Affiliate Marketing as a Tool for Promoting Virtual Casinos in 2024

Operators can use several promotional tools but today we are going to talk about the most effective one.

Almost every modern successful enterprise has its affiliate program. According to reports from the Hosting Tribunal, about 10% of all revenue in the eCommerce niche is accounted for by partner networks. In the US, this figure is even higher — from 15%.

The Concept of Affiliate Marketing

It is a flexible advertising tool that provides fast traffic monetisation, high participation rates of the target audience, and constant stimulation of sales.

It is a mutually beneficial way of cooperation between a businessman and a webmaster who distributes advertising materials on external resources. Moreover, in the gambling niche, it often happens that affiliates are casino visitors who have vast experience in the industry.

The operation principle of such programs:

Connection

Operators can:

• connect to an already existing program and customise the cooperation parameters;
• organise a proprietary partner network.

Advertising materials

The advertiser (owner of a gaming site) must provide the publisher with advertising materials. Thus, when working with major brands, businessmen get the ability to generate marketing offers using internal services.

As promotional materials, it is possible to use the following options:

• various widgets;
• banners;
• incoming links to implement into the content of an affiliate;
• video footage;
• thematic text content that must be published on external resources, etc.

Promotion

Entrepreneurs are responsible only for the quality of advertising, and the publication and promotion of their products are carried out by the members of the partner network.

Owners of gaming sites do not control the actions of affiliates and can only set the basic parameters of promotion: frequency of displays, time of advertising broadcasts, ways of interacting with a potential audience, etc.

Targeted action

Depending on the purpose of the advertisement, a potential client takes the given action: registers on the website, deposits funds, participates in a specific event, etc.

Rewards

Cooperation with partners is beneficial to both parties:

• operators receive new traffic and active users who are ready to spend money on gambling;
• the webmaster is paid for each attracted client who met the conditions of a program.

In the light of the COVID pandemic and the tightening of promotion rules of gaming sites in different countries, affiliate marketing has turned into one of the few advertising tools with positive growth dynamics.

According to statistics provided by Hosting Tribunal, in 2019, the niche was estimated at 12 billion dollars. By the end of 2021, the industry's performance has reached 13–16 billion dollars.

The number of search requests for “affiliate marketing” has also increased significantly. According to Google Trends, the topical search has increased from 25th place to the 88th position over the past year.

Types of Partner Programs for the Gambling Niche

All modern programs are built on the basis of the same principle. The only differences lie in the set of actions of a potential client who has viewed the advertising material and the ways of paying publishers.

Classification of partner networks by the method of payment for traffic:

The Reward for the Action

The most popular type of cooperation that provides entrepreneurs with an influx of a loyal audience that prefers casino games for real money.

Members of the network are interested in attracting active gamblers since they receive financial rewards only after they perform the following actions:

• registration on the gaming site;
• entering personal data into a new account;
• the client's consent to advertising and/or newsletters;
• deposition of the first money, etc.

The program includes a one-time reward for each active action, so the system provides a high speed of investment turnover.

Interest from Bets

It is the second most popular type of cooperation when the affiliate receives a reward from each lost bet of the attracted user.

New gamblers are assigned to the publisher for life and bring him income during the entire period of their activity.

It is always beneficial for partners to attract loyal customers: the more time users spend on the website and the more often they return, the higher is the reward for such customers.

Payment for the Lead

The program includes a fixed one-time payment for a certain action of new casino visitors. In most cases, the arbitrator receives a reward after clients complete the registration procedure.

This option is often used by those operators who launch their networks and want to expand them in different markets as quickly as possible.

Pay Per View/Click

In this case, partners get paid simply for the publication of advertising materials and clicks on them. No other actions of potential customers are taken into account.

This is one of the first formats of partnership programs, which has practically lost its effectiveness over time.

A new step of popularisation of the scheme began in 2019–2020 when streamers and bloggers were actively involved in the promotion of gambling products.

This scheme is used by operators not to attract new traffic but to promote the brand on the best streaming channels.

Hybrid Models

Combined reward program with a wide selection of templates for personalisation.

Operators can set different parameters of targeted traffic (age, geolocation, social status, etc.) and combine the following payment options:

• a reward for a specific action (registration, deposition of funds, etc.);
• a commission from the lost bets.

The hybrid payment scheme allows you to achieve several goals at once: ensure a quick investment turnover of the enterprise, make the brand more recognizable, and increase the indicators of customer lifetime value.

Affiliate Casino Trends of 2021–2022

The promotion does not tolerate stability and needs constant experimentation. Moreover, in this process, it is important to take into account not only the latest trends but also how popular they are with the audience.

According to the HootSuite Social Trends 2021 report, investment in social media has significantly grown this year:

The pandemic has had a significant impact on the behaviour of customers. Promotion on social networks has become one of the most convenient ways to study new preferences of users and promptly respond to their needs.

Other trends in the field of affiliate marketing in 2022:

Personalisation of Promotional Offers

As the results of the research undertaken by Epsilon show, 80% of the audience will buy products if the supplier is ready to make a personalised offer.

Personalisation is one of the main ways to attract new loyal customers and increase lifetime value indicators. For this purpose, entrepreneurs may use:

• VIP zones with special betting limits;
• priority access to new events;
• internal ratings;
• promotional codes, discounts, and cashback programs;
• chatbots for personalised communication with each specific gambler;
• gift certificates, etc.

Influence Marketing

Today, it is extremely popular to cooperate with influencers: bloggers, streamers, and users of social networks with many loyal followers. Such people have a serious prestige and can directly affect the opinion of a large number of people.

An interesting trend in 2022 is the decision to focus on “micro-influential people”. These are the owners of video channels and blogs with an audience of up to 10 thousand people. They have less reach than influencers but they are more involved in their niche and credible.

Working with such a category of people will give casino operators a significant advantage in establishing and maintaining close and open relationships with their target audience.

Focus on Mobile Users

The most popular form of communication in the coming years is mobile messengers with their intuitive interfaces and excellent functionality.

About 58.2% of all traffic is accounted for by mobile casino visitors.

Partner promotion of gambling products within mobile platforms will allow operators to:

• gain access to new markets;
• increase the audience coverage by many times;
• establish prompt feedback with each new client;
• provide users with priority access to new products;
• maximally personalise advertising offers.

More Video Content

Salma Jafri, the video advertisement expert, says:

As YouTube attracts more and more niche businesses, it becomes more person-centred.

The massive increase in demand for video advertisements is one of the most interesting marketing trends of 2022. Changes in customer behaviour have led to the huge popularity of video content. Moreover, casino operators are not limited in their choice of promotion tools in this niche. Their list includes:

• reviews of new products in the industry;
• detailed analysis of popular gaming strategies;
• test versions of new mechanics;
• future multiplayer events advertising, etc.

Excellent addition to video advertising will be feedback from the audience in the form of surveys and quizzes. The implementation of such solutions will help entrepreneurs not only to more fully assess the user reaction to the offered options but also to determine whether the change in their behaviour is temporary or permanent.

Internal Optimisation

Even if the affiliates bring stable traffic to the gaming site, casino owners must turn each new visitor into a loyal customer. This task can be performed by the following optimisation programs:

1. Increase the download speed. According to analytics from Google, users form the first impression of a website in the first 2–5 seconds. Operators should minimise the loading time of the platform and remove from it any components that could affect the response time.
2. SEO scaling. High-quality optimisation of materials for search engines can increase traffic indicators by 60–80%. SEO tools give long-term results: the gaming site will be indexed even several years after the completion of the partnership program.
3. Content visualisation. With the rapid popularisation of video materials, many marketers have begun experimenting with partial replacement of text content with photos and videos. This solution widens the coverage of the audience and perfectly matches the market mobilisation trend.
4. Voice search. One of the fastest-growing trends that go hand in hand with SEO software. Requests adapted to voice commands significantly increase the website's ranking in search results. The best solution for casino owners would be to optimise the FAQ section for voice search.
5. Publication of reviews. The presence of a section with players' feedback significantly increases the level of brand awareness and allows gamblers to assess the real situation before they launch the game session. Most importantly, reviews should be informative and written in an accessible language. Moreover, it might also be a good idea to publish the answers of administrators.

Native Advertising

Such a type of advertising maximises positive impact. The audience does not consider it direct advertising, and that is why it does not cause rejection and negative reactions.

This promotion format is most often found on streaming platforms. For example, the host talks about his experience of playing a particular slot, receiving cashbacks, etc.

At the same time, the advertising fully corresponds to the theme of the video and was created in order to provoke a positive reaction and arouse the interest of the audience.

Often, native advertising is complemented by other offers:

• promotional codes;
• short-term discounts;
• access to participation in closed events;
• increased cashbacks, etc.

The Main Things about Marketing Tools in the Gambling Niche in 2021–2022

• In 2022, there will be an obvious growth in video advertising. Promotion on large streaming and video platforms allows you to reach the maximum audience, quickly increase brand awareness, and use native advertising.
• Good traffic indicators are provided by voice search. The decision to optimise user requests for voice commands is the most popular trend in the coming years. This is part of the SEO program that allows you to bring your gaming site to the top of search results as quickly as possible.
• The best results in the field of casino promotion are obtained by using influence marketing. Recently, entrepreneurs have switched to working with micro-influential people who have up to 10 thousand followers. Such bloggers have a more trusting relationship with their audience and stable feedback.

We offer such products of the new generation as:

• live solutions in HD quality;
• social and free games;
• mobile entertainment;
• bitcoin casinos;
• slots with 3D and VR effects;
• sportsbook software, and much more.

From us, you can purchase the most effective products and services and make use of the guaranteed professional support at all stages of cooperation!