The word creative speaks for itself, but it may be tricky to come up with a variant that a) makes you tick and b) boosts your conversion rates. It's not always about aggressiveness, bright colors, decorative fonts, garishly painted icons, or attractive pictures. In fact, there's much more to it, and we're eager to share a detailed overview.
Starting Your Journey
Before you focus on the embellishments or the approach in general, make sure you have a solid — or at least apparent — idea in your head. Sometimes it's the hardest thing to do as you're constantly surrounded by terabytes of information and pictures your mind cannot process, so set yourself for work, turn on your Spotify, choose the right song, and prepare to dive into the ocean of inspiration.
Of course, you're not going to drown there: we're throwing you a lifesaver — a list of platforms for further navigation.
Spy Tools. This is your go-to option if you're trying to ignite your enthusiasm: breeze through the creatives, but make sure they're still alive and kicking and aren't some old stiffs drifting on the surface. While pictures can be indeed engaging, remember that the text can be the key component and thus should not be ignored.
YouTube. No need to elaborate on this one: you already know what to do. There are a dime a dozen of videos on various topics, dedicated to different niches, tickling all the right spots. Type whatever you're interested in in the search bar, look through recommendations, and transform the content as you see fit.
Instagram. A treasure chest that needs no map offers you mountains of content, no matter the niche, no matter the preferences: gambling, luxury life, Nutra, or anything else.
(Pre)landing pages. Oddly enough, affiliate programs can help you enormously by providing pictures, backgrounds, and text samples. However, put some effort and find a program that adds new materials or at least updates the older ones, so your efficiency will be higher in the end.
Stock photo websites. They tend to come in handy as inexhaustible sources of memes, but you can put them to good use in your work too. More often than not, users share photos related to health or weight loss. While most pictures you find will fail to pass moderation on Facebook, push notifications will work just fine. It doesn't mean you should put Facebook aside, though: browse another page to unearth subtler ideas and refine them later.
Other sources. Of course, you can't just grab the creative you like from one source and transfer it to another without even a slight change, but you can borrow ideas.
Google. No mistake here, we'll explain. You find the creative you like, smash the PrintScreen button, and run through the recommendations, kindly offered by Google. Stop when you find a similar one. Profit!
The options listed above do not restrain you in any way, but you should remember that it's always harder to start from scratch, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel — instead, transform the approaches that worked well. Even more so, if you still decide to shake things up a little and come up with an entirely new method, go by the fundamentals that have already proven successful.
What else do people use to create graphic designs? Newcomers usually choose Canva, a platform used to create social media graphics and presentations. More experienced affiliates stick to oh-so-famous Photoshop and other graphics editors with other scopes of functions. For example, if you need to remove the background, there's no point in downloading a total of 30GB of Photoshop PRO: choose erase instead. You're two clicks away from your goal: tap on the background, and you're good to go.
Elementally Speaking
Okay, we've examined the bigger picture, and now onto the details.
Contrast. Believe it or not, it can be vital. Facebook, for example, is known for its white-and-blue color scheme, so in a way, you're obliged to avoid the same color scheme in your pictures—or at least to enframe your creatives. Technically, you are supposed to be garish because users scroll the feed at a breakneck speed, not even paying attention to the content appearing there. Do something to stand out from the crowd, add flags in the background if need be—you'll be shocked to see how many people will click on such an ad.
Approach. Each niche has its own tricks and techniques that are considered trustworthy and literally foolproof. For gambling, for example, it's always money and news; Nutra is all about celebrities, news, and before/after pictures... As you can see, there's a wide range of opportunities, just choose yours.
Coherence. Pre-landing and landing pages should be interconnected. If a creative depicts a young woman, the landing page shows the very same young woman.
Video creatives are even more peculiar: they will most likely boost your conversion rate, but the result depends not only on the quality of the video but on the general tendencies characteristic of your target audience.
Length. Currently, videos are expected to be 15 seconds, 30 seconds tops, and it doesn't matter whether you're working with Facebook or TikTok.
Dynamic, popular music. This is a demand for TikTok, probably the crucial component of success; Facebook is not that rigorous in terms of music, so you can relax a bit.
Product advantages. No success without the wow effect on TikTok, you are apparently aware of that. Facebook is not that demanding: a list of selling points may be just enough to get the limelight.
