How To Improve Customer Acquisition In iGaming: 10 Tips To Get You Started

Which task is more difficult to handle — customer retention or attracting new players to your platform? There's a simple answer to this question — both. It is wise to work on increasing both the acquisition and customer retention rates. But how to best accomplish this? One way is to use state-of-the-art software such as TheAffiliatePlatform by Smartico.ai. As a leader in the industry, it comes with extremely powerful technology for boosting your iGaming acquisition and customer retention rate. It comes with all you need to attract the best affiliates to increase revenue by bringing in new customers and can transform your business with great speed and efficiency.

All that aside, it has become much harder to acquire new customers in recent years as the costs involved have increased by 60% since 2015. It is not an easy task to cut through the ever-growing competition, get your business in front of the right prospects, and encourage them to take action.

That is why your business likely already focuses on customer acquisition in marketing. If you can upgrade and streamline all areas of that marketing strategy, you will be able to achieve the success you've always dreamed about. Stick to the following advice, and you will see positive changes to your iGaming business faster than you ever thought possible.

10 Powerful Customer Acquisition Tips For iGaming Businesses

1. Online Casino Bonuses

One of the most alluring customer acquisition tactics for iGaming businesses comes in the form of casino bonuses. It has been a long-standing practice for online casinos to try and outcompete themselves by offering the tastiest welcome bonuses. They often come in the form of deposit and no-deposit bonuses.

Perhaps the most widely enjoyed bonus among online players globally is the no-deposit bonus, and most of them gravitate towards casinos with lucrative no-deposit bonuses.

As the name suggests, a no-deposit bonus does not require a player to make a real money deposit of their own. On the other hand, no-deposit bonuses can be anything from free spins to free cash or both, depending on the casino's generosity. If a casino relies heavily on slots, players are more likely to receive free spins as a no-deposit bonus, while a casino loaded with table games will likely give free cash.

A match deposit bonus is when a casino opts to match a specific percentage of the deposit bonus. Such bonuses are also alluring to players but require them to invest their own money if they wish to claim the match deposit bonus.

It's good to know that the best kinds of these two bonuses have a solid bonus offer in the form of free cash or spins and a low wagering requirement. Apart from giving players a no-deposit bonus, some casinos also avoid imposing wagering requirements, making it easier for players to win and collect their money.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Most betting brands and online casinos use affiliate marketing programs. Web pages that offer online betting reviews, influencers, and other types of affiliates use such programs to promote iGaming brands in exchange for a commission.

There are various focuses within the affiliate marketing channels, with some affiliates doing reviews for online casinos while others provide special access to casino bonuses, etc.

Within the affiliate channel, there are different focuses. Some sites provide reviews of casinos, others offer access to bonuses supplied by the casinos, and lastly, some affiliates offer free-to-play versions of the Dogslots available for real money play at the actual casino.

Affiliate marketing is exceptionally effective when focusing on markets that are not regulated and markets that do not allow access to other channels, such as Google ads and offline TV ads.

3. Search Engine Optimization

Every ambitious online business has at least a small portion of its resources dedicated to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). As one of the first highly effective digital marketing practices, SEO can bring traffic to your website, winning you new clients.

SEO success rests on several key factors.

A large number of competing businesses, especially those with massive budgets for marketing, can reign supreme in the keyword rankings. This was a big problem for the iGaming industry back in the day, where the number of target phrases and keywords was extremely limited.

And with the progress of Google's search engine algorithms, organic search results have been placed at the top of the importance hierarchy. You can maximize your chances for success by using natural backlinks, strategically placed blogs, and following proven SEO strategies, no matter the size of your business.

4. Media Buying

For an iGaming business in the 2020s, media buying can involve both offline and online channels of customer acquisition. Media buying is traditionally a more passive type of customer acquisition, unlike affiliate marketing and SEO. It is heavily focused on raising brand awareness among target demographics via advertisements on television or digital media (web pages, social media, etc.).

Offline or online media buying, however, is an option only in regulated iGaming markets. Ads related to betting with money are usually avoided by TV channels and even social media channels in many places. However, in places such as the United Kingdom, advertisements can be shown on TV, subject to some rules concerning timing. The main issue with online ads is the high cost – you need a substantial marketing budget and persuasive branding for it to work.

These days, online is a much more convenient option, especially for startups dealing with B2C. Influencers that are big on YouTube, Instagram, or Twitch can all be of great help to you and your business.

