The declining importance of a zoom

[Bryan]

As I understand it, only established customers create a quantifiable zoom when they look more closely at your work, while some regular buyers bypass the system, their zooms do not appear in the reckoning. So that's confusing to begin with!

 

Is it my natural pessimism that leads me to believe that I am seeing fewer exclusive zooms, or is this generally the case? Whereas once upon a time I would regularly see only one zoom, against a given search, now it's not uncommon to see more than 10.  

 

What probability of a sale can you ascribe to a zoom?  With an exclusive zoom it's presumably fairly high, but of course the customer may be looking at other agencies or decide not to proceed with the purchase for a multitude of reasons. When yours is one of a number of zooms, clearly the probability of a sale plummets accordingly.

 

My CTR is rarely very high, but at the moment it is higher than average with a monthly zoom count in excess of 60, but my sales quantity  this month is dire. Does this mean a brighter future? Possibly, but it's by no means certain!

[regen]

The site is so big and the numbers so large that the stats of an individual are unlikely to allow any meaningful predictions. It may be possible to gain an inside track if you are a niche photographer who happens to know editors and pic researchers who then look at your collection first and if there is anything suitable then they use it but they don't always have to zoom it. However if you are in that position then why give Alamy 50%? Bottom line -its only sales stats that mean anything the rest is just Alamy tinkering around the edge rather than concentrating on the important things like ensuring prices,licences and uses are in sync.

[Stan Pritchard]

I have been keeping a rough check of zooms and sales of zoomed images.

In the period from 1st.January to 30th.June 2019 I have had 140 zooms and 20 sales of zoomed images.

Of course, there is no knowing if the sale of an image can be directly related to a zoom of the same image..

[Ed Rooney]

My sales are up, my earnings down. My zooms have lessened but not significantly. A true understanding as to why would require a crystal ball. 

[John Mitchell]

I haven't been diligently keeping tabs on zoom stats the way Bryan has, but I can't say that I notice any big changes in the relationship between zooms and sales, which has always been something of a mystery to me and will probably remain so. I do find, though, that lots of zooms and resulting high CTR does usually lead to more licenses down the road. It's difficult to assign a probability, but I'd say that the 50% rule (i.e. about 50% of zooms actually result in sales) still holds for me.

 

Last weekend, I had the only image that came up in a customer's search, and it apparently licensed immediately, so I guess there is something to be said for those increasingly rare exclusive zooms...

 

 

 

 

[Bryan]

2 zooms yesterday, neither exclusive, one a total of 6 and the other 25. Forlorn hope methinks....

[Doc]

my ratio of zooms to sales has always been between 3 and 4, pretty much the whole time I have been on Alamy. I have not been as specific as Bryan at looking to see which images which were zoomed eventually sold, but my overall zoom:sale ratio for 2019 is exactly 3.5.

 

I attach a great deal of importance to the overall number of zooms I get as it does seem to correlate well with the eventual number of sales I get, and presumably reflects interest in my images

 

Kumar

[wiskerke]

49 minutes ago, Doc said:

I attach a great deal of importance to the overall number of zooms I get as it does seem to correlate well with the eventual number of sales I get, and presumably reflects interest in my images

 

I'm with Doc Kumar here.

 

ratio zooms/sales:

2007    17.2        
2008    15.5        
2009    7.4
2010    4.1    
2011    3.3    
2012    2.4
2013    2    
2014    2.7        
2015    3.5    
2016    2.6
2017    2.5
2018    2.2    
2019    2.6

 

However I think the ratio views/sales is even more important. Think of it as CTR for sales.

 

wim

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by wiskerke
ratio zooms/sales

[John Mitchell]

The second half of the month has been quiet for me. However, an encouraging flurry of zooms popped up yesterday. They included two sets of images apparently zoomed by the same clients. I've seen more of this lately, and it usually results in sales. Earlier this month, the same customer licensed five of my Vancouver images (book use) after zooming them, so it seems that multiple zooms of similar subjects can still be especially valuable.

Edited October 24, 2019 by John Mitchell

[Ed Rooney]

When an image is zoomed more than once in a month, it usually means a sale. 

[Anton]

On my last ten sales, no one was zoomed before.

On my last twenty zooms, no one was sold till now.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Anton