GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

How important are affiliates to the suc- cess of mFortune? In addition to affiliate marketing, how does mFortune market itself and build its brand? They are un- believably important to us. In the past few weeks we have become a platinum spon- sor of the GPWA and have signed the con- tract to exhibit at the London, Amsterdam and Berlin affiliate conferences next year. This, along with lots of other activities we have planned, shows the commitment we have to our affiliate program. We are one of Facebook’s largest gaming advertisers, and 2016 will see a huge brand push for mFortune as we will see the continuation of our TV advertising, PPC and all other traditional marketing methods. I am per- sonally overseeing the expansion of the affiliate team to offer a market-leading service to all of our affiliates. In May 2015, mFortune left the Income Access Network to start its own affiliate program, powered by Income Access. Can you describe the difference be- tween the two arrangements? What are the advantages of having an in-house affiliate program? Are there any disad- vantages? There is no difference with the actual software or how it works. The dif- ference is that we now have full control of our own affiliate program, which means we can work more closely with our affili- ates. I don’t think there any disadvantag- es for mFortune or our affiliates with the new arrangement, only positives. mFortune Partners recently became a GPWA Platinum Sponsor. Why do you feel it’s important to support the GPWA? And how does a sponsorship help your organization? The GPWA has been a very valuable tool for me personally in getting up to speed with the industry. Without the community, I think the industry as a whole would be much worse off. It makes sense to support that. In regards to helping mFortune, I believe it adds a legitimacy to our affiliate program and also gives us valuable feedback from the industry. It is an open and transparent communication channel between operators and affiliates. When mFortune joined the GPWA, some affiliates complained about your policy of awarding commissions to the affiliate who generated the “first click” rather than the affiliate that closed the sale. Less than six hours later, you changed the policy. That’s a pretty rapid re- sponse. Why was the first-click policy originally adopted, and why did you de- cide to change it? I believe a strong argu- ment can be made for either side. People who make customers aware of the brand do deserve credit, and it does help us track our marketing activity by learning where people found us first. I see our relation- ship with affiliates as a partnership and that has got to work both ways. When I saw the overwhelming majority preferred a last-click policy, the only sensible option for us was to listen to the community and change it. We are happy to admit that we are always learning and I would be more than happy to hear of other ideas affiliates have; if it worked for everyone, I would make the changes. mFortune Partners offers affiliates 40- 60% revenue share. Why did mFortune decide on this commission structure? Do you also offer CPA for affiliates who prefer that revenue model? You need an introductory model, and we are able to offer such generous terms because of all the advantages to mFortune I previously mentioned. We do offer CPA and hybrid deals – I am open to any type of deal as long as it works for the affiliate and our- selves. As mentioned before, we can be incredibly flexible. You also offer monthly and yearly prizes for affiliates who deliver the best traffic to the site. What kinds of prizes can top affiliates win? And how are those win- ners determined? Even though I have only been with the company a matter of months, I have built up a good relation- ship with all of our top affiliates and sent out a few gifts already. To be honest, I de- cide the prize based on which affiliate it is. We try to reward them with something that we know they will appreciate: I be- lieve a personal touch is very important. After they read this, I imagine they may all start telling me how they have always liked Aston Martins. How do you ensure that payments are sent out on time? And when do your payments go out? Our payments are sent out on the 16th of every month and are dealt with by our accounts depart- ment. I haven’t had one complaint about payment from any of the affiliates I have dealt with so far, and I think that tells you something about how efficient they are. What does mFortune do to retain play- ers sent by affiliates? Everything we do or create revolves around the player. We have weekly bonuses, prizes, loyalty points, exclusive games and the ability to launch new games in a matter of weeks. Our customer relationship management (CRM) system has a 97% delivery and open rate, which is unrivaled! Our CRM , in-house games and player-centric ap- proach affords us market-leading reten- tion rates. I believe marketing boils down to a few core concepts that can be adapted to any industry. If you mix that with some hard work, then it doesn’t matter what industry it is.” 71 Affiliate Manager Interview Series