Targeting and Tailoring: Marketing Tools for Affiliate Success (Part 1)

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The iGaming affiliate marketing landscape is constantly evolving and new trends are always emerging, so it is important to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry. With the objective of identifying and taking a deep dive into some of the more prominent themes, we conducted our annual affiliate survey to explore trends, expectations and preferences. The survey results were then complemented by the insight of two affiliates, one specialising in online casino and the other online sports betting, to share details on their own approach and outlook regarding marketing strategies.

Below, Erica Anderson sifts through the results of our 2020 affiliate survey and asks the two affiliates for their view on bonus codes, targeted landing pages and other promotional and marketing strategies. The full article is available online at iGaming Business. We’re also presenting the article here in two parts, with the first part available below and the second and final part available here.

In an effort to dissect iGaming’s ever evolving affiliate marketing landscape, our 2020 affiliate survey explored trends, expectations and preferences. To complement the quantitative results that emerged from the survey, we also reached out to affiliates to share their qualitative insights, specifically as it pertains to marketing strategy and promotional efforts.

To provide some context, the affiliate survey revealed that the most popular promotional focuses included organic search (SEO), which was identified as a current strategy by 53% of respondents, followed by social networks (47%) and website ads (40%). When it came to marketing materials, bonus codes were the most popular choice among 51% of affiliates, followed by targeted landing pages at 22%.

With these results in mind, we asked two affiliates, one specialising in online casino and the other in online sports betting, to share details on their own approach and outlook regarding marketing strategies.

Tailoring your approach

A veteran affiliate of more than 15 years, Richie Meeuwsen runs frenchroulettelive.com, which focuses specifically on French roulette content for the non-US market. According to the US-based Meeuwsen, the optimal affiliate website requires a holistic approach rather than just relying on a singular strategy.

“The perfect set of marketing materials for me would include an in-depth casino review, targeted banners, targeted landing pages, videos, text links and more,” said Meeuwsen, who expects affiliate websites to include information not always available on a casino’s public site. “The most useful details would be a list of all of the games offered at the casino. It would also be quite beneficial to include the RTP, game provider, a description and any other specifics from which I can sort, categorise and reorganise, according to the topic I am writing.”

Meeuwsen also emphasised the importance of SEO in what he describes as a ‘text-oriented search engine atmosphere’, referencing his well-established industry experience. “I have been doing online casino affiliate marketing full time since 1996. I am a one-person operation that relies 100% upon SEO and content. I have never bought advertising nor created an email list,” he said.

Offering a different perspective from the online casino vertical is Paul Torzel, who has almost a decade of affiliate experience and runs newbettingsites.uk, a top comparison site for UK sportsbooks. While SEO, website ads and pay-per-click were among Torzel’s preferred promotional focuses, we asked him to explain why social networks, a popular choice overall, was not among them.

“In my personal experience, sports betting does not associate well with traditional social channels, such as Facebook, because users don’t like to mix their personal life with their betting experience,” Torzel said. “We do generate some traffic with Twitter, and we use this channel to promote more of our content. However, most users still prefer Google as their main source when searching for betting products.”

We invite you to also read the second and final part of our iGaming Business article on marketing tools for affiliate success, where we will discuss targeting landing pages and banners.