GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 17 - September 2011

What stats should affiliate programs be providing affiliates? In the iGaming sphere, an affiliate program is incomplete without robust reporting of sales and revenue data throughout the player life cycle, in addition to basic stats such as impressions, clicks, downloads and commissions. Regardless of vertical or commission structure, having player deposit, wagering and revenue activity is critical. Simply put, affiliates and operators should both be thinking about long- term profitability; after all, without quality data on topics like average player values and wagering amounts, how can they expect to optimize their relationship to ensure ROI? If programs have multiple products, it’s beneficial for them to report results on each product separately. This way, affiliates can recognize where they generate their commissions and optimize promotions based on this information. If a brand’s data is even more comprehensive, such as revenue or conversion rates per game (or per betting market in the case of sports betting), affiliates benefit further. Additionally, affiliates should be given the option to NOT earn commissions on a given product if they feel it will affect them negatively rather than positively. For example, poker affiliates often choose to not earn revshare on casino, as a large win could wipe out their monthly poker earnings. Finally, in the interest of transparency, but also long-term profitability, it’s crucial that programs provide as much data as possible on the variable costs factored into the net revenue calculation. At a bare minimum, this means showing both gross and net revenue for each product being reported so affiliates can see the costs. Ideally, programs should show bonus costs as a separate column, so affiliates can see to what extent bonus costs affect their earnings. This way, affiliates promoting bespoke bonuses, such as no-deposit bonuses, may choose to revert back to the default offer if their bonus costs are unreasonably high. As an affiliate, it is within your power to promote only brands with sufficient transparency in all of the aforementioned areas. If a program you are promoting does not provide sufficient data, pass this feedback on to the operator or affiliate manager, and don’t hesitate to explain why this data is crucial. Your feedback is uniquely valuable in getting changes like this implemented, and hopefully, with the right impetus, the program can be brought into compliance. What stats should you focus on as an affiliate? There are many variations on the iGaming affiliate business model, and as such, different affiliates may focus on different stats when reviewing the performance of the various affiliate programs they promote. Some may focus on converting as many players as possible with the hope of converting at least one high roller to generate the bulk of their earnings. Others might focus on earnings per player, looking for the operator with the best player lifetime values. Furthermore, some affiliates may focus on EPC (earnings per click), CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or other metrics incorporating both the rate of conversion (from impression to click, click to download, download to deposit or any combination thereof) and earnings per player. In fact, all of these metrics are important, and regardless of your affiliate business model, you should at least be aware of how each of your programs benchmarks in each category. For example, a brand which converts players extremely well but does not retain them would not be a good brand to promote for an affiliate seeking to catch a high roller. While you might be more likely to convert a high roller due to greater volume of signups, it is less likely that such a player would continue to play, as high rollers are generally pickier about brands they play in comparison to casual players. Similarly, if a brand has a high average player value but very low conversion rates, the brand may be saturated in the marketplace. Saturation means that a majority of players already have an account, and may cause you to miss out on potential earnings from your traffic. In addition, if a brand has multiple products, you should be aware of the performance differences between products, and not necessarily promote every product of every brand. If a brand performs well in sports betting, but not casino, nothing states that you must promote both their casino and their betting products. Commonmistakes/ misconceptions in stats analysis Far and away the most common mistake that affiliates make with respect to stats is not doing enough analysis. More often than not, this is because they are busy running their sites, working on SEO, social media, coding, or handling the many other webmaster tasks that help keep their traffic levels growing. Busy affiliates will log in, quickly check their earnings or number of new players, and log out, without taking the time to evaluate conversion rates, earnings per click or other crucial metrics discussed above. By not analyzing your stats, it is easy to miss out on a very real “ An affiliate program is incomplete without robust reporting of sales and revenue data throughout the player life cycle. ” 57 Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers