What is Affiliate marketing? How do casino affiliate programs work? What are the best casino affiliate networks? Read on to find out everything you should know about promoting online casinos?
Although there are different methods of advertising an online casino, there is one method that has proved to be most effective, and it’s none other than affiliate marketing. Of course, exhibitions, media advertising, PPC, SEO as well as other offline activities must be part and parcel of the larger strategy. If we compare outcomes and investments, affiliate marketing will win the ROI competition. Without further ado, let’s now discuss who affiliates are, how to get the best affiliate marketing software, and the benefits brought about by the affiliates to an online casino.
How To Start An Online Gaming Affiliate Site?
First, you have to decide which domain name you want to use and the online gaming vertical you want to focus on. After that, the next step is laying a foundation for your site.
If you don’t want to do everything yourself or want something unique and fancy, you can opt to hire a developer. Also, in case you don’t want to incur many expenses, you can learn the basics yourself and set it up. WordPress is one of the most customizable site builders. But, if you want an alternative site builder, you can choose from Squarespace or Wix.
There are several best hosting providers, which are affordable and reliable. WPX Hosting and One.com are good hosting providers. After you set up hosting, you can then install a CMS or content management system such as WordPress on your site. Most hosting providers provide a single-click install option. Therefore, you will be able to finish everything in a matter of minutes.
The next thing is to choose a WordPress theme. A WordPress theme offers styling options as well as pre-built templates. All you have to do to get them is to search for the best WordPress theme designed by Flytonic. Then choose the one you want based on your needs. It’s that simple! After all, is done, choose the operators and the best casino affiliate networks you want to join.
Best WordPress Themes For Casino Affiliates
- Responsive with Mobile Menu
- Single Click Demo Import
- Customized Call to Actions
- Added Game Description
- Numerous Custom Options
- SEO Friendly
- 100% Mobile Friendly
- Multilingual and translation ready
- Modern & Clean Design
- Sportsbook Casino Widget
- Multiple Layout Options
- Create a Featured Pages Menu
- Two Poker Review Pages
- Custom Widgets
- Featured Sites Shortcode
Who Are Affiliates?
Affiliates can be referred to as the people that use their sites to bring traffic to a specific online casino. Although it might differ for other industries, in online casinos, affiliates are usually the players themselves. These are the players that are well experienced and have their own blogs or do live streaming sharing their experience with other less experienced players or those looking for winning tips. Normally, casino affiliates have all the knowledge about casinos and know what this business entails. In simple words, casino affiliates aren’t strangers in the world of online gaming and know its pros and cons.
By offering honest information about several casinos on the marketplace and sharing the best gambling tricks and tips, affiliates gain more trust and succeed in attracting a huge audience to their site. With skillful link building, SEO as well as the use of online platforms, they manage to get better rankings in search engines. Once an affiliate achieves that, the site will be ready for monetization; they begin sending traffic to online casino sites.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliates send traffic to casinos online by putting banners and links on their sites. At times, affiliates utilize banners, which call for action like signing up or depositing money in a specific casino. The crucial thing is that online casino affiliates send good traffic having higher conversion rates that turn into depositing players.
Affiliates sites share one common thing: all of them have useful information like casino rankings and online gaming guides. Therefore, they can attract people searching for the best online casinos to join and play. Most time, the users that follow the links offered by affiliates end up becoming loyal players. But, they might be different in general approach. Flytoniccasino is a portal-like affiliate sites, which target a broader audience and cover everything linked to online gambling.
What Do Affiliates Get After Marketing A Site?
Affiliates get a commission for the traffic they refer to specific casino sites. There are many methods used to reward affiliates. Let’s see which are these methods;
Revenue Share
With this payment model, affiliates receive a percentage of the site’s net revenue made from the referred players. Affiliates prefer this payment method, as it implies lifetime income. This is also the best option for the casino operators, as the affiliates are motivated to refer quality players that would generate revenue constantly for the casino. The percentage of revenue share paid to the affiliates differs from one casino to another. Casino operators use different methods to pay affiliates. Hardworking and trusted affiliates receive a commission of up to 50% without a negative carryover.
Cost Per Action or CPA
CPA is a commission plan that provides a fixed amount for each player referred. This can be a prize for registration though the player requires to deposit or/and wager a specific amount for an affiliate to get a commission. Also, the amount given for the CPA model varies between different casino operators. Mostly, the affiliates get earnings based on the number of affiliates they refer. This means if the traffic grows, earnings will also increase.
Mixed Models
As we stated earlier, casino operators usually use different models to high-profile affiliates. For instance, they can provide a combination of CPA and revenue share or even negotiate specific upfront payments alongside long-term participation. As a casino operator, you should try to build a healthy relationship between you and the affiliates. By doing this, you will have better chances to grow and will end up profiting from such win-win partnerships.
