With all things being equal, what matters more — the action or the actor?
When it comes to online casino promotions, some argue, the brand is probably getting it more right. After all, the vision, guidelines and ideas are all germinating from within its fold.
Others are not so certain. Marketing can be a lot like riding a bike, they say.
Affiliate marketers are pros in their field. They are niche-specific promoters with highly engaged audiences, primed to secure conversions, using their particular promotional medium.
So, which one is right?
To arrive at the answer, we must consider a bunch of different aspects that affect the return on investment or ROI when it comes to ads, specifically digital ads.
Continue reading to understand whether your operation or brand must be self-reliant when it comes to PPC promotions, or choose affiliate marketing solutions for better outcomes.
What is the Meaning of ‘ROI’ in Online Casino Ads?
Return on investment in the case of casino ads, or any other type of ads, simply helps us in figuring out if marketing spends are optimally used. The more efficient the spends, the better the ROI.
Here, the ‘net profit’ is the cumulative profit you secure in the form of net gaming revenue or NGR. It is the broad amount of deposits minus wins that an operator is left with.
Investments here refers to the entire amount which has gone into attracting users towards your platform. This is the summation of the marketing spends you incur to ensure players are always engaging with your website or app. It consists of:
- Organic marketing spends, in the form of website costs, SEO expenses, freelancers and content writer salaries and so on.
- Paid marketing spends or PPC expenses in the form of the ad budget, programmatic targeting expenses, costs of running ads on multiple platforms, etc.
- Affiliate marketing costs which can be summarized into commission payouts, costs for the affiliate marketing software of choice, salaries for in-house affiliate managers and so on.
You can further account for any other promotions you may be running in this section.
For example, if you spent $1000 on online casino ads and $200 on content marketing, your total investment would be $1200.
From this, you earn an NGR of $3000. Using the formula above, we can determine the ROI to be 150%, which means for every $1 spent, $1.50 was made.
Key Factors Influencing ROI
The major aspects pushing your ROI from ads one way or another are listed below.
Lifetime Value of Acquired Players
When operators and brands spend money on acquiring each player, the value received in return should be fair. Post-acquisition, it is crucial that the player doesn’t become a one-time visitor. Instead, they should be engaging with the brand for a longer period of time.
Additionally, during their time on the specific gambling website or app, they should be depositing money, placing bets or being socially active on the platform.
The longer the player maintains association with your operation, the better it is from an ROI perspective.
Cost Per Acquisition
Based on the lifetime value, it must have become clear that for a good return on investment, your input cost should not exceed the output produced.
Here, it means the cost of acquiring a single user should be optimized in a manner which ensures they are able to provide more value back to the business.
If you’re running a PPC online casino ads campaign, the cost of each click should be cheap even to offset the clicks that don’t turn into registered or depositing customers.
Similarly, if you’re trying to build usership through affiliate marketing, the CPA or revenue sharing should be proportional to likely revenue the acquired players may bring in. Without this calculation, the entire player acquisition strategy is a bust — and will eventually cause your operational costs to overtake your revenue.
Fraud Levels and Detection
In the online casino and gambling industry, fraud is not a matter of “if” or “when”, but “how much”.
Marketing budgets fall under direct line of fire because this is a mandatory expense for all online casinos. And a big chunk of the budget is given away to unknown individuals, who may or may not eventually become regular users, in the form of bonuses and signup offers.
Another chunk goes to affiliate promoters or to platforms (like Meta, Twitter or Telegram) where online casino ads are being run.
If there is too much fraud affecting your operation, you’re in trouble. Irrespective of how strong your efforts are, your iGaming brand will suffer from poor ROI, since much of the funds don’t get spent effectively — they’re simply lost.
However, if you’re able to detect and prevent fraud (by using specialized tools like Affnook), you can reduce the incidence and optimize your ROI. All you have to do is to account for the cost of such a tool within your organization’s expenses.
KPIs for Business Growth
For those involved in marketing on a day to day basis, just attracting users isn’t enough. It’s about bringing in the right kind of user, who is going to stick around.
But business expansion is another beast. The indicators that best reflect its viability and possibility are not always the same as those which direct marketing success. Let’s observe the overlapping ones:
1. Lifetime Value (LTV)
No matter which industry you’re measuring for, or which sector of iGaming you’re involved in, lifetime value is a baseline metric for effectiveness.
This means business development, brand recall and recognition, revenue generation and so on can be predicted and charted with enough accuracy simply through LTV metrics. Good online casino ads and campaigns can locate users, bring them to a platform and also keep reminding them to come back periodically — all aimed at extending lifetime value.
2. Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR)
An iGaming brand or operation is leftover with an amount equal to the gross gaming revenue after the wins have been removed from the total deposit amount. A key measure of revenue, it provides a clear idea of how invested users are in the given iGaming platform.
The more money players deposit, the longer they’re likely to be staying, the more games they’re playing and the higher chances are they’re coming back again and again. All of these are positive indicators from a marketing perspective as well.
3. Net Gaming Revenue (NGR)
NGR is derived from the GGR, and is even more critical for measuring business vitality. It is what is leftover after removing overheads, taxes, chargebacks and so on from your GGR.
This metric indicates whether you have enough dough to grow your business, invest in new avenues and gamble on expansion. By all measures, the NGR is a KPI which identifies whether your brand or operation has room to germinate.
4. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
Overlapping with lifetime value, the ARPU quantifies the average revenue contributed by each user within a given time period, i.e. a week, month or year.
It helps online gambling businesses identify the effectiveness of monetization strategies implemented in that timeframe, and the true ROI value of marketing efforts, including through online casino ads, organic marketing, etc.
5. Churn Rate
Not all users remain loyal, no matter how effective your marketing is, or how diverse your gaming options are.
