iGaming marketing is expected to take a lot of shapes and forms in 2024.
While iGaming partners are the core of any gambling-based business, the iGaming industry has been snowballing over the years, with no signs of slowing down. And, as the competition intensifies, iGaming companies need to adopt effective affiliate & partner marketing strategies to stand out from the crowd and reach their target audience.
Partner marketing has proven to be a valuable tool for iGaming companies looking to increase traffic, drive revenue, and build a trustworthy iGaming brand awareness.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the best partner marketing strategies for iGaming in 2023 so you’ll better understand how to leverage these strategies to take your iGaming business to the next level.
Best Partner Marketing Strategies for iGaming in 2024
| Strategy | How Can it Help Your Business? |
|---|---|
| Influencer Partnerships 🤝 | Collaborate with influencers who have a strong presence in the gaming community. This can drive brand awareness and credibility among targeted audiences. |
| Affiliate Networks 🌐 | Utilize affiliate networks that specialize in iGaming. They can connect you with publishers who have the right audience for your products. |
| Content Marketing 📝 | Create engaging and informative content related to iGaming. This could include game reviews, betting tips, or industry news to attract and retain an audience. |
| Social Media Campaigns 📱 | Leverage social media platforms to create interactive and engaging campaigns. These can include contests, live streaming of gaming events, or promotional offers. |
| Email Marketing 📧 | Develop targeted email campaigns to keep your audience informed about new games, promotions, and updates. Personalization can greatly enhance engagement rates. |
| SEO Optimization 🔍 | Optimize your website and content for search engines to increase visibility to potential partners and players. Focus on iGaming-specific keywords and trends. |
| Loyalty Programs 💰 | Implement loyalty programs to reward frequent players or partners. This can encourage repeat business and create a sense of community. |
| Co-Branding Opportunities 🤝 | Partner with other brands or products that align with your iGaming business to expand your reach and attract new audiences. |
Why is it Important to Switch Up Affiliate Marketing Strategies for iGaming?
Affiliate marketing has always been a highly competitive industry. However, the scope of partner marketing in the iGaming industry is interesting.
The iGaming industry is notorious for being overly regulated regarding marketing. If you have doubts, try advertising your gambling business in Google Ads! While Google Ads now allows iGaming advertising, it’s still a pain.
Therefore, most operators struggle to develop and make their online igaming business successful; this includes online sports betting, casinos/gambling, poker, and various other online gambling platforms.
This blog post is aimed at affiliates and gambling platform operators and will look at the potential and opportunities the iGaming industry can offer an affiliate marketer.
So, let’s dive right in!
How Does iGaming Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing brings two parties together: the actual marketer or advertiser, who – in this case – owns a gaming platform, and the affiliates who promote the gaming platform to their audience.
They are connected through an affiliate network or an agency, and the affiliate receives a share of the profit generated from his referred traffic. The commissions or revenue share are agreed upon in advance.
Following the agreement, the publisher uses the URLs, ads, and banners that link directly to the product page.
These custom URLs and ads are distributed to affiliates, who are compensated based on the number of leads or sales generated.
Types of Affiliates in the iGaming Industry
Private or individual affiliates and corporate affiliates are the two types of partners that we generally refer to when talking about affiliate marketing.
- Individual affiliates will not be able to earn as much as company affiliates, but sometimes they manage to make large profits.
- Corporate affiliates have their own affiliate marketing team and are dedicated to getting the best results for their gaming platform partners. Because they are doing marketing on a bigger scale, their profits are typically 10x higher than those of an individual affiliate, implying that they receive better deals from affiliate networks.
If you are an iGaming business owner, it’s important to know who your affiliate partners will be, so you can better tailor your offers to their audience and marketing scale. You may also want to concentrate your offers and efforts only on corporate or private iGaming partners.
Choosing your potential partners and marketing model in advance will help you better understand and optimize your strategy.
Choosing The Right iGaming Affiliate Model
The success of your iGaming partner marketing strategy relies on the affiliate model you choose. Certain elements must be considered as an affiliate to select the best affiliate model for the iGaming industry.
Expertise Level
The revenue share model appeals to beginners because it generates the greatest profits. However, making money would require a significant amount of work and effort on their part.
