What is Affiliate Marketing and why do Online Casinos in Canada use it?
Basically, affiliate marketing is a type of digital marketing that rewards third-parties for driving traffic to a certain site. It is a very common strategy used in many high competition industries such as finance and banking, travel and holidays, electronic and mobile devices, car sales and many other you can think of. An example of an affiliate programme that might be used by a Canadian gaming establishment would be when a blog site includes an article on an aspect of online gambling, such as new games to play that are aimed at a certain demographic. If the blog writer or host of the article places a hyperlink to your site, then you can expect a certain proportion of readers to click through on it, thereby pushing your overall traffic. Most marketing professionals who operate for online casinos in Canada also like affiliate marketing because the presence of the link itself – whether it is clicked on or not – tends to help with their SEO strategy. That said, for this article, we’ll concentrate on affiliate marketing as a way to augment traffic.
What Are the Different Types of Affiliates?
Affiliate programmes all operate in much the same way as outlined above. However, there are different payment models to choose from depending on the industry. Firstly, CPL affiliates operate on a cost per lead basis. This means the casino or any other company concerned must pay for any leads that are generated meaning it suits affiliates who can refer traffic which is already interested in betting. CPA, on the other hand, only requires a payment when a client acquisition has been achieved. This type of affiliate strategy is very convenient for companies, as they only pay comission if someone subsequently tries a game out or signs up with a new account, for example. Another popular model is revenue sharing whereby the host gets a proportion of the amount of money that is spent by the person who has been referred, something that is usually time-limited in some way.
Why Is Affiliate Marketing So Effective in the Online Casino Industry?
Digital marketing for online casinos is very competitive. It is their lifeblood to attract and retain players. Therefore, any technique that gets people to sign up will, in the end, pay for itself. Rather than paying for direct advertising, affiliate methods of generating traffic and sales leads only need to be paid for when they show results so there are few start-up costs to consider. In addition, links to casino sites help with increasing brand’s presence on the internet even if they fail to generate much inbound traffic.
How do Online Casinos Find the Right Affiliates?
Although cost is an important consideration with finding the right affiliate programme, expertise in market niches is just as crucial so look for a network which has had success with online casinos before, in Canada or elsewhere. Many bloggers and webmasters belong to established networks already which have many affiliates that all add content with links to the particular sites they are recommending. Due to the time and effort involved, it is often best for casinos to use a network of affiliates rather than rely on a direct relationship with a few individual third-party site owners of their own.
How Can Money Be Made With Affiliate Marketing?
For Canadian online gaming brands, making money via affiliate marketing is ultimately derived from the increased sales you will generate as a result of augmented inbound traffic. Once a player has signed up, it is important to keep him or her coming back, of course, but this is outside the remit of an affiliate marketing campaign.
For affiliates and the networks they belong to, they can earn big revenue by creating high-quality content which helps them to improve their online casino SEO ranking that pays for the time invested in making it so long as people click through to your site, hopefully to take an action that will result in a commission. When revenue is shared, affiliates can continue to earn for the content they created well after it has been posted, especially if it has the knack of causing lots of people to click through to your site.
Real Cases of Affiliate Marketing
Bloggers like Debbie Gartner, who publishes a blog devoted to flooring, started out without any intention of monetising her site. However, she started to work with an affiliate programme to direct traffic to relevant pages at one of the big e-commerce sites after four years of writing. Earning $100 in her first month, Gartner was able to grow her affiliate marketing earnings that to 15 times that amount within a year due to her success with links that resulted in sales. This is not an uncommon experience with affiliates regardless of the sector they specialise in. Another blogger named Ana, who runs a site devoted to
entrepreneurs harnessing the power of the internet, says that she made her first affiliate commission within the first 30 hours of trying. There really is money to be made by bloggers and webmasters so long as they can generate the right sort of content that online casinos are looking for.
The Best Affiliate Marketing Programmes in Canada
There are plenty of affiliate programmes that online casino marketing professionals can choose to generate more inbound traffic. In Canada, there are already some established affiliate schemes run by companies which have plenty of experience in working with casino brands. However, you don’t need to stick to Canadian ones to run a successful affiliate programme. ClickBank, Affiliate Window, Pepperjam and Buffalo Partners may all be less well known in Canada but are nevertheless often highly effective. It pays to shop around to get the right fit for your particular niche in the marketplace, of course.