Why Is Casino Affiliate Marketing More Profitable?
There are various benefits that affiliate marketing enjoys than other online casino marketing methods. We have listed some of those benefits in the section below;
- Income-based on performance: It’s much simpler to pay for the results instead of making an initial payment without guarantees on the outcome. Affiliate marketing mainly focuses on performance and therefore assures high ROI. Even if you pay a higher commission or CPA to an affiliate, your revenue share will be much higher. You receive relevant traffic of 100%, which is converted into actual sales.
- Measurable progress: When investing a huge amount into specific marketing activity, it’s always hard to tell which is one is more effective. You can decide to bring half of your business into the gaming conference or rather buy many marketing materials in the media. Still, this is very hard to determine the number of players that visit your site as a result. So, with affiliate marketing, it’s possible to compare and calculate the amount you have invested and the amount you have earned, thus being able to know which are the returns.
- Simple tracking: If you are utilizing an efficient affiliate system (online casino software comes with an affiliate module, which expedites easy management of affiliate programs), it enables you to evaluate the performance of individual affiliates. Casino operators can also see how their business is fairing on different affiliate sites. Then, you can utilize that information to analyze what banners and ads are effective and customize your affiliate program effectively.
- Online presence and reputation: Because successful affiliates have the best reputation in the world of online gaming, having your casino marketed on their sites makes your business credible and famous. Also, it strengthens your brand and helps its impression to last for a longer time in the industry.
Choose The Best Casino Affiliate Programs
There are different methods of getting the right affiliates to market your products.
- Put information concerning your affiliate program in platforms devoted to online casino gaming; there are online platforms that make lists of the most profitable affiliate offerings; therefore try to market your affiliate program there and make it appealing to potential affiliates.
- Visit affiliate conferences and specialized exhibitions: there is many affiliate conferences across the globe that takes place throughout the year. The most popular one takes place in Malta, Amsterdam, Berlin, and London. Affiliates usually go to these conferences where they share their experience, acquire some knowledge on new tricks to use on their business, learn news on online gaming registration, and more important sign new contracts with casino operators. You can use that chance to get an affiliate as well.
- Word of mouth: if you know people in this industry, you will have an easy time expanding your affiliate network.
How To Get The Best Affiliate Marketing Platform?
Having a firm technological solution is essential for efficient affiliate marketing. The affiliate software must be convenient for both the affiliates and the casino operator. There are many independent software solutions meant for affiliate marketing, which can be combined into the casino software, which are utilizing it. Also, it’s possible to build your own system based on your specific needs.
Maybe the most viable choice though is choosing the affiliate marketing platform, which meets the standards of the industry and meets your needs. Companies, which offer online casino software usually develop easy-to-use and flexible affiliate systems taking into consideration their client’s preferences and expertise. They are determined to offer an efficient tool in their platforms, which helps operators get maximum results alongside their affiliate’s advertising strategies.
Overall, you should first think about marketing when picking a gaming platform and always ensure that you have the right software provider. iGaming is an irregular industry, which mainly relies on several external factors like financial issues, banking, and government. So, getting an effective promotional strategy isn’t as useful as in other business domains. Although many traditional methods of marketing aren’t available at the moment because of legislation constraints, one method (affiliate marketing) has proved to be transparent and reliable to help your online gaming business to move to the top and increase your profits.
How To Become A Top Online Gaming Affiliate
Essentially, online casino affiliates create good content, conduct research, and share relevant information with the communities they are serving. They play a major role in appealing to new clients and act as intermediaries between a bookie or an online casino and paying customers also known as punters or players.
Although affiliate marketing has existed for decades and there is a lot of information on how one can become an affiliate, there are things you are supposed to do for you to succeed.
Online gaming is one of the largest industries, which has proven its strength even during covid 19 pandemic and economic downturns.
Also, it’s a competitive niche and you shouldn’t be amazed when you find out that you aren’t the only one who wants to be part of the business.
But, you need to work smart for you to stand out from the competition and make it a player in the online gaming market.
The first and most important step is starting with research and figuring out what is lucrative and possible. When it comes to online gaming, there are several options to choose from. One potential niche is bookie betting bonuses, live casino reviews, or pay by phone. Also, there are multiple ways of marketing online gaming services including esports betting, fantasy sports, live casino, sports betting, and online casinos.
Currently, some businesses in that world have also ventured into blockchain endeavors such as fintech and crypto.
Which Online Gaming Affiliate System Should You Choose?
You can either decide to work directly with operators because they own affiliate programs or with other affiliate networks that combine different casino brands under one roof. It’s up to you to pick the one you want. both choices have their pros and cons. Working directly with online casino operators requires more work because you will be dealing with them individually. However, the best thing about that kind of affiliate marketing is that you will get good commission rates. With an affiliate network, you don’t have to deal with different contacts, which is tiring and time-consuming.