As a tracking solution with years of experience running programs for online casinos, we’ve learned that behind the success of certain games is a lot of science and data. Understanding what makes players tick is one of the most important things an affiliate marketer needs to know. If you can offer players the right game selections, combined with strategic promotions and targeted marketing efforts by your affiliates – you can significantly increase your program profit.
Conversely, a poorly curated affiliate promotion and games portfolio can severely hinder your program’s performance and your affiliates revenue potential. In this article, we’ll delve into the crucial role that games play – in determining the profitability of your affiliate program, and share insights on how to leverage them to your affiliates’ advantage.
1. Provide Affiliates with Game Variety
The iGaming sector is one of the most competitive marketing verticals online. Therefore, once you have gained players, retaining them is paramount if you’re to be successful. Offering a diverse range of games is essential to keep players engaged and prevent them from seeking alternative places to play.
Casino brands that offer a well-rounded game portfolio usually have a wide variety of slots, table games, live dealer games, and specialty games available to cater to different player preferences and gaming styles. Affiliates need content to solicit new players to an operator’s brand. When you can offer a diverse variety of games to play it helps the affiliate find new niche sources of traffic to focus on and bring to your brand.
Slots are the bread and butter of most online casinos, and they should feature a wide array of themes, gameplay mechanics, and volatility levels to appeal to both casual and high-roller players. Table games like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat should be available in multiple variants, with different betting limits and side bets to accommodate players of all bankroll sizes.
Live dealer games provide an immersive and authentic casino experience and have become increasingly popular over the last ten years. As such, they should be a key component of your game offering. Finally, incorporating niche games like scratch cards, keno, and virtual sports can help differentiate your casino and attract players seeking a more diverse gaming experience.
2. Offer game focussed promotions and incentive bonuses
Game promotions and bonuses can be powerful tools for driving player acquisition, engagement, and retention. By offering targeted promotions and incentives tied to specific games or game categories, you can encourage affiliates to try to create new content that can bring new player types and interests to your platform. Games can also increase the overall time and revenue spent on your platform which is great for affiliates if they’re being paid on revenue share.
With Cellxpert you can group affiliates into categories using our Tag Manager feature and then test out games specific promotions with affiliates to see if they can increase their first time depositors promoting your most popular game genres. You can also set up commission modules that specifically incentivise affiliates on the promotions that they are using. If they choose to promote game specific offers you can categorise and incentivise them accordingly.
If your platform doesn’t offer any of these features you might want to consider one that can so that you have a competitive edge to offer new affiliates in an already crowded market.
You can also provide bonuses to affiliates that use certain well performing games to gain additional traffic month to month to encourage them to use the games that work best for your brand. Additionally, running time-limited promotions or tournaments centred around specific games can create a sense of excitement and urgency, encouraging players to participate and potentially increase their overall engagement and spending.
3. Teach affiliates game performance analysis
Regularly analysing game performance data is crucial for making informed decisions about your game portfolio and promotional strategies. By tracking key metrics such as game popularity, player activity, wagering patterns, and revenue contribution, you can identify which games are driving the most engagement and revenue, and make data-driven decisions about which games to promote and which games need to be phased out. Help educate your affiliates on this analysis so that they can target their promotions better.
What’s more, analysing player behaviour and preferences can help you support your affiliates to better personalise your game promotions and bonuses to better align with player interests, increasing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and ultimately boosting your profit margins.
At Cellxpert, we pride ourselves in offering our clients a wide range of data points for analysis. All of this data can be broken down into Geographical regions giving our casino brands a breakdown of how their players and games are performing at a more granular level.
4. Cross-Selling and upselling similar games = more revenue
Games can also serve as powerful cross-selling and upselling tools within your affiliate program. By strategically promoting complementary games or game categories to players based on their preferences and behaviour, you can encourage affiliates to explore new gaming experiences and potentially increase their overall commission by promoting a segment of games that resonate with their traffic or audiences.
For instance, if a player primarily engages with slots, you could suggest trying out a new slot title or offer a bonus for trying a live dealer game, potentially opening up new revenue streams. Similarly, for table game enthusiasts, you could promote side bets or progressive jackpot games to increase their overall betting volume and potential winnings.
5. Responsible gaming and brand compliance
While maximising profits is a key objective, it’s crucial to prioritise responsible gaming practices and compliance with regulatory requirements. Ensuring that your game portfolio adheres to industry standards for fairness, transparency, and responsible gaming features can help build trust with players and avoid potential legal and reputational risks. Providing affiliates with the right education points on how to advertise your best supporting games effectively and accurately is just as important as helping them to earn and get ahead of the competition around you.
Staying up-to-date with evolving regulations and licensing requirements in your target markets is essential to ensure your affiliate program operates compliantly and avoids the risks of fines or penalties.
Games focussed marketing can help support affiliate program growth
When it comes to casino affiliate programs, games are the driving force behind player engagement, retention, and ultimately, profitability. Understanding which games are your brand top performers and supplying affiliates with the information they need to accurately market you vs your competitors is the key to your own success.
By carefully curating a diverse and high-quality game portfolio, implementing strategic promotions and bonuses, analysing game performance data, and leveraging cross-selling and upselling opportunities, you can maximise your affiliate program’s revenue potential and gain a competitive edge in the market.
Remember, success in this industry isn’t just about offering games. It’s about providing an exceptional gaming experience that keeps players coming back for more. By striking the right balance between game variety, quality, and targeted marketing efforts, you can create a winning formula that resonates with players and drives sustainable profitability for your affiliate program.
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