Ad Creative: Best Practices for Merchants

Met up with a great group over cheesesteaks and hoagies today!  Discussion centered around what affiliates need and don’t need in regards to creative and communication.

Interestingly enough, two of the affiliates that I met today, say they don’t really need a lot of contact with the merchant.  If a merchant has a good depth of ad creative, both these affiliates (who had never met before), are proactive enough to pull the code from the ShareASale interface.  The Interactive Advertising Board standards are a good place to start.  And of those, the following dimesions should be emphasized:

Logo:
88×31
120×60
120×90
125×125

Other banners:
120×60
120×90
120×240
120×600
125×125
468×60

Additionally, for promotions that require a discount code, if the coupon code is illegible, then the discount should be built into the click and not displayed in the smaller banner sizes.  This way, when a consumer clicks the banner on an affiliate site, the discount automatically registers on the merchant site, and the consumer does not have to re-enter a coupon code.

Finally, there was quite a bit of emphasis on dynamic banners, or banners that automatically update.  In ShareASale, merchants are able to replace existing banners and their associated landing pages, simply by click “Edit Banner.”  By creating a set of dynamic banners in the sizes mentioned above, affiliates are able to provide prominent placement, without having to worry that the banner will go out of date.  For merchants, this is a sure way to control and merchandise prominent affiliate real estate.

All in all, was a great meeting!  The folks at Angelo’s Pizza in King of Prussia were awesome to us!  And, you know, if cops eat there, it must be good.  No worries, we got everyone in the joint, cops included, hooked up with ShareASale RoadShow tshirts!  (Hoping that will help keep the speeding ticket fairy at bay)