Why Affiliate Marketing Works Best For Online Casinos: All You Need To Know

There are many ways to market an online casino. One in particular, however, stands out from the rest — affiliate marketing. And while trade shows, online rankings, SEO, PPC, and other activities, increase your chances of success, affiliates can elevate your business to levels you may have never thought possible. In this article, we'll explore everything you need to know about affiliate marketing and the many ways it benefits your online casino.

Who Are Affiliates?

Affiliates are people who use their influence, status, websites, and social media pages to bring traffic to a business. And while there are different types of affiliates in various industries, online casino affiliates are often dedicated players themselves. Typically, they have plenty of experience as iGamers and dedicate their blogs and sites to live streaming and sharing their online casino journeys with other like-minded people. They often have experience in operating online casinos and are aware of the ins and outs of that side of the business as well.

By providing true and insightful information on different online casinos and sharing industry secrets and techniques, affiliates win the trust of players worldwide while drawing a substantial audience to their websites. By skillfully doing link building, SEO, and winning the hearts and minds of players in online forums, they can achieve top rankings in search engines like Google. And once they've established themselves on that front and their websites become ripe for monetization, they start directing traffic to online casino partners.

How Affiliates Promote Online Casinos

One of the most popular methods of online casino promotion is placing links and banners on the affiliate marketer's webpage. Banners typically serve as a call to action (sign up to a casino website and make a deposit). Every new player who registers and makes a deposit brings the affiliate a commission from the online casino.

All casino affiliate sites operate similarly. Affiliates provide players with vital information about iGaming and how online casinos function. On these pages, people can access casino rankings, play guides, bonus descriptions, and much more precious info.

After reading the relevant information, players can get a better grasp of best practices and which casinos are best for their specific needs. Usually, they follow the links placed by the affiliate, earning them a commission in the process.

Affiliate Plans In The Online Casino Business

There are different terms one might use when referring to affiliate programs. Some of the key terms include sponsor programs, reseller, referral, and associate. To be clear, affiliate plans are earnings-sharing plans used by affiliate webpages for driving revenue. Online casino businesses use these plans for lead and traffic generation, while affiliates get a cut from the pie for bringing in new customers.

Affiliate Marketing Approaches

When it comes to generating traffic, affiliate sites have different approaches.

• Portal-type websites that target a massive audience by providing all relevant online gaming information.
• Specialized websites that promote a particular online casino website feature (e.g., if an online casino allows players to make deposits by using bitcoin).
  
  

How Affiliates Get Paid

The payment systems affiliates operate under for generating website traffic come in different forms.

1. Revenue – Share

With this type of payment system, the affiliate gets a cut from the income of online casino traffic they have generated. Revenue - Share is the most lucrative and preferred payment system by affiliates due to the potential for long-term earnings. The percentage given to the affiliate depends on the agreement between them and the online casino, with top affiliates earning commissions of up to 50%. Needless to say, this model is a major motivator for affiliates to acquire well-paying customers for online casinos to create a constant flow of revenue.

2. Cost Per Action (CPA)

Typically, with the CPA system, the user needs to deposit for the affiliate to receive a cut. Each player has a fixed rate (e.g., the casino can pay the affiliate a certain sum for every new registration). Rates can also increase depending on the increase of players directed to the website.

3. Mixed Models

Here, casinos have the freedom to use customized strategies with their affiliates. They can offer a combination of CPA and Revenue-Share. Sometimes, affiliates can negotiate upfront payments, depending on the winnings projected to be gained for the online casino. To boost your chances of driving more revenue, you must establish a strong and flexible relationship with your affiliates.

The Power of Affiliate Marketing

Today, affiliate marketing is one of the key tools in the arsenal of every successful online casino. There are numerous benefits for online casinos offered by affiliate marketing, including:

• Rewards based on performance. In affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid based on the volume of work done (generating traffic). Affiliate marketing rewards based on performance, which inevitably guarantees a high ROI. Even if the CPA or commission is high, the online casino drives revenue equally.
• Measurable progress. With affiliate marketing, businesses can compare and calculate earnings based on the amount invested. This precious data can then be used to create more accurate marketing strategies and budget decisions.
• Simple tracking. By using specialized affiliate software, online casinos can manage affiliate programs with ease. The system allows for better tracking, giving you deeper insights into how well your casino is performing on different affiliate sites. This will grant you knowledge about which links and banners are making you the most traffic.
• Online presence and reputation. In the world of iGaming, many affiliates have risen to superstar status, which can significantly boost the reputation of your online casino. A solid reputation can elevate your brand and foster long-lasting relationships with your customers.

The Three Main Types Of Affiliate Marketing

Many see affiliate marketers as a somewhat mysterious bunch — it's hard to tell if the marketer has actually used the product or if they're just advertising it for financial gain. The truth is that both types exist today.

Thankfully, since 2009 we have the breakdown of the three different group types of affiliate marketers, all thanks to world-famous affiliate marketer Pat Flynn. By familiarizing yourself with these types, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how people make a profit online as affiliate marketers.

Unattached

Unattached refers to affiliate marketing where you have no authority in the product niche you're doing the work for, and you and the customer aren't connected. This might take the form of pay-per-click advertising with your affiliate link, where you'll earn a commission when people click or buy the product.

There's an alluring amount of value in unattached affiliate marketing because you don't need to be as active in your work. Affiliate marketers rely on trust and a solid reputation with their audience on the web.

Not everyone is keen on working to build those relationships, so unattached marketing is an excellent option for them.

