Are Affiliate Banners More Effective Than Your Own Custom banner?
 

i'd like to hear from those who have already tried it. tnx

Hell no. No offense to any designers, but those who strictly stick to design and don't pay attention to what everyone else is doing, do not have a clue. Yeah, they make some pretty beautiful banners, but if you look around you'll notice that beautiful banners are not what's generating high CTR.

Even when working for a major company, my ugly photoshop banners with good sales text and effective call-to-action always murdered the CTR of the ones created by the design team.

:2 cents:

I personally get way better CTR on my own ugly text banners than I ever did on most of the garbage I see in affiliate areas...

I have a designer make banners for me. I don't want the program name on the banners. I also want unique looking banners. A lot of affiliate banners are oversaturated and outdated (years old)

Tofu made this claymation for me last week :1orglaugh:1orglaugh ...the call to action is "msg to our moms"

http://static.exoclick.com/banners/2...M19_%20(7).gif

no, create your own.

custom ones always work the best

create your own.

we make our own (banners only make up 12% of sales these days and falling) 100% of the time

Programs seems to spit out (for dating anyway) versions of the same shit they made in 2005. Its a bit odd actually. geo banners, map banners, blah, blah, blah. Custom does 2-3X better for us.

For dating and cams I can imagine banners being shitty. LOL For paysites I have a FUCKLOAD of them on my two Affiliate Programs (see sig), WAY more than the average program (like hundreds of banners).

But doing your own custom banners is a good idea regardless. :)

as with anything, it depends how you are using them.

That's awesome!

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

(GFY disclaimer: this is NOT one of my banners, in case any of you missed srockhard's vernacular)

Custom. I'm the worlds' 2nd worst designer and my banners usually have a way higher CTR than what's in most affiliate areas. Some companies get it right, though.

Yes, me too, slick and professional is not necessarily a good thing :2 cents:

I've tried both a have had positive reactions to both. I look at what's available and if it's not to my liking (ie: they wouldn't make me buy) then I'll make my own.

Personally I think as an affiliate knowing your own traffic you should know what your visitors would like to see and click. So it really varies I'd say.

Most of the time you are better off creating your own banners if done right, however with that being said some offers do have some really enticing banners that get pretty solid CTR's...it really just depends on the banners and how enticing they are.

No shit, Sherlock...

Creating your own within limitations. You know your site. You know your traffic ( Should ) You know what your surfers want to see and read.

BUT. Dont use content for the banner that does NOT EXIST on the site. Thats a good way to get booted from a program and it does you no good when people realize the girl does not exist on that site.

People want their own design, and I think that's better if you know what your costumers want or what is your best sell

Banners are branding tools not conversion tools today.

jpeg + photoshop = 2005

Exactly I find that making ones own does work better but it depends on the product and traffic

Yes,a lot of program dont even allow custom creatives or you need to get first approval before using it.

We have banners in our program but we also create a lot of custom banners specific for our affiliates. We have no problem working with our affiliates because what Roald said is true, that affiliate knows their traffic the best.

Keep telling yourself that. No wonder you're an affiliate manager...

custom works best if you understand what your audience likes but otherwise affiliate banners, like what we have on our banner farm will work very well as these are the ones we see get the most clicks

I am the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ACwebconnecting Holding -- the corporate owner of XloveCam. You are the guy who drives the clown bus?

Piss off jerk.

And you're still unaware of how to use banners for immediate conversions? :)

Our affiliates are welcome to use any images or other tools, we provide them with, to create banners or other graphics that are within the acceptable use parameters of our affiliate agreements.

Creative ads look pretty with my business name on them. Make all the banners you want I love free branding!

If affiliates want to make money directive advertising is the best way. Today's consumer on the Internet is a lot more sophisticated than he was 10 years ago -- there is a multitude of choice.

If you don't understand the reasoning behind the Intention Economy you need to get a new day job. If you don't recognize the new visual media and its obsoleting of the traditional display ad you are going to get left in the dust.

