Diversify Revenue to Build a Stronger Affiliate Business
Many iGaming publishers begin their affiliate marketing journey with a relatively simple structure of promoting a handful of casino operators and earning revenue from the clicks and registrations of their audience members. While this revenue stream can be highly profitable, it also exposes the affiliate to unnecessary risk with a reliance on a single source of income.
All the factors that determine the availability of clicks and the revenue generated from those clicks shift over time. Whether it be changes to the terms of the operators, changes in search engine rankings, changes in regulations or shifts in the behavior of the audience members, all of these can impact the income of the affiliate publisher depending solely upon the operator with which they partner.
Monetization strategies can be diversified as a means of enhancing the resilience of the publisher’s business while also increasing the value of their audience.
Why Revenue Diversification Matters
All affiliate marketing businesses encounter challenging times. Whether it be due to changes in search engine algorithms, changes in the programs offered by the casino operators, seasonal fluctuations in the traffic that reaches their website, changes in regulations and increased competition among other publishers, diversification of revenue streams is an essential strategy in the affiliate space.
Avoid Depending on One Operator
Many publishers rely upon one operator to generate the bulk of their revenue. While this can be a profitable strategy, dependence upon a single third-party operator exposes the publisher to significant risk. By partnering with multiple operators, publishers can diversify their revenue, reduce their risk of losing income due to an issue with one of their partnered operators and work to better manage their partnerships with each.
Balance CPA and Revenue Share
Affiliates have several different commission structures upon which to base their revenue from their partnership with casino operators. Each of the models has its advantages.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) models provide publishers with a fixed amount of revenue should they successfully generate a registration for the operator. These are beneficial for publishers who are looking to maximize their initial revenue.
Revenue Share models provide publishers with a percentage of the total revenue that is generated by the operator that they promote. This model is advantageous for those who want to earn more revenue over time and enjoy passive revenue streams.
Hybrid deals for affiliates often include elements of both CPA and Revenue Share models, providing immediate and long-term revenue for the publisher.
Expand Into Multiple Markets
Another way to diversify revenue for publishers is to expand their presence into new international markets.
There are numerous international markets where demand for the services of various operators is increasing. By creating content that is targeted towards and reflects the interests of the residents of these countries, publishers can expand their reach and further diversify their revenue streams.
Build an Email Audience
While traffic from search engines can be valuable, publishers must control the traffic that flows into their site. More importantly, publishers can also curate their content for their email subscribers. Publishers can use their email newsletters to promote new casinos, bonuses, sports betting content and offers for their audience members.
Building an email audience allows publishers to diversify their revenue by increasing their control over their audience and the content that they publish.
Monetize High-Traffic Content
Publishers who have developed high-traffic content may find that not all of their visitors are yet ready to register with the casino operators that they promote. Instead, such publishers can find value in monetizing the content that they have created that is educational and informative about the industry by including contextual affiliate links throughout the articles.
Create Evergreen Resources
Evergreen content continues to generate traffic long after it is published online. Publishers can create content such as strategy guides for online slots and blackjack, articles about the different types of online payments, articles on topics related to responsible gambling and tutorials on how to place sports betting online. Publishing such evergreen content allows publishers to continue to earn revenue over time.
Improve Internal Traffic Flow
Many of the visitors that arrive at the publisher’s website browse a few of their pages before making a decision to register with a supported casino operator. By improving the website’s internal traffic flow, publishers can direct those visitors to content that will increase their chances of eventually registering with one of the operator partners of the publisher.
Use Data to Prioritize Revenue Opportunities
Publishers should use data to determine which revenue opportunities will yield the best results for their business. Evaluating the revenue earned per visitor, the earnings per click for each operator, the conversion rates for each operator, the performance of the publisher according to each geographical region and the performance of specific web pages will allow them to focus their efforts on the best opportunities.
Optimize for Returning Visitors
Many publishers discover that visitors who return to their websites convert at a higher rate than those who visit for the first time. By encouraging such visitors to engage with the publisher’s website through the creation of updated bonus pages, new operator reviews and news content and email newsletters, publishers will increase their chances of forming conversions among these returning visitors.
Reduce Revenue Loss From Blocked Traffic
Traffic that does not have access to the content of the promoted operator publishers can lose significant revenue for the affiliate publisher. Publishers can recover some of this revenue by promoting different operators based on the region of the audience members, using intelligent traffic routing software, promoting alternative offers to those of their partnered operators and by monitoring the performance of their blocked traffic.
Strengthen Relationships With Operators
Another strategy for diversification is an improved relationship between the publisher and the casino operators. Publishing houses that develop strong relationships with their operators will be rewarded with benefits such as exclusive bonuses for their promoted audience members, higher rates for the revenue that they share with the publisher, better communication channels and increased access to special campaigns created in partnership with these operators.
Use Automation to Scale
As publishers expand their efforts and the number of audience members who visit their websites, the efforts that used to manage their website and content may become challenging to complete entirely manually. By automating elements like link management, performance reporting, offer rotation, traffic routing and content monitoring, publishers can scale their efforts more efficiently.
Common Monetization Risks
The risks that publishers often ignore that can limit their businesses include a reliance upon a single operator, ignoring international markets, ignoring email marketing, publishing only commercial content for their websites, not analyzing their earned revenue and failing to optimize their existing content.
The Future of Publisher Monetization
Affiliate marketing businesses are rapidly evolving to offer their audience members a significantly improved experience. However, the future of publisher-monetization partnerships will include automation of processes, artificial intelligence for content recommendations and the potential for even personalized offers to their audience members.
Publishers who seek to diversify their revenue streams early in their careers will benefit the most from the future of publisher-affiliate partnerships.
Best Practices for Sustainable Growth
The best practices to follow in order to ensure the long-term growth of your affiliate publishing business can include partnering with multiple operators, finding a balance between CPA and revenue share agreements, expanding into new markets, building an email audience, optimizing your high-traffic content, updating your evergreen content, analyzing your revenue according to key metrics and automating specific processes.
Each of these strategies will ensure that the publisher earns the highest possible revenue while maintaining their commitment to providing their audience members with high-quality and helpful content.
Final Thoughts
Building a strong affiliate business in the iGaming industry requires the same amount of resilience as it does a foundation of revenue. Publishers who diversify their revenue streams will be the best equipped to handle the challenges of the market while seeking to increase their income.
By incorporating strategies such as partnering with multiple operators, using a balance of CPA and revenue share models, localizing the content for specific regions, building an audience of their own subscribers via email, improving the internal traffic flow of their website, using data to inform their publishing efforts, optimizing for their returning visitors, recovering revenue from their blocked traffic, improving their relationships with their operators and automating their efforts, publishers will not only have a more sustainable business with increased revenue but also a business that is prepared for the challenges of the future of affiliate publisher relationships.