St. Patrick’s Day is traditionally a humorous event. And even though this year it’s been canceled as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus, nothing can stand in the way of people who want to dress in green and go on a rampage at an Irish pub have fun.

Humor has always been a part of traditional and online advertising. Just like storytelling, it creates context, evokes emotion, and makes brands seem more relatable and trustworthy in the eyes of consumers. But does it work the same way in affiliate advertising? And can humor actually boost conversions?

Let’s dive in and find out. 

Does humor work in advertising? 

Short answer: hell, yeah. Think of the Super Bowl. Each year, the world’s biggest companies spend millions of dollars to create the most memorable tv commercials just to get on the bandwagon.

This year, most of the commercials were humorous as opposed to the previous years when creators mostly went after soul-touching and melodramatic.

Obviously, affiliates can’t show off the same budgets as the world’s top brands, but they don’t even need to. Hustling CPA offers is not exactly the same as running a Mad Men-like agency. But even so, there are always a few tricks to borrow. For instance, use humor in your affiliate ads. 

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And what about conversions?

One thing we can all agree upon is that boring kills conversions. And humor is the best weapon against “boring”.

According to Halley Gray, the founder of Evolve and Succeed, an education-focused consultancy, her clients were able to increase conversions by 7-24% when adding humor to their marketing materials.

Read also: Scarcity, Urgency, Exclusivity: 3 Words Every Affiliate Should Understand

In affiliate marketing, humor is not traditionally as popular as shocking content or clickbait. Plus, affiliate humor is usually sharkier due to the specifics of this business and not all viewers can relate. But based on what we’ve seen in spy tools, funny ads convert.

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Pros and cons to using humour in your ads 

In fact, humor in advertising reaps many perks: 

• If it’s really funny, it instantly grabs the viewer’s attention. As long as your ad is not boring, it works. 
• Funny ads have the potential to go viral as any entertaining content
• It creates trust as it signals to the audience that you’re sharing the same values. Also, humor is a sign of intellect, which also impacts the trustworthiness of your ad. 
• It makes you sound human and creates an instant connection to the viewer. 

Yet, there are also many (hidden) pitfalls to trying to play the funny card: 

• If your ad is not that funny, it will have the directly opposite effect and your CTRs will plummet. 
• In some cases, humor can be offensive to a certain audience due to their cultural, political, or religious beliefs.

The good news is that in affiliate marketing, the stakes of messing with the public opinion are not as high. Worst case scenario you won’t get conversions, but all the risks associated with too bold moves won’t wreak havoc on your public image.

Reputational risks are practically non-existent and if your ad offends a certain audience, your CEO won’t need to publicly apologize (because you likely don’t have one, haha).

However, don’t forget that our Policy has its own guidelines and not all “humor” will pass it.

After all, to gain conversions, you need to test different approaches to your visuals and ad copy to find the winning combination.

How not to screw up trying to be funny

• Avoid controversial topics such as politics, religion, cultural stereotypes, and probably death. Basically, it’s the same as when you’re using a punchline trying to pick up someone at a bar. And just for the reference, “If today was my last day on Earth, I’d spend it with you” is not a very good pickup line. 
• Pay attention to our Policy. When using modern context, for instance, don’t use logos of any brands or pretend to quote famous people.
• Ads should convert, so try various approaches and don’t rely solely on humor. 

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