So, if you want to keep your motivation high, we suggest using a CPL or CPA model.
This is a safe option because you won’t know the quality of the leads you’re directing to your website at first, and these models are beneficial in the short term.
Commitment
Your affiliate marketing strategies in the iGaming industry depend entirely on your dedication to your business.
As previously stated, CPA and CPL models generate quick cash and are ideal for novice individual iGaming partners who are only interested in the short term. On the other hand, those who are in it for the long haul and are confident in their marketing abilities can opt for the more profitable Revenue Share plan.
Active Leads
Publishers, gaming sites, and sportsbook operators prefer high-quality players to use their services.
Affiliates must consider the actions of their leads. Sales can only resume if quality leads or players regularly play and deposit on the platform.
Planning Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy In iGaming
This next section is for affiliates, gaming platforms, and business owners. There are numerous marketing strategies for the casino industry, and we will explore them here.
Determine Your Target Market
Do you want your online casino to produce leads cost-effectively and efficiently? Before you do anything else, you must first identify your target audience, their wants, and even their weak points, so you know how to satisfy them truly and where to toss the dart.
Determine your target group, segment your players, organize your messaging, and engage your segments.
Conduct as much research as possible and divide your players into groups based on various characteristics such as age, gender, gaming hobbies, location, motives, and so on. After you’ve done segmenting, you should focus on strategies for attracting a specific group to your online casino.
Throughout this stage, remember the AIDA model, which is intended to encourage prospective customers (in our case, players) to pay attention, demonstrate interest, demonstrate desire, and finally, take action.
Competitors Analysis
Understand your main competitors – who are they and what do they offer? This will give you the required information and may even help you define your target audience and their preferences.
You can begin with a SWOT analysis, which is a framework for identifying assets, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This concept is central to competitive research and enables marketers to identify potential ways to outperform their competitors.
- What are your competitors doing?
- Is there anything that can be done differently and better?
Consider whether there are any market trends that, if anticipated and addressed properly, could offer business opportunities. Similarly, you may identify threats in the form of prohibitions on specific types of iGaming activity that you should avoid.
How to Implement iGaming Marketing Strategies?
After developing an online casino marketing strategy, it’s time to look into helpful suggestions for increasing player engagement and retention.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular strategies in iGaming. It involves partnering with affiliates who promote the company’s products and services on their websites or other platforms.
In return, affiliates earn a commission on every sale or lead they generate for the company.
Influential marketing
In recent years, influencer marketing has been demonstrated to be an effective affiliate marketing strategy for affiliates. Influencers have a strong connection with their audience that is built on trust, which can lead to valuable users for iGaming platforms. If you want to learn more about how to build a strong iGaming brand (that implies trust), read our blog post on how to start an iGaming business.
Having them on board would be highly beneficial for both affiliates and publishers, as it would increase the credibility and reach of your platform.
Read more about: The Power of Influencer Marketing in iGaming Partner Promotion
Viewing in Real Time
With platforms such as Twitch and YouTube, live streaming has revolutionized the affiliate industry, becoming a useful tool for affiliates and publishers to attract new users, promote products, and expand their reach in a different environment.
Affiliates are thinking about capitalizing on these live-streaming platforms by stressing safe gambling for casinos, online poker, and other gambling platforms. This community is expected to expand exponentially in the coming years.
Learn to Market Without Cookies
A new trend toward greater cybersecurity and privacy has also influenced affiliate marketing. Consumers are becoming increasingly worried about tracking their online activities, so businesses and governments are enacting legislation to keep this information private.
This is where cookies come in.
Cookies are text files that are used to recognize users across multiple websites. These small files communicate with browsers to keep user preferences, login and registration information, and purchasing cart contents.
Data from actions on your website, blog, or app is stored in first-party cookies. They guarantee the website functions properly by storing cart and wish list data. On the other hand, third-party cookies are sent by other websites, such as ads and analytics services, and are used to share data across platforms.
Third-party cookies have a vague future. For example, EU law requires website owners to consent before using cookies, a consent that is rarely obtained.
