The iGaming market has grown 10-20% annually for the last few years and the majority of brands use affiliate marketing to promote their services. It may seem like as an affiliate you are in a beneficial situation. But there are some issues that arise with the market growth.
While tons of new affiliate offers appear, some promising extreme profits, it’s getting quite hard to choose the ones that will actually allow you to get long-term profit.
What Makes a Strong iGaming Offer?
An offer can be attractive in many different ways. But when you think more about your long-term success, it’s all about balance. Too often, affiliates chase the highest CPAs without even looking at all the other aspects, and while such an approach may work sometimes, it’s way too risky for those who care about the future. We recommend paying close attention to these aspects:
- Advertisers reliability
- Solid ROI
- Scalability
We’ll cover each of those three in detail, but before you start, you should know that in the best-case scenario, all three should be in place for an offer that can be called “good”.
Advertisers Reliability
This one is non-negotiable if you don’t want to get scammed. There are hundreds of unlicensed offshore operators providing offers that are amazing on paper, but once you start working with those, things can get sideways with payment delays and shaving. So, before you commit to an advertiser, at least invest some time in:
- Browsing through forums like GPWA and AGD.
- Checking telegram groups to get unfiltered feedback
- Look up the casino at AskGamblers and TrustPilot
Due diligence at this stage will save you from disputes and wasted resources later. If you managed to find a good offer, started a campaign, but the advertiser vanished, it doesn’t matter how attractive the offer terms were; you won’t get a dime.
Green Flags
Look for affiliate programs that:
- Operated for at least two years
- Provide real-time stats
- Offer a weekly payment option (net-30 is fine if you are more experienced)
- Can explain their compliance and licensing
Also, advertisers with a strong reputation are often present with booths at iGaming conferences, such as brands like Slott and Twin.
Evaluating ROI
Obviously, it is impossible to precisely predict ROI before you start working with an offer, but you can estimate and make decisions based on that.
To start with, get some stats from the advertiser. You need to know what the current average conversion rates are for different geos and traffic sources. If you have no clue what’s considered solid, here is a reference:
| Metric | High performing offer | Mid offer |
| Click to FTD CR | 3-7% | 1.5-3% |
| Reg to FTD CR | 20-40% | 10-25% |
| EPC | $0.5-1.5 | $0.1-0.5 |
It will also help you to evaluate your campaigns when you start working with the offer. If you don’t hit the average numbers, it means that your traffic doesn’t suit the product well.
An example of an offer with a high initial ROI is Supabets. A trusted brand with stable conversion rates in the African market. Performs particularly well with Facebook Ads and in-app traffic.
Analyze the Funnel
Another thing you should do to estimate ROI is to go through the funnel yourself. This way, you will get a firsthand experience, which will allow you to evaluate the platform and make sure that the product is decent and you won’t have problems with CR due to poor product quality.
- Check loading time: Up to 3 seconds would do, but it shouldn’t be more than that.
- Browse the website using your phone and a few browsers. If you have access to every OS, that would be a good idea to use each one to make sure that the site works fine on all devices.
- Go through the whole registration process: If it is bugged somehow, even the best quality traffic won’t do.
- Check out the features: available languages, banking options, game types, providers, etc.
- Try contacting the CS department to figure out how responsive the support is. Products with cruppy customer support won’t perform well.
Obviously, if there are major problems with any of those points, it will most definitely obliterate your ROI.
Scalability
If you managed to find an offer from a reputable advertiser that has good conversion rates, it’s time to start thinking long-term. And that’s when you need to do some research on retention. Here are some things to discuss with the advertiser:
- Do they have a CRM team, or is it outsourced?
- How often do they re-engage players?
- What’s the churn rate after 7/30/90 days?
- Which platform powers the casino?
One example of strong player retention is the Extendi platform. It has some of the best retention rates, due to its high overall quality. You can test it yourself — the same traffic tends to perform better here. This is especially noticeable with offers like BetOnRed and VinciSpin.
Also, keep in mind that platforms with proper gamification features in place (or at least a decent loyalty program) perform much better in terms of customer retention.
Why is it Important?
If you launch a good ad campaign on a product with mid retention, it’s a waste of money. Players who could have spent much more wouldn’t only because the platform doesn’t engage with those players properly. How is it bad for you? For Hybrid and RevShare offers, you’ll earn much less due to lower player lifetime value. You also most likely won’t be able to negotiate lead caps if the players perform poorly. In some cases, you can’t even pass the test cap with decent traffic quality if the platform isn’t catchy enough.
Best Offers for Beginners
For beginners, extra caution is needed. If you just started out, you need to focus on low risk, high transparency, and easily manageable traffic sources.
- Engage with established affiliate programs with a good reputation. Don’t try to work with the newer ones, even if they seem reliable to you so far.
- Don’t go for Tier-1 geos. At this point, Tier 2-3 geos are a better way to go. LATAM, Eastern Europe, South Africe will enable you to start without wasting too much money on traffic for testing the waters.
- Hybrid and RevShare offers would be a better fit for you, as you’ll have a chance to build residual income.
Obviously, those are just additional tips, and every other point made in this article applies too.
Balance is Everything
If sustainability means something to you, aim for a proper balance between an advertiser’s reputation, offer terms, and platform features when evaluating an affiliate offer. This way, you can get a stable income and scale your campaigns.
Always remember that the most successful affiliates don’t chase the highest rate or the newest brand. They balance risk and reward, short-term gains and long-term growth.
P.S. All the offers mentioned above can be found in the LGaming affiliate network.
