Beat Your Competition Using Dynamic Affiliate Banners

I have just received an affiliate-geared newsletter from the affiliate program manager at FootballFanatics.com, and it instantly reminded me of the topic I’ve wanted to talk about for a while. It’s the topic of dynamic affiliate banners. Are you using these in your affiliate program? If you aren’t, you should be, as it will immediately make you stand out among your competition.

Definitions first, and then I will provide you with a few exemplary contexts.

Traditionally, “dynamic banner display means that the same banner advertisement changes with each refresh of the page” making it possible to display “a myriad of ads on a Web site without having to clutter a single Web page” [source]. In affiliate programs the situation is similar, yet a little different. When a merchant offers a dynamic banner, it essentially implies a self-renewing creative, which does not need any maintenance on the affiliate side (beyond the initial placement, of course). An affiliate just places the banner code on his/her site, and every time the merchant decides to update this particular banner, they just do it on their end, and it self-updates on all affiliate sites that use it.

Some of the most suitable contexts for the use of dynamic banners are:

• Seasonal (or holiday-related) banners
• Deals of the day (week, or any other time period) banners
• Coupon banners

Here’s that example from the FootballFanatics.com affiliate newsletter that I have referenced above:

We are … moving to making our banners “Dynamic”. What does this mean? That we will automatically update these banners with current events such as a championship, signing or current season. This will allow you to take advantage of what is selling at any time! These banners are named “NCAA Mens (Dynamic)” in our banner inventory so they will be updated with any events in the NCAA Mens sports world.  (For Example: These NCAA Men’s banners will promote NCAA Basketball now during March Madness but will be switched to Baseball when that season starts)

This is a perfect example of how to make your seasonal creatives dynamic.

If you aren’t doing this in your affiliate program yet, today is a good day to start!