Creating High-Quality SEO Material
Engaging your audience with iGaming and gambling-related organic SEO material can be extremely beneficial. Answering your audience’s questions about your platform or related queries will generate significant organic traffic to your website.
This approach establishes credibility and trust for affiliates as well as the products that must be promoted. You can always consider hiring an iGaming marketing agency for your iGaming digital marketing efforts.
Choose a Robust Partner Platform
Usability is an essential feature of an iGaming platform, so make sure to promote the fact that your players have a positive user experience.
List all payment methods you take to increase transparency, including digital currencies. Mention the intended markets and languages that are available.
Aside from that, demonstrate your power by displaying your iGaming partners, which may include B2B iGaming and software providers. Furthermore, display your license labeling to win the trust of your players.
There are several reasons why someone interested in affiliate marketing within the iGaming industry should consider starting a free trial at Scaleo.
Here are a few key benefits our partner iGaming marketing platform offers:
- Advanced Tracking and Analytics: Scaleo offers advanced tracking and analytics features that enable affiliate marketers to track clicks, conversions, and other key metrics in real-time. This data can be used to optimize campaigns and maximize ROI.
- Multiple Commission Models: Scaleo supports multiple commission models, including CPA, CPL, and revenue share, giving marketers flexibility in how they structure their affiliate programs.
- Customizable Dashboard: The Scaleo dashboard is highly customizable, allowing marketers to create a tailored interface that displays the metrics and data that are most important to them.
- Fraud Detection and Prevention: Scaleo has built-in fraud detection and prevention tools, which can help protect marketers from fraudulent traffic and ensure that they only pay for legitimate conversions.
- Intuitive User Interface: Scaleo has an intuitive, user-friendly interface that makes it easy for marketers to set up and manage their affiliate programs.
- Integration with iGaming Networks: Scaleo integrates with popular iGaming networks, enabling marketers to quickly and easily find and recruit affiliates.
Try Scaleo now and see what it can do for your business – no credit card is required.
Other Factors
Aside from strategies, Affiliates, and iGaming Operators should work together to develop strong relationships in order to share pertinent information with their audiences and players, such as promoting a new game, press releases, and in-platform updates.
Affiliate marketing in online sports betting and gambling requires high confidence among the stakeholders.
From the viewpoint of affiliates, believing in the operator’s product can help you attract more players from your target audience. Finally, the consistent flow of traffic to an affiliate’s website determines the profitable connection between an affiliate and the iGaming partner publisher.
How profitable is iGaming affiliate marketing?
According to Statista, the online gambling market was worth $97 billion in 2022 and is projected to be worth 217 billion by 2023.
Of course, the market is massive, as are the chances to capitalize on it. To increase their ROI, most affiliate websites concentrate on a combination of gambling variants such as online slots, poker, and casino games.
It will take time and work for an affiliate to establish a reputation in the iGaming Affiliate industry. However, once an affiliate is known as a top-rated marketer, they can earn six figures per month with only a few affiliate partners. Consider the potential earnings if you have two or more affiliate partners.
The top-rated affiliate marketers earn $50,000 per month on average.
Conclusion
The iGaming industry has grown in complexity and size to become a multibillion-dollar industry. At the moment, affiliate marketing benefits every stakeholder in this industry, whether they are online gaming/betting alliances, reviewers, YouTubers, or marketers. Affiliate marketing lowers marketing costs while increasing revenue for marketers. Who could possibly say no to that?
We cannot deny that affiliate marketing is a competitive business strategy. Some strategies succeed, while others do not. But the essential thing to remember is to work within the vertical you service in order to attract a larger audience and convert them into valuable customers.
Looking to unify all your partner marketing efforts into one dashboard?
Scaleo is a powerful iGaming affiliate marketing software designed specifically for the iGaming industry, with features and tools that can help marketers optimize their campaigns and drive more revenue. Starting a free trial is a no-risk way to explore the platform and see if it’s a good fit for your affiliate marketing needs.
What is an iGaming Partner?
An iGaming partner is someone who signed up as an affiliate with any online gaming website or network and promoted a particular iGaming vendor to his audience. This can apply to the promotion of any iGaming products.
Last Updated on April 3, 2024