Involved

Here we have a type of marketing that deals mainly with recommending products and services the affiliate has used and can vouch for. Involved affiliate marketing relies heavily on truthfulness and authenticity, as this is key to winning the trust of your audiences.

Involved marketing requires you to have a certain amount of influence to effectively promote products and services that can be useful to your audiences instead of paying for banner ad clicks. But this type of business isn't for everyone. It takes time and dedication to gain enough credibility and reach high levels of success. However, if you succeed in winning your audience's respect, your opportunities can skyrocket.

Related

Related affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products and services that you don't use but that have a close connection to your niche. In this type of marketing, affiliates have an audience they've accumulated through social media, blogging, or other web communication channels. They have become influential, which makes them trusted figures for product or service recommendations, even if they've never used them.

However, the main issue with this type of marketing is that not many people are eager to promote something they've never used before. It could be a disaster of a product or service, and you'd be clueless about it. And the worst thing about it is that it won't take long before you'd start losing your audience because you've recommended them to spend their hard-earned cash on something that doesn't do them any good.

How to Meet the Right Affiliates

Your biggest goal should be to create a strong bond with your affiliates. In the following few paragraphs, we'll take a look at three key steps for recruiting affiliates for your online casino:

1. Use iGaming media resources to post information about your program.

By advertising your affiliate program, you have a much greater chance of attracting potential revenue-driving affiliates.

2. Schedule some time for special conferences and expos for affiliates.

Attend such events to expand your knowledge about iGaming. Exhibitions and conferences can be great for learning new business-related tips and tricks while also making new deals with casino operators and meeting high-end affiliates.

3. Use the ancient power of word of mouth.

Since the dawn of man, word of mouth has been instrumental in relaying vital information to the masses, and even today, it still works like a charm. The more industry people you know, the easier it will be to grow your circle of top-performing affiliates.

Finding The Right Affiliate Platform

Arming yourself with state-of-the-art software is the most important step towards steamrolling your competition. The right affiliate platform should be powerful and easy enough to use for both affiliates and operators. There are some worthy affiliate marketing software solutions available that can be integrated seamlessly into your online casino software. You can also create your custom-made system, but this will require a lot of time and resources.

Your best option may be to pick an affiliate marketing software that aligns with industry standards and covers all the needs of your business. Online casino software developers typically create seamless affiliate software solutions they then tailor to fit their client's specific needs. These companies are highly motivated to provide the best possible solutions to help online casino operators achieve top results with their affiliate marketing strategies.

At the end of the day, you need to take marketing into account and be sure to have a solid software provider as your sidekick. Online casino gaming is a tough industry that relies heavily on various external factors, such as regulatory bodies, financial issues, and banking — and that is the main reason a well-thought-out marketing strategy is not as easy to create in comparison with many other industries. Because many traditional promotion tools are not available as a consequence of legislation hindrances, affiliate marketing has stepped forward as a life-saving solution for online casino sites to drive revenue.

Affiliates Need A Dedicated Online Casino Affiliate Platform

To take your online casino business to the next level, you will also need an affiliate marketing platform with a proven track record of driving revenue sky-high.

Powered by Smartico.ai, TheAffiliatePlatform is a comprehensive software solution that allows for multi-brand campaign creation and tracking while keeping each brand's affiliate registrations and access separate.

With this affiliate system tailor-made for online casinos and sports betting, you can build strong partner relationships and expand your affiliate network on your terms. Its flexible tools can also help you optimize your affiliate marketing spending with surprising efficiency.

This white-label platform is designed specifically for casino, poker, sportsbook, and fintech operators.

In addition, TheAffiliatePlatform offers the following features and benefits:

• Collaboration With Partners — Dedicated Account Manager is part of the service via any of the instant messaging apps (Slack, Skype, Teams) and Jira.
• Convenient Pricing — We don't charge by your results, clicks, or conversion — one price for all.
• Ease of Use — Allows your team total control over your entire affiliate operation, including overseeing your team of affiliate managers, affiliate management, real-time reporting, payments, and comprehensive BI reporting.
• Total Control In One Customizable Platform — Tap into the power of a fully customizable affiliate management solution designed to manage your affiliate marketing campaigns, payouts, creative assets, and more. Upload, update and manage all your creatives across your entire affiliate network.
• Track Everything In One Place, Build The Partnership You Want — TheAffiliatePlatform can make your next campaign the most successful one yet. It is a powerful affiliate software platform bringing casino and betting operators advanced solutions for creating, running, and tracking multi-brand affiliate marketing campaigns.
• Comprehensive Feature-Rich Tracking — TheAffiliatePlatform provides real-time and accurate conversion tracking and records via API integration, FTP solutions, traffic sources, and media placements. It also features broadly advanced no cookie dependencies methods like Server 2 Server (S2S/Postback), Image pixel, iFrame, Client JS Block and Facebook pixel, which are ideal for advanced affiliate marketers.
• Multi-Product & Multi-Brand System — TheAffiliatePlatform allows for multi-brand campaign creation and tracking and keeps the affiliate registrations and access separate for each brand. Different commission plans can be assigned per product and brand. Unite your iGaming brands into one affiliate program and manage them from one admin panel.

TheAffiliatePlatform offers many more tools, and, driven by customer requests, new features and functionalities are released every month. To book your free in-depth demo, please click the "Request a demo" button at the top of the page.

Final Words

You have now acquired the knowledge necessary to start incorporating affiliate marketing into your online casino business. By using the tips, tricks, and strategies covered in this article, you can launch a successful revenue-driving affiliate program that will make both you and your affiliates happy and satisfied.

TheAffiliatePlatform team wishes you the best of luck in this never-ending adventure!