Successful affiliate marketing cases inspire. Sometimes, they make us a bit jealous, but the power of jealousy can be very creative – it evokes actions. Say, you have read about a really great campaign and now you dream of getting the same results. How should you do that? Can you copy the case partly? Does it make sense to repeat it entirely?

Today, we would like to discuss this topic and see which is the best strategy of case study replication. Ready? Roll in!

Need inspiration? Here are our case studies

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So, which parts can be copied? 

To make things clear from the beginning, let’s divide ad campaigns into two layers – the one your users can see and the invisible one. They cannot see your:

• Targeting settings
• Bidding

To put it simply, these elements form your way to adjust and control the advertising process.  We can put the chosen ad format somewhere in-between. People see the actual ads of a particular format, it influences their decisions, etc., but it is also a part of your inner ad settings.

And here comes the layer your users see. Here :

• Creatives (pre-landers, banners, etc.);
• Text

The first pack is something for yourself only, the second one is to engage people. You adjust both to make your ads efficient, but the latter pack makes people act. That’s similar to back-end and front-end programming – the first one makes software work (the code), but people interact with the second one (the interface of the program). 

So, grab the tip: 

You can replicate the invisible part only – bidding models, targeting specifics, formats, etc. However, never copy texts or creatives completely. 

And here is why.

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Creatives run out of steam

It’s natural for creatives to run dry. Once a user has already seen a creative and even converted once, it’s not very likely that he will repeat the same action again. No matter how much he likes the actual vertical. 

How Psychology Can Make Users Take a Precise Action

First, the so-called effect of surprise disappears – the first impression is the strongest and it happens only once, right? Second, if the user already knows the offer, he becomes a bit “blind” to it. People stop noticing something that becomes tedious.

So if anyone else has already used the creative for a while, chances are that it is already over-exposed and won’t bring the desired result. 

Quick note: Mind that almost every affiliate uses the spy tools actively, just like you. This means that people actually have access to other campaigns and copy creatives regularly. The fresher your banners and pre-landers are, the better. 

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But what if you really really like that fancy banner?

If you believe that you have found a genius creative and are pretty sure that it was the core of a campaign’s success, you can still use it for your benefit. Just do that smartly! Here is what to do:

#1 Rearrange the image 

Use a constructor for custom creatives and make up something similar to the one you have seen in a successful case study. Focus on the elements and think what makes it really special – symbols, color palette, characters, camera angle, etc. If you have an idea how to make that strong side even stronger – go for it! 

For instance, you want to recreate a banner for Sports. The initial one contains balls, footballers, and a playing field. The colors are bright and contrasting – for instance, red and blue. What can you do?

See which emotions the football players express and add some other characters that behave similarly. Add dynamics and strengthen the picture. The contrasting colors attract attention, so you can also use them. Just change the red and blue palette to red and green, for example. 

#2 Rewrite the text

Catchy text is a crucial part of every creative. Read the one you like carefully and distinguish its strong parts, just like you did with images. Mind the voice and style. Does the text sound like “bro” style (jokingly and informally)? Or maybe it is an alert that evokes a desire to act? Or maybe it has some intrigue? Change the text saving the main idea. 

Some words can do magic, like “free”, “top”, “simple”, “cheap”, “best”, “secret”, “discount”, and more. 

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Now let’s see how to do that practically 

In this section, we would like to share some practical tips! Let’s see how to replicate successful creatives and make them yours. Here comes our first:

So, we have a sports campaign here. The visual elements are classical: two footballers during the game, the field, and flying dollars. It’s dynamic, bright, and clear: you can tell that this one is a Sports offer from a quick glance. 

To replicate this one, you will need pictures of GEO-related footballers (or just some abstract guys dressed like football players). Dollars can be replaced with coins – whether they are flying or rolling, it doesn’t matter – just save the dynamics of the picture. While the background, the field, can be faded into a different color, like red or green instead of blue. The principles stay, the details change. 

Tricks of the Trade: The Top 5 Sources for Affiliate Insights

Mind, this campaign was aimed at Portugal, so we see the footballers famous around this particular GEO and the text written in Portuguese. It says:

• Damos bônus agora – We provide bonuses now
• Ganhe com a Mostbet – Win with Mostbet

Remember the magic of strong words? Well, this is it: “bonuses”, “now”, and “win” make the ad appealing. How to rewrite them? Let’s see:

• We provide bonuses now – Get your bonus immediately
• Win with Mostbet – Your victory is within reach

“Immediately” instead of “now” and “victory” instead of “win”. We rewrote the text, but all the strong elements are saved. 

And the second example. This creative usually converts like crazy:

It’s not easy to replicate such a masterpiece, but we can try. The main idea of this creative is: the user cannot continue or start watching a video without a VPN. That’s the pain of numerous people! And the offer actually solves that issue.

How to replicate one? For instance, you may want to change the player type. Instead of that YouTube-like one, try adding something more abstract. Just make sure that it has all the buttons and the main thing – the rotating loading sign. Change colors, invent some tricks, but try saving the concept, since it’s good enough. 

As for the text, you can rewrite it this way:

• VPN recommended. Protect your privacy and download… – You may need a VPN to make your browsing safe…

Or:

• Get a VPN to continue safe browsing;
• Your privacy might be compromised, download a VPN now.

We use the words “safe”, “privacy”, and “compromised” as hooks. And never forget to use slight words like “may” and “might”. 

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Conclusion 

To sum up, we would like to highlight the key points:

• The elements you can copy are: targeting settings, bidding models, ad formats
• The elements you cannot copy: texts and images
• Images should be rearranged and text – rewritten, but make sure to save the concept
• Mind the GEO – if you want to replicate the case study, be sure that you adjust your targeting settings considering the GEO you aim at. The same is true for creatives, namely – language

So, replicate like an artist and do it in your style! Benefit from great ideas, but make your campaigns look fresh and original. People really like seeing something new and fancy.