Why casino suppliers should embrace the affiliate marketing model

A few years ago, affiliates were mostly youngsters, mostly sitting in their PJs, mostly creating spammy websites to trick Google and make as much money from casinos as possible. Luckily, the sector has come a long way since then and now super affiliates, like Catena Media, have become less ‘affiliate’, more ‘media powerhouse’ with millions of page views from casino players and sports bettors from all around the world.

With this increased coverage, power and professionalism comes a new range of marketing possibilities that everyone in the industry should be excited about, not only casinos and sportsbooks. It’s time that suppliers got involved and took a piece of this marketing monster for themselves.

For too long, affiliates have been isolated, but it’s time that people from all sides of the industry come together and create win-win-win situations. Why waste your budget marketing across newspapers, whose CMP might be low, but whose relevance is even lower, when affiliation gives you 100% relevant traffic?

It’s hard enough to convert a casino player at a time when they don’t have the intent to play (such as when browsing the latest world news) and almost impossible to convert someone who doesn’t know or care about slots or sports betting. Add that same exposure on an affiliate site, and you’ll reach 100% relevant traffic, all with the intent to play, right at that moment.

Open the door

Those developing the games and providing them to casinos or creating safe and efficient ways for players to deposit and withdraw to their favourite casino, have not traditionally worked with affiliation. I understand why: the activity is not easy to track so predicting and measuring ROI to the cent can be hard, near on impossible. However, this one drawback pales in comparison to the positives and to what affiliation can bring.

Affiliation offers worldwide coverage and allows you to speak to the player one step earlier than usual. Rather than negotiating high placements with 50 different casino brands, you can work with just one or two super affiliates and expose your product to potential customers before they even decide which casino to use. Players land on an affiliate website because they are searching for something and looking for a recommendation. Much like we all book hotels on websites like Booking.com or Hotels.com, players want comparisons.

For years, affiliates have been offering players those comparisons for casinos, so a natural next step is for them to provide the same comparisons covering more of the industry, such as slot developers, payment methods, licensing bodies, maybe even the technical platforms the casinos are built on.

If you work with affiliates then they can recommend the safest, most reliable casinos to players and, in addition, they can also recommend the same player try out one of your slots, or deposit using your safe, fast payment method.

Whether you’re a game developer or a payment method, interested in casino, sportsbook, poker or bingo traffic, affiliates will have a whole host of marketing options for you that allow you to expand your reach and even speak directly with players. Think, branded banner space, advertorial content, infographics and videos worthy of going viral, giveaways, competitions, forums and reader comment sections.

So, I say it is time for suppliers to open their hearts, and their marketing budgets, to affiliates and let then show what they can do. It’s a chance to build long-term, win-win relationships and help take your brand to the next level.

Rhi Burns, head of sales at Catena Media, has 12 years of experience in the egaming industry. Her focus is on breaking down barriers in affiliation and bringing all aspects of the industry closer together.