A high churn rate shows a higher percentage of users do not remain with your platform over a specific period of time, such as a week or a month. It also signals issues such as,
- Poor customer support,
- Laggy gaming experiences,
- Unreliable payment solutions,
- User-unfriendly UI/UX, and so on.
For businesses of all kinds and sizes, it is of utmost importance to keep churn rate low.
Direct Promotions VS Affiliate Marketing
All kinds of promotions are carried out keeping two main objectives in mind – user acquisition and user retention. All performance indicators are tied to both these objectives.
Afterall, loyal users who spend more time on your platform are the ideal type of player every operator and brand wants.
Affiliate marketing and paid marketing measures like online casino ads both fulfil these requirements. Then how do they differ? Let’s find out.
Benefits of Direct Promotions
The aim remains the same: bring more users onto the website, or bring previously engaged users back. Yet who is running the campaign effect change in the perceived advantages.
How does running paid campaigns directly help brands and operators? Let’s find out.
1. More Control Over Messaging
When your in-house team takes care of the ads campaigns, you can keep a close eye on everything, from design to tone of copy. As a result, every single ad set will reflect your message clearly and echo your operation’s vision effectively.
Secure long-term brand equity with users and maintain consistency in brand messaging across time and platforms through this method.
The result? Higher amount of user trust and longer association with your brand.
2. Better Compliance
Driving your own brand’s campaigns allows you to get a firmer grip over regulatory compliance. This means every outgoing communication, whether it be online casino ads or gambling display ads, can be screened well and aligned with rules in your relevant geos.
Zero negative effects on your iGaming business in terms of penalties, fines and so on also means that saved money can be put to better uses.
It can be a downside when working with affiliates, who may flout rules to meet targets and obtain higher commissions.
3. Complete Acquisition Apparatus
Customer relationship management (CRM) begins with a single click. But beyond that first-touch, affiliates fall short of maintaining a real connection. This is a zone where brands owning their campaigns are sure to emerge bigger winners.
Nurturing incoming leads and converting them into prospects, followed by their transformation into long-term users is a key function of CRM. This entire process can only be managed at the operator or brand-level.
Any short falls in strategy can be identified and corrected due to the vast amount of data the entire system catches.
What’s more? Operators can develop more business goal-oriented online casino ads, with results that range from acquiring high-value players to spreading the word about a new game.
4. No Commission Payment Required
It’s simple: the cost per conversion (CAC) doesn’t exist beyond the cost of the click on the platform. And that is a number your paid marketing team can always optimize and reduce.
When affiliate marketing publishers run your campaigns, each conversion they complete will also come with an associated commission payout. As an operator, the long-terms spends can be regulated only if they’re limited in number.
5. Stronger Relationships with Players
From day 0 to day 678, players are treated to a seamless experience that goes from the platform to off-platform locations. No matter which touchpoint the player crosses, the message, tone, sensibility and clarity remains consistent.
On the other hand, affiliates come between the brand and the player, diluting the connection and limiting this association.
Benefits of Affiliate Promotions
Inversely, we if observe the practice of affiliate ad campaigns, it is clear there are unique benefits here as well.
1. Performance-based Costing
Traditional performance marketing means online casino ads are run by brands, irrespective of return. This means money gets spent even if no players are acquired.
That is not the case with affiliate run ads. Only when a conversion happens do operators and brands have to shell out commissions — whether they are CPA, a share in revenue or hybrid in structure.
Affiliates are therefore incentivized to produce results. It also minimizes the risk for businesses.
2. More Reach with Smaller Expense
A single affiliate has a much larger, spread out reach than an operator can achieve alone, unless they’re market leaders.
Each affiliate operates in their own niche, language, region and so on which in turn leads to a much larger reach for the brand, when they rely on affiliate programs or networks. This all happens without building any local teams or spending beyond just simple payout values.
3. Scalability and Channel Diversification
You’re new the iGaming industry and you want to begin promotions through online casino ads. Without a designated marketing manager and a sizeable budget this is not going to be possible.
Instead, if you choose to launch your affiliate program and onboard partner marketers, you’ll be able to leverage their pre-primed audience to turn into users for your business. Every single affiliate will bring a highly engaged audience of their own, allowing you access to niche segments around the world — who are guaranteed to be interested in your industry’s products.
4. Resource Efficiency
Campaigns can be scaled as per requirement, without breaking the budgetary limits. Affiliates can be added on to target more regions, mediums or language groups. Since the payouts are only enabled after conversion is a fact, the spends are optimized.
In the case of affiliate marketing, since compliance is a shared responsibility, operationally it reduces the compliance burden on the brand or the operator significantly.
Within this limited budgetary space, affiliates are able to spread the word about your offerings further than you can alone. This too makes affiliate marketing a good option.
The Deciding Factor for Online Casino Ads
So which one is actually better: iGaming affiliate marketing or brand-led marketing, when it comes to ads?
The two approaches have distinct advantages, both of which can be leveraged, provided the end goal is clear. Occasionally, operators choose to run both at once. Some aim for only one at a time. It is crucial to understand the basis of this decision-making process.
Here’s a visualization to help you understand this better.
Factors like higher regulatory risk, data ownership, requirement for brand control, predictability and scale can be managed better when operators push their ads themselves.
In contrast, aspects like niche-reach, cost efficiency, speed of roll-out and volume are better achieved through affiliate promotions.
What you choose should be obvious through the final outcome you’re trying to achieve. The best results are obtained through clarity. Therefore, if affiliate programs are your chosen medium for running performance campaigns such as online casino ads, make sure you’re doing it through a reliable platform like Affnook.
Catch as many user insights as you can in a single place and produce data-rich results, irrespective of the medium chosen by your promoters. Learn how it makes the difference today.
