Not everyone succeeds in affiliate marketing. It’s not unusual to learn about companies or individual blog or website owners complaining that they are not getting anything from the affiliate programs they participate in. In many cases, though, their only issue is simply design. They may have to implement design changes to make their banners or layouts more engaging and more likely to entice visitors to click through and make a purchase. Also, it is worth reconsidering if the affiliate links are really suitable for the audience a particular blog or website is serving.
Design and suitability issues are particularly common with gold affiliate programs. The truth is not many care about gold trade or investment opportunities online. That’s why you need to more carefully and thoughtfully plan the way you present your affiliate links. For instance, you should use texts and images that attract attention without being tastelessly showy and perceived as useless ads that deserve to be ignored. Consider the following pointers in enhancing your gold affiliate marketing campaign.
Place affiliate links, images, or banners near related content.
The likelihood for an affiliate link, banner, or image to be noticed and clicked increases if it is positioned near relevant content. For example, if you have an affiliate clickable image linking to https://www.bitgold.com/affiliates, position it near a post or article that discusses gold or precious metal affiliate programs. Content relevance matters. If you are to use persistent homepage banners or banners that don’t change regardless of the content being shown on a site or blog, it would be better if your site focuses on what you are trying to promote. Having disconnected content and ads is never a recipe for success. If your blog or site is about something else, better choose some other affiliate program to be used as one of your persistent page elements. Even if BitGold’s gold buying and selling service is one of the best, it’s difficult to encourage clicks for its affiliate links or banners if the website or blog visitor’s attention is on a different subject.
Use images instead of banners.
Banners have become synonymous to ads and annoyances. That’s why many visitors quickly avoid them. Some even install ad and script blockers on their web browsers to completely get rid of them. To improve the chances of your affiliate links in reaching the intended audiences, it would be better to integrate them with images instead of having them as banners. This would be a tedious task but it’s better than having affiliate links that are ignored or that don’t even show up on the browser at all.
Minimize or eliminate animations in the banners.
If you really need to use banners, avoid animating them. Animations on persistent elements of websites easily annoy website visitors. They also make pages look cluttered or untidy. Also, animations make page loading slower as they are heavier compared to plain images. It is advisable to limit animations but if you think you can evoke better responses with animated banners, make sure that the animation does not loop infinitely and too rapidly. Also, come up with creative animations to distinguish your clickable banners or images from most typical animated banner ads. Flashing text effects are passé so think of something more ingenious to grab viewers’ attention.
Don’t camouflage your ‘clickables’ but don’t make them look overly conspicuous and out of place either.
If you are putting up affiliate banners, text links, and clickable images on your blog or website, be sure that they are obvious that they are meant to be clicked. Don’t make them appear like they are just part of the background image. Put on some borders or slight contrast and color deviations along with subtle text instructions to encourage viewers to click on them. However, don’t exaggerate your attempt to make clickable elements stand out like having text links as the actual URLs like having https://www.goldmoney.com/referral-programme in lieu of “GoldMoney referral.” While the full Goldmoney link stands out and seemingly screams “click me,” many may not get the context. Generally, it would be better having “GoldMoney referral,” in this example, as the anchor text for the link.
Also, as much as possible, avoid animations and don’t make things a hard-sell. Some affiliate marketing experts suggest using banners or images that look amateurish as they are supposedly better compared to well-polished banners when it comes to conversion. If this works for you, you can proceed with it. However, monitor your results and find out if the idea is really advantageous for you. This suggestion about using “amateurish” banners is not scientific and widely adopted.
Do split or A/B testing.
If you will be doing affiliate marketing via email, most email marketing software already includes split or A/B testing functions to make it easy doing tweaks to the email marketing copies you make. A/B testing is a method for conducting controlled experiments with the goal achieving desired responses. In email marketing example, slight changes in the layout, colors, heading, or salutation can mean significant changes in reader responses. An A/B or split testing experiment can help you determine the best possible modifications for these elements for optimal email marketing performance. It is also helpful when it comes to doing adjustments for websites or blogs.
Design is certainly not just about aesthetics. Function should also be taken into account. There should be balance between how good things look and how practical or functional the elements are arranged and presented. You can definitely boost your affiliate marketing campaigns with the help of good design principles and with due regard for suitability.
