GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

24 Knowledge is power... “As affiliates gainmore experience, they change their focus fromCPAandCPC to amore long-termmodel such as revenue share.” I n December 2008, Income Access conducted its second survey of the iGaming affiliate marketing indus- try. This second survey was designed to further study the preferences of iGaming affiliates. With a response rate of 86%, IncomeAccesswas able to collect dataon the effectiveness of common marketing practices, popular commission structures andhowaffiliatesuse reportingmetrics. Overall, the results confirmed that there is still considerable opportunity for af- filiates to gain additional market share, revenue share offers affiliates insight into their sources of higher qual- ity traffic and in-depth track- ing reports are integral to optimizing campaigns for maximum earning potential. Vertical promotion Although poker, sportsbook and casino continue to be the most popular verticals pro- moted by affiliates (see Figure 1), there are additional opportunities for affiliates inmobile, bingoand skill games.Thema- jorityof affiliates reportedmore thanone vertical as a primary focus, with nearly 50% of them citing poker, 45% citing sportsbookand37%citingcasinoasapri- mary focus, and over 30% of the sample reported bingo, mobile and skill games as a secondary focus. The popularity of these second- ary focuses is not surprising, as these verticals experienced a growthrateof7% in the last quarter of 2008. While recent developments in the U.K. caused a surge inonlinebingogrowth, themobileWeb is just beginning tobecome accessible to the average user. As each of these represents anopportunity in thenear future, then, af- filiates should seriously consider moving to claim a stake in these markets sooner rather than later. Web site advertising remains the most popular marketing method among affili- ates.When askedwhichmarketingmeth- ods they foundmost useful in promoting anoperatorover thepast 12months,more than80% surveyed reported thatWeb site advertising was effective to extremely ef- fective, and about 75% reported the same aboutbonuscodes (seeFigure2). PPC appears on the end of the scale be- cause it was onlymade available to affili- ates (and only in the U.K.) in December 2008. It is expected that PPCwill become a preferred marketing method for affili- ates in2009. Commission structures Revenue share was the most favored commission structure across this sample of affiliates. This is unsurprising as rev- enue share offers affiliates insight into theirsourcesofhigher-quality traffic. Figure 3 shows that while more than 90% of the sample reported working always or often with a revenue share structure, only about 32% of the sample reported using cost per impression and cost per click commissionmodels. A more detailed analysis re- vealed that affiliates reporting the frequent use of cost per click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA) structures tended tobe younger in age, notworking asa full-timeaffiliateand runningnewer, lowerearningbusinesses. Incontrast, the use of revenue share structure was asso- ciatedwith older businesses. This trend dem- onstrates that as affiliates gain moreexperience, theychange their focus from CPA and CPC to a more long-term model such as revenue share. With time and experience, af- A new Income Access Affiliate Survey shows that strategic intelligence is crucial in designing the most effective marketing campaigns Figure1:PercentageofVertical PromotionbyLevel of Focus GPWA Times | Knowledge is power