What Size Should Affiliate Banner Files Be?

Ever since the day it was published, the What Size Banners Should an Affiliate Program Have? post has been one of the most frequently demanded ones in my blog. However, while I did cover the most popular banner sizes in it, I made no mention of the banner file size at all.

Surprisingly, most major affiliate networks make no recommendations on the maximum recommended banner file size. The first network that I have seen make such a recommendation is LinkConnector. They advise that advertisers’/merchants’ banner sizes do not exceed 30 KB. Now, in reality, their “advice” is much more than one. It’s actually a restriction. You cannot upload a banner that’s larger than 30 KB while setting up your affiliate program with them. While, imposing such restrictions may not be a very good idea (30 KB is not much for larger skyscrapers and leaderboards, especially if we want them to be of high quality), advising merchants on the file size is actually a very good idea. It helps everyone who is involved in the affiliate marketing channel: affiliates who are using the banners, networks who are hosting them, merchants who risk being less promoted when/if their files are too bulky.

Over the past two weeks I have been polling my blog’s readers on this subject, and while so far the response hasn’t been too overwhelming (to put it mildly), it does look like that 30 KB limit is right around the comfort level mark for online publishers:

Maximum recommended banner file size

Conclusion: by all means, do everything possible for your banner file sizes not to exceed 30 KB/each. If one does have to be larger than that, 60 KB is the next threshold that you want to keep in mind. It’s easy to remember 30 * 2 = 60.

Banner file size is not a small issue. Knowing what’s preferred should help merchants build more affiliate-friendly affiliate programs. If you haven’t yet expressed your opinion in the above-quoted poll, I would highly appreciate you voicing your opinion out by casing a vote, and/or posting your comment below.

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