffic.

Low-quality traffic like that is just not going to convert. Not because the visitors don’t want to convert, but because they simply just cannot afford to.

So it’s best to focus on higher-tier countries, such as the UK, USA, etc.

And secondly, you might be sending high-quality traffic, but the traffic might simply just be non-targeted.

For example, let’s say you’re sending visitors from the USA to the page but they’re being sent there from a random popup. These people have shown no interest in your product & therefore it’s going to be very unlikely that they will convert into a sale.

So what you want to do in this instance is make sure you’re advertising to people who have actually expressed an interest in your product.

A great (and easy) way to do this would be to create a product review.

2. You’re Promoting a Product With a Poor Conversion Rate

There are some products on ClickBank that look really good & have really high conversion rates but similarly, there are some that have terrible conversion rates.

So, if you’re sending high-quality, targeted traffic & still getting hops but no sales then it’s likely time to give up on that product & try another.

Or even better, run split tests right from the start to easily find the product that converts the best with your traffic.

After all, not all traffic is equal & therefore not all conversions are equal. What converts well for others may not convert as well for you so always be sure to run your own tests.

3. You’re Not Setting The Correct Expectations

Getting hops is great, but a high number of hops isn’t everything if you’re obtaining them by setting false expectations.

For example, if you’re trying to get more people to click your HopLink by claiming that the product is free when it’s not, that’s going to massively damage your conversions.

It’s super important to set expectations, so you should always be honest & upfront in your ad copy.

ClickBank HopLinks FAQs

So we’ve covered the main points regarding ClickBank hops, HopLinks & why you might be getting hops but no sales above… But we’ve also noticed some other commonly asked questions which we’ll answer below.

How Many Hops Do I Need To Make Money on ClickBank?

There isn’t a definitive number of hops you need before you make money. It’s all about sending high-quality traffic & testing different products. Some people make money from their very first hop, other people require 1,000s of hops before they make any money.

How Many Hops a Day Is Good?

This depends on traffic quality. If you have 1 hop a day but that hop generates a sale, then 1 hop a day could be deemed good. As a general rule of thumb, though, you should aim for at least 50 highly-targeted hops per day in order to secure a handsome income from ClickBank.

How Many Hops Do You Need on Average To Make a Sale?

As a marketer with high-quality traffic promoting a high-quality product, you should expect to generate a sale every 10-20 hops on average. Of course, there are many other factors that come into play such as product price points, etc, but as a one-line answer, that’s the answer we’d give.

The Bottom Line

In order to make the most amount of money possible as a ClickBank affiliate, your goal should be to drive truckloads of high-quality traffic through to your offers.

But how can you generate high-quality traffic that actually converts into sales?

Well, the good news is that we’ve got the answer inside our free affiliate marketing course.

So if you’re interested in learning how can start (or scale) your ClickBank affiliate marketing business then definitely be sure to check it out before you leave.

And of course, if you happen to have any additional comments or questions then don’t hesitate to leave them below. We always love hearing from our readers.

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