already lost them. Your creative assets and marketing materials should be current, properly tagged, and actually useful. I’ve seen too many programs with asset libraries full of banners from 2019 that nobody wants or even uses anymore. Keep the selection lean and fast to access. You need to decide what your affiliates should push as customer messaging. Always make time for a quick call to discuss your partner’s traffic sources, content plans, and growth strategies when you onboard them. This shows you’re not just collecting numbers, you’re interested in building partnerships. 3. Clear NGR Calculations (No Surprises) Nothing, and I mean nothing, destroys trust faster than confusion around revenue calculations. Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) seems simple: player deposits minus withdrawals, bonuses, and admin adjustments. But in practice? I’ve seen affiliates spend hours trying to reverse-engineer why their commission doesn’t match their players deposits and wagering activity. Affiliate-friendly programs are crystal clear about what gets deducted from gross revenue and why. They explain their bonus policies upfront. They’re transparent about adjustment timelines. They don’t wait until payment day to mention that 30% of the month’s revenue came from a promotion that wasn’t commission-eligible. The best programs provide detailed reporting that breaks down NGR calculations at the player level. You can see exactly what bonuses were issued, what adjustments were made, and how that impacted your commission. There’s no black box, just clear math. When things do go wrong (because they sometimes do), there’s a straightforward process for querying calculations. Not a month-long email chain with three different people giving conflicting answers. Just a clear dispute resolution process with reasonable timeframes. 4. Transparent, Robust Tracking Your tracking needs to work. Full stop. This isn’t negotiable. Affiliates are sending real traffic and often pre-paying for it. When tracking fails and conversions go unattributed, they don’t just lose commission, it impacts their business, how they pay their staff and how they afford to keep being an affiliate in your program. That’s often when affiliates can lose faith in your partnership. Robust tracking means cookies that actually persist, server-side tracking as a backup, and proper attribution across devices. It means your system doesn’t “lose” conversions during peak traffic times. The program’s affiliates provide granular data: conversion rates by creative, player value by traffic source, retention metrics, and lifetime value trends. Transparency also means being honest about attribution models. Are you last-click? First-click? Some hybrid model? Tell you’re affiliates upfront what you’re paying them for and then allow them to validate that information in their reports daily, weekly, and monthly too! 5. Pay them on time! This should be obvious, but it bears repeating: pay affiliates on time, every time. Payment terms vary, and that’s fine. Net 30, net 45—whatever works for your cash flow. However, once you’ve committed to a payment schedule, stick to it religiously. Nothing says “we don’t value you” quite like missing payment dates without any upfront communication. The best programs don’t just pay on time—they make the payment process simple and painless. Multiple payment options, low minimums (or none), and clear payment statements that match their reporting is really all affiliates will require. No mysterious deductions that appear on payment day with no prior explanation. And when there is an issue like a public holiday, a system problem or a delay - communicate proactively. Don’t make affiliates chase you for money they’ve earned. Send an email explaining the delay and when they should expect payment. Basic respect WHAT MAKES AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM AFFILIATE FRIENDLY? The best programs understand their affiliates’ traffic sources and tailor incentives accordingly for a win-win to occur. A content site with highquality players needs a different offer structure than a bonus aggregator with volume traffic. GPWAtimes.org 26
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