5. Brand Ambassadors

The top casino and poker operators have used brand ambassadors for many years to push their brand to the audiences' front door. For the past few decades, the most successful businesses have experimented with various ambassador strategies.

Wealthier iGaming companies have hired some of the best poker players to advertise their brands, while others have sought the assistance of celebrities and sports stars to give their brands a good name. Meanwhile, some have trusted social media influencers to get their name out there and attract more customers.

The best way to test the effectiveness of the ambassador option is to try working with ambassadors from different fields and then see which ones have contributed the most to the increase in customer acquisitions. The ambassador strategy is used by industry leaders worldwide, but it requires a lot of cash to gain access to top talent.

6. Email Marketing

Put the official website of your iGaming business to good use and increase the number of customers/potential customers on your email list through it. Keep in mind that email marketing has had a proven track record of success for many industries and has been shown to generate 3x more sales than marketing done on social media channels. As soon as you have a solid email list, you can utilize it for user acquisition without having to empty your wallet.

Better yet, if you have a regular newsletter, you can boost the effectiveness of your marketing strategy by including free offers connected to your iGaming products. And this can be anything, as long as it's fresh enough so that customers will go all the way to invest their hard-earned cash in it.

7. Provide Exclusive Content To Keep Existing Customers Interested

According to recent research, if your app is losing popularity and a large portion of your customers stop using it, about 25% of them will come back if offered some kind of bonus or exclusive deal.

Don't present all the info about your mobile game application in just one channel.

For example, you could bring out new features or announce new developments in every marketing channel your business operates in but only reveal them on the platform that performs best for you (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). This way, you can drive up the value of the content you post by making it exclusive to one specific channel while encouraging people to share it with others.

8. Diversify Your Advertisement Plan

Don't use all your big caliber bullets in one go by spending the entire budget for your iGaming app on a single platform.

According to research by eMarketer, over 75% of mobile advertisement spending goes to native applications, which leaves many other areas underused. Spreading your advertisement plan across more channels will not only keep your cost per installation (CPI) down but also keep you informed about what works and what doesn't. In addition, you can reach a much larger audience in the long run.

It must also be noted that advertising on just one platform leads to saturation, meaning you will see a decrease in app downloads over time.

9. Work On Your Decision-making Speed

It isn't sufficient to only concentrate on paid media for its own sake. Instead, you have to optimize the budget for it, manage requirements, and drive growth over a long period.

Throwing money around won't accomplish much without proper preparation. Wait to see what works and what doesn't, and adjust accordingly.

For best results, you'll need a more well-rounded view of your company's challenges and opportunities based on the specific player demographics and market valuables unique to your business.

To make it big in these wildly competitive times, your iGaming marketing team must be spending a big chunk of their time learning more about:

• Where to look for new customers (location and platforms)
• The most potent way to convert new customers (user acquisition)
• How to establish thriving relationships with traffic partners
• Doing everything possible to optimize campaigns to get the quickest ROI and highest LTV
• Best practices for keeping users happy and engaged
  
  

To achieve all this and beat the competition in your field, you must keep refining all these basic metrics to find the best path to ultimate success.

10. Embrace Automation

The key to posting engaging, relevant content is to use automation as much as possible, so anytime potential customers show interest or take a specific action, your software immediately shares the content they most need at this time.

Also, monitor every other process to understand where automation and streamlining could benefit the customer experience and drive up the chance for a conversion.

These processes can include:

• Passing vital information along from one department to another with ease
• Taking advantage of digital signing software for instant contacts approval
• Using workflow management software to get new users automatically through any onboarding process
  
  

Final Thoughts

Acquisition and engagement can prove challenging to maintain consistently, but once you get the hang of it, you will quickly blast through the competition in the iGaming market. In time, developing an app/game will also become a much clearer and more seamless task.

It is also essential for you to create a lasting bond with your users by providing them with enjoyable personalized experiences and services. Work towards transforming your business into a cozy place for your customer where he or she is always welcome and highly valued. Within a short time, you will see your revenue growing like never before.}

Affiliate Marketing Software: The Key To The Stars

To take your iGaming business to the next level, you will need an affiliate marketing platform with a proven track record of driving revenue through the roof.

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, 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 spend with great efficiency.

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

In addition, TheAffiliatePlatform offers:

• 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 that 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 visit: theaffiliateplatform.com and click the "Request a demo" button.