Format. Nothing special here either: vertical videos are a TikTok feature, not a Facebook hallmark: Zuckerberg's brainchild is more into squares.
Subtitles. Remember that Parasite movie, 2019? Subtitles irritated nearly anyone so much that unnerved viewers refused to finish the film. Times have changed, and you are more than welcome to add subtitles to your content as people scrolling the feed mostly watch videos without sound. By the way, you have about 2 or 3 seconds to capture the potential viewer. The clock is ticking!
Result. Don't overcomplicate the message. An average user should understand what they receive in the end, whether it is money, better looks, new life, or brighter prospects finally hovering out of the corner. Demonstrate how useful your product is, and dwell on the benefits you mention.
Lifehacks at Play
A perennial spring of lifehacks never seems to drain, and we're about to spill the beans a few more times.
Find someone willing to tell the audience about the product and then do the voiceover, showing what you are promoting. However, it should be a top-quality picture, or your conversion rate will remain a nadir.
Affiliates working with dating might build trust by using icons of the dating apps popular in the GEO of interest: Tinder, Badoo, Bumble, or any other option that comes to mind.
Many people erroneously consider seasonality a foe, but in reality, this is your friend: just find the right approach. For example, if you are a betting marketer, you most likely know that creatives are tailored for a specific fight or match. It usually works well enough, but you'll climb to the top if the confrontation is highly anticipated by the public.
Many affiliates wonder which option to resort to: static pictures are easier to make, but videos seem a more fascinating variant. To tell you the truth, there's no unequivocal answer. Most of the time, it's not about the format at all. Usually, the structure and the relevance are far more important, but there are indeed a few criteria to stick to.
The result comes first. When the user sees the picture, he is expected to immediately form an impression and create an association with what he is looking at. They should understand what they get right away.
Focus on the text. If you're working with an older audience, refine the text as much as the picture itself. Indicate that the effect is long-lasting (confirmed by multiple experts who initiated thorough research).
Improve the translation. High-quality text often is a component of success, so don't cheap out when it comes to translation — hire a native speaker if needed.
This aspect of affiliate marketing makes you rack your brain quite often, but it also improves your critical thinking and analytical abilities. Before establishing a pre-landing page, you should roughly outline the elements you want to see there. For instance, if you work with the adult niche, and there are no doctors anywhere whatsoever, there's no need to mention good ol' Hippocrates in your upcoming creative. When the audience expects to see nothing but (mildly) erotic pictures and certain devices, it will grow alienated from the content depicting a white-robed personage with a syringe. To avoid misunderstanding, focus on the creo with the same color scheme and subtle eroticism: it will positively affect the conversion and the approval rate.
However, if you drive traffic directly to the landing page, it is better to include a video creative, where information about the product and its advantages will be exhibited in detail.
Scope of Work
Designers can do the impossible: they have an unfaltering imagination, frantically working all the time. However, even the best of the best will fail your assignment if you don't supply your creative knights with a thorough scope of work.
Creative Type. Write down what exactly you want to receive as a result: is it a video or a static banner? What is the size? Where will it be placed? What's the traffic source you're planning to use it for?
Niche. Let your designer know which vertical you're setting your creative for, and list a few examples you consider worthy — to give more clues.
(Pre)landers. If this is related to e-commerce, add a pre-landing link, so your future creo will be interconnected with the characters and colors already depicted on the page.
Text. Prepare the text and define when and where it should appear on the screen.
Originals. Attach all the materials and enumerate all the elements you want to see in the creative, or at least explain what sources can be used, for example, stock photos, YT videos, (pre)landing page content, and so on.
Preferences and deadlines. If you have ideas or expectations, speak them out. Then, set the deadlines. Not to scare you away, but don't be too confident about the result, and keep a day or two in store because you'll most likely correct mistakes and rectify the creative this way and that. It's not about the designer: simply put, the situation may have altered, or your vision may have changed, and then, the colors should have been one shade lighter not to blend in completely :)
Conclusion
Converting creatives are not a set of funny pictures or outright meme-related content. In fact, there is a range of necessary elements compelling people to click on the ads once it appears on the feed. Among the main criteria, you can name the result, contrast, competent text, and coherence with the pre-lander. If this is a video creative, you pay attention to other aspects, such as time, dynamics, product benefits, and results. Affiliate marketers who keep in mind all those little tricks usually have higher conversion rates, and now, when you know the secrets, you can compete with them. Good luck!
