Banners are a powerful tool in an Invites campaign to provide custom marketing collateral to your Partners. Banners can be designed using the bannersnack editor, following the instructions in the article below (no HTML skills needed!). For details on how to edit existing banners that were created using the old editor, refer to this article.
Prefer to watch a video to get acquainted with the banner editor workflow? See it in action:
Choose template
Choose banner templates in the Templates step of an Invites campaign, then edit from the campaign directly. Or, navigate to the Project where your campaign will reside and click the Templates page in the left side sub menu. You can start from one of our Example Templates or Your Customized Templates. Selecting one of your previously customized templates will create a copy of the template for this campaign and will not affect the original.
Navigate to the Templates step of an Invites campaign, and click +Add template. Select Example Template, and choose a size. Click Add Template.
When you're ready, click into the vertical ellipsis under Options to Edit. You can return to this step at any point.
More about navigating and organizing Templates here.
Edit Template
Note on Saving: The first time you save a template, you can click the green Save button with the floppy disc icon. For every subsequent save, please click inside the banner editor and then press Ctrl +s (or ⌘+s on Mac).
Start by giving your template a descriptive name by hovering to the right of the pencil located in the top left of the editor (the text box to the right of the Powered by bannersnack image).
Explore the example templates from the left menu, then select one to start customizing. Each component is represented as a Layer in the right menu. Note: give each Layer a unique name to avoid errors.
The Background tab allows solid colors, gradients, textures, and images. Use Hex codes to precisely match your brand.
The Text tab features basic text blocks as well as pre-designed font combinations and text examples. Merge tags can replace text where you want to pull in a Partner's custom information, like name, booth number, or promo code.
The Elements tab is where you can upload images and access the bannersnack library of stock photos, shapes, icons, and illustrations. Note: of these, only photo and image Elements can be replaced with merge tags for images like speaker headshots or company logos. Look for the camera icon in the Layers tab to identify which Elements can be used.
The Button tab has a library of pre-designed buttons to prompt your call to action.
Note, clicking anywhere on the entire ad will direct to your destination URL, so no need to add link details in the template editor. Set the destination URL in the Metadata step of the campaign builder (3a).
The Animator tab applies transitions to all of the banner elements, adding motion to your ad.
Add additional animation in the Slides tab to the right of the Layers. Slides are a great way to fit more information in your ad by transitioning text or images layers. Fit more text or showcase multiple images without crowding the ad.
Note: as you edit Templates, they are automatically saved every 4 minutes. If you make changes and log out of Feathr in less than 4 minutes, however, you will lose your most recent changes since the last autosave.
Merge Tags
The most significant benefit of Feathr Invites banners is the ability to quickly build beautiful ad creatives that pull in your Partners' custom information. After a Partner Import, your Partners' information can be merged into templates using merge tags. Once you have a component that you want to customize for each Partner, identify it in the Layers menu. Remember to look for the text icon or camera icon to identify which can be used as merge tags. Use the Copy merge tag dropdown to the top right of the editor. Select the merge tag, and it will be copied to your clipboard. Paste the tag into the component in the Layers menu, completely replacing the previous description. If the merge tag is not working when previewed, verify that none of the description text remains.
Search under the Copy merge tag dropdown for the tag. In this example, I chose Booth Number. Then, completely replace the description ("Text") in the Layer menu with the tag. Paste the copied tag by using the keyword shortcut Ctrl +v (or ⌘+v on Mac) or by right clicking and Pasting.
When merging images like photos or logos, click the gear icon, then click into the Scale crop dropdown, and select Maintain aspect.
Preview Template
Confirm that merge tags are pulling in correctly using the Preview function. Click Show preview, then select the campaign and a Partner to test how the ad will look with their information.
Select the campaign, then test a couple Partners to test the merge tags. Verify that the merged information is pulling in correctly to the design.
Common questions
How can I create shared Templates for my team to access?
Once a template has been saved, all team members can select it from the Your Customized Templates dropdown (even if they weren't the original creator). When they select that template, a copy is made within the new campaign, so edits will not affect the original.
Why can’t I preview my template?
If a Banner template contains multiple layers with the same name, you might notice an error when you try to preview the template, add the template to a campaign, or clone the campaign.
To fix this, give each layer a unique name and resave (even “Text 1,” Text 2” works).
Where can I find more information about all of the steps in an Invites campaign?
Click here for an overview of the steps in a successful Invites campaign.