How does CTR work?

[Andrzej Bajer]

How does CTR work? I have an average CTR of 52 why so little? I know that there are many visitors to my Alamy page looking at my photos.
I got the information from Twitter and Linkedin where I put links to Alamy's website where my photos are. But it is not registered on my Dashboard. What is the reason, because I think it's about having a large number of visitors. Then the CTR value will be higher. How to advertise my photos if the number of visitors is not recorded on my Dashboard.

[Steve F]

Hi Andrzej,

Your pictures will appear at a certain level (e.g. first page, 10th page... etc.) in searches by clients, depending on various factors. CTR and Sales are the only factors we know about for sure in the secret formula Alamy uses to set our search ranking. Your CTR rank (on your Dashboard) is a function of the number of times a client zooms (clicks on) one of your images versus the number of times your images appear in a client search, but are not zoomed.

CTR=Zooms/Views * 100

 

Alamy ONLY records CTR for certain large/repeat clients.

 

I'm assuming your CTR is 0.52

 

I'm not disparaging your efforts on Twitter etc. But you've got a really really small portfolio. Buyers on Alamy are not going to be looking for photos on Twitter or Linked In. Perhaps casual buyers might see your images on Twitter or Linked In, but they will generally be wanting Print on Demand fine art images - not what Alamy does. Or if you produced news photos, it might help to promote them. But you're not doing that either. So I stand to be corrected by more knowledgeable Forum members, but I think you're wasting your time doing this sort of self promotion, your time would be better employed taking saleable images.

Steve

Edited January 12, 2023 by Steve F

[sooth]

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Edited October 19, 2023 by sooth

[M.Chapman]

CTR% is worth keeping an eye on, because, if and when Alamy calculate a contributor's Alamy rank, it is believed that CTR% is used in that calculation. So, maintaing a high CTR% (by avoiding keword spamming and not uploading too many duplicate/similar images) can improve a contributor's Alamy rank. This in turn will improve image placement in search results.

 

Mark

[NYCat]

I really like your images. You need to do more.

 

Paulette

[Andrzej Bajer]

Thanks for explaining to me how it works. I wish you all great camera shots.

[Rebecca Ore]

5 hours ago, Steve F said:

but I think you're wasting your time doing this sort of self promotion, your time would be better employed taking saleable images.

 

My first round with Alamy, I found I didn't begin to have regular sales until I had over a thousand pictures up and had done some research on unsuccessful searches that I could do that others hadn't done.  Searches by keyword may be done by assistants and then the photo editor looks at the sorted photos.   If the keywords aren't right, nobody will see the photos.   A range of subjects is a  way of spreading your chances further, but something to be said for very tight and well-research specializations, too.

 

Need the species of the hummingbirds and common name in the caption and as keywords.  I don't know what species have ranges in Canada.  Western US has more species than eastern US. 

 

 

[Andrzej Bajer]

Thanks for the advice. All the best.

[M.Chapman]

On 12/01/2023 at 10:29, Steve F said:

CTR and Sales are the only factors we know about for sure in the secret formula Alamy uses to set our search ranking.

Do we?

 

CTR% yes, but sales maybe not so much or not at all? The reason I say this is look at how the Alamy rank (and hence views) of some long-standing contributors with decent sales appears to have dropped after the May/June rerank.

 

Based on my own experience I'd suggest Alamy's contributor ranking algorithm is a bit unstable and causes oscillation in the calculated rank. An improvement in rank leads to an increase in views without a corresponding increase in zooms*. So the contributor's CTR% drops. Then, at the next rerank based on the lower CTR%, the contributor gets demoted. Back in the days when re-ranks were more regular I used to see a clear oscillation in my views (and BHZ position) with a period (1/frequency) equal to 2x rerank interval.

 

*When rank improves a contributor's images will appear more frequently, even in single word (broad) searches. If a contributor's rank falls their images may only appear in more precise searches which match more of their keywords or where there is less competition from images of the same subject, so zooms are more likely.

 

Mark

Edited January 13, 2023 by M.Chapman

[Steve F]

Not sure about sales, but anecdotally, I seem to have more zooms on some images once they've sold. It's obviously not based on sales for new contributors...

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

Not sure about sales, but anecdotally, I seem to have more zooms on some images once they've sold. It's obviously not based on sales for new contributors...

There seems to be a certain grace period where new contributors have a slight advantage. Think upper part of average rank.

If they start selling right away, rank can rise quite quickly. (And rightfully so.)

 

wim

[CMEckert]

What are the 3 initials for checking. your Alamy rank?...B something.

 

[spacecadet]

2 minutes ago, CMEckert said:

What are the 3 initials for checking. your Alamy rank?...B something.

 

It's been so long since I deleted them I can't remember😉

[M.Chapman]

1 hour ago, CMEckert said:

What are the 3 initials for checking. your Alamy rank?...B something.

 

BHZ

 

Mark

[CMEckert]

Thank you M. Chapman