Our team of experts recently attended the Affiliate Summit West (ASW) 2019 event, held at the Paris Las Vegas hotel between 6th to 8th January. This premier industry event connected thousands of affiliate attendees to merchants and digital marketing firms such as Income Access. We took the opportunity to introduce delegates to our technology and range of marketing services. With insights from our team at ASW 2019 in Vegas – Affiliate Services Supervisor Christopher Nash and Media Buy Specialist MichaelAngelo Angana – we’ve put together the following key takeaways from the event.
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Affiliate Marketing & Affiliate Relationships
Besides discussing general information about our software and marketing solutions, a big focus was identifying the differences between the acquisition and customer journey of traditional iGaming affiliates versus affiliates in a retail-focused market.
With our software, users have the ability to view key stats, access in-depth information on data per player, optimise campaigns for features like geo-targeting and more. On the retail side, product and consumer leads are typically acquired through opt-ins and generally don’t allow for access to the in-depth data required for maximum optimisation. This lack of data means a certain amount of traffic doesn’t get converted into registrations and/or sales. Our platform helps bridge this gap.
Our team’s observations in Vegas also suggest that there’s no intermediary present after the affiliate’s registration process, resulting in them having to provide items such as invoices to merchants to get paid out with no defined standards on reporting. This could explain the missing piece to stronger affiliate relationships.
Conversations also centred on pinpointing the best business practices and solutions, based on a large pool of tracked data, to better drive traffic from affiliates to merchant sites.
Converting Website Traffic
The revenue sources for affiliates in the iGaming industry and retail marketing space are both dependent on performance. However, our team received many inquiries on how to better monetize traffic. Our experts discovered that the geo-targeting aspect posed a problem for some, an essential tool needed to grow and expand into new markets.
Additionally, a dedicated tracking system was somewhat unfamiliar to participants, seeing as some brands didn’t own platforms or white labels for affiliates to sign into and obtain tracking links, plus have access to a reporting scheme in order to view and strategize on next steps.
This is a contrast to standard reporting in select markets, such as Europe, where affiliate managers send the tracking links to affiliates instead of making affiliates log-in to obtain it themselves.
Another key focus was of the mindset that the selling of a product holds higher value than the conversion of website traffic.
PASPA
If you read part one and part two of our iGB North America article on how the repeal of the US Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), state laws and other market evolutions are playing a role in the growth of the American iGaming affiliate market, then you know that it’s currently a time of transition for the space.
At ASW19, iGaming knowledge among affiliates was minimal, which gave our experts a chance to inform attendees about post-PASPA opportunities, the tools needed to be able to start working with US gaming brands and the potential of the casino, poker, sports betting, iLottery and fantasy sports verticals.
Additionally, there were questions surrounding the saturation of the New Jersey online casino and poker market, as well as determining the best next markets to enter.
Digital Marketing Trends
Many discussion panels were hosted by influencers with knowledge on current and emerging social media platforms. These influencers demonstrated how popular and latest apps could be leveraged to engage new audiences. Therefore, trends leaned more towards social media marketing – specifically influencer marketing.
An advantage of working with influencers is that reporting is quantifiable through existing built-in social media metrics. Furthermore, influencers tend to also introduce new topics, brands and industry events to a typically younger demographic.
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Were you at Affiliate Summit West 2019? Talk to us about your top takeaways, and how you see iGaming and affiliate marketing evolving in the US over the next year.
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At Income Access, we offer sophisticated affiliate software to track your campaigns. To find out more about this, or our broader affiliate marketing and digital services, please reach out.
