Affiliate Marketing: How do casino affiliate programs work
Since the inception of the Internet, one of the things keeping people engaged is online entertainment. No wonder, online gambling gained huge popularity. The high demand drives the competition, with a huge number of gambling sites vying for players' attention. In this environment, it can be a good idea to split the tasks of management and promotion, delegating the latter to somebody who would specialize in that. The idea goes by the name of affiliate programs.
Affiliate programs shoulder the task of attracting new customers to third parties letting casino owners focus primarily on running the casino.
The affiliates set up sites that feed the curiosity of potential casino visitors. Sites can feature anything that can potentially attract interest, from articles and guidelines to videos and gambling news. Then when the interest of visitors is stoked they are guided further through affiliate links to a casino site. The affiliates, in turn, are rewarded each time new customers land on the casino page.
Affiliate programs can be seen as a form of outsourcing of marketing and promotional activities. While those activities are tackled by affiliates casino owners can fully focus on tasks directly related to running the casino, without the need to worry about attracting new clients.
For affiliates, this scheme makes it possible to earn money on gambling, without the need to bother about any aspects of running and maintaining a casino. The main responsibility of affiliates is to keep their own informational resources engaging - capable of stoking the interest of potential gamblers.
This separation of responsibilities is beneficial both for the casino and its affiliates. There exist three main types of affiliate programs.
CPL Programs
The CPL or Cost per Lead affiliate programs imply that the affiliate gets paid when a new customer signs up at the casino, being led there through the affiliate link. There are no further requirements, such as the client making a deposit or spending money.
CPA Programs
CPA or Cost per Acquisition affiliate programs imply more stringent requirements. An affiliate only gets a commission when the client directed to the gambling site through an affiliate link makes a deposit or spends a certain amount of money at the casino. The fact of the client's landing at the casino page alone doesn't suffice in this case.
Revenue Share Programs
Revenue Share programs impose even stricter conditions, with affiliates getting a share of money a client spends at the casino. On the bright side, once a new client has signed up the affiliate continues receiving commissions the entire time this client keeps playing at the casino unless there's a specified time limit.
Although they might seem simple enough, affiliate programs come with certain caveats.
Most of the affiliate programs use KPIs assessing the quality of leads. They are based on various metrics, such as the amount of time and money new clients spend at the casino, which in turn determines the size of compensation an affiliate receives. Simply goading a bunch of random people to a casino doesn't fit the bill in most cases.
Casino owners tend to give preference to CPA and revenue sharing programs, which can guarantee that they would only need to pay affiliate commissions for the customers who have made deposits and spent a certain amount of money at the casino. Or, on the other hand, the affiliate commission can consist of two parts, one of which is released immediately once a new client has signed up at the casino, with the remaining part - a bonus - being paid after the client wagers a specified sum.
There are variations regarding the terms of different affiliate programs, and it's important to carefully examine them, before signing up for a specific program. This way, it will be more or less clear what the casino expects from you.
In any case, although it's not as simple as it might seem, affiliate programs are still a good opportunity to make decent profits off the gambling hype.