Learn what CTA is all about and use that to trigger your own popups. Banners are just "pretty" decorations if you expect more from them you are drinking the Kool Aid.

We only produce affiliate banners because affiliates think they need them, IMHO. But I do appreciate the initiative of the OP I just see the media as misdirected and offer some contemporary alternatives.

Wow, you actually seem to take yourself seriously, using a lot of big words! :1orglaugh

OK, let me explain this to you at a level you should be able to understand: Banner = graphic image used to advertise a site. Now, does a banner have to only contain (pretty) images? Does it have to only contain images? Is it prohibited to include a CTA in a banner? Must it use the URL of the site you're ultimately selling?

From what I understand, your program only offers revshare. Which means that big media buyer affiliates aren't exactly tripping over themselves to send you traffic. Otherwise you would probably be more familiar with how banners are being used to drive immediate conversions nowadays. 'Cause if you still think banners can only be used for branding then you're either way out of the loop, or you simply got shit for brains.

If only there was a way of knowing for sure, for testing it. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where we could run banners and test which ones are better?


We can only dream I guess

Shit for brains says: good for you

I see you still can't explain why banners can only be used for branding and not immediate conversions. But anyway, all board pissing and name calling aside, let me know if you need help and I'll give you a bunch of ideas and examples.

:1orglaugh

you need to post more often :thumbsup

I can't, I feel my IQ level falling just reading the drivel these days :Oh crap

I get those stats for our affiliate banner placements daily ... As a sponsor we haven't used banner placements in some time -- we saw the results and heard all of the stories about what we should do, spend more money on redundancy, bla bla bla -- ask anyone offering ads to prove redundancy to you by risking their ad revenue if they are wrong -- ROFLMAO -- they run like hell and try to find a new "customer."

You should be able to track your own banners used (all advertising for that matter) by the way you use your link codes as an affiliate or as a sponsor/seller. You can only know for sure the results of that particular test instance -- there are a lot of factors that might influence the results -- you have to consider them also.

Either you aren't getting what the OP is saying, or those of us who make our own graphic images that create immediate leads aren't. I think you are being way too narrow in your definition of what a 'banner' is.

:1orglaugh :thumbsup

Do you have any tips on tying shoe laces?

depends what sponsors are offering, but you can always check the high traffic tubes to see how the banners are looking like there, i bet those companies spending mucho dinero on the advertising knows what scheme have now the best ctr :winkwink:

Gandalf is running a special on crystal balls. Buy 2 get a free hobbit.

A banner is a visual graphic served on a website;

^ Are Affiliate Banners More Effective Than Your Own Custom banner?
i'd like to hear from those who have already tried it. tnx

I have gone as far as to have ''banners'' made for affiliates who insisted they had a great idea ... That naiveté is gone ...

I don't waste my money on banner advertising anymore because the results from experience suck. People have trained themselves to ignore banner advertising. The CTR rates are awful. The ROMI is poor.

What happened to the popup ad on GFY :) More important -- why was it there?
Banners from most networks are blocked by advertising blockers that 15% (or more?) of the Internet is using today.

So, what are real people interested in seeing? And not some advertising salesman's pitch to you?


But I won't waste any more of my time on this subject ...

Yes, try having your mother do it ... Sorry, your sarcasm escaped me.

Maybe, I have heard too much whining around here about failed advertising, Google fucked my White Label again and sponsors shaving the sales that affiliates never had in the first place.

#1 chillax
#2 be teachable. Always.

what most affiliate managers/program owners/affiliates seem to think they need in a banner, is far from what can get outstanding ctr & ultimately sales.

Must... resist... the... temptation...

For CAMS, I can see Barry's point. CAM banners never get it for me.

For incredibly hot Japanese girls? Banners kill it because the model on the banner pulls the sale! :2 cents:

Do they not convert, or do they simply not pull any clicks? Both issues can be addressed, regardless of what you push.

I see most of our affiliates use something else than banners, may it be chat posts, submitted videos with overlay domain name and even text links. However except banners, some screenshots of fake screencap blogs works well.