Adjusting Affiliate Marketing Strategies to Players’ Behavioral Characteristics
By choosing the gambling and betting vertical in affiliate marketing, you will both gain unique advantages and face certain challenges. Standing out from the crowd due to its dynamic growth, huge variety of products and services and impressive profitability potential, iGaming looks attractive in the eyes of many affiliates looking to earn commissions from referred players willing to spend their money on online gambling.
However, while some iGaming affiliates receive pennies, others generate impressive profits. And the key to success in this field is a deep understanding of the players. By analyzing the different types of gamblers, affiliates can better navigate this ever-changing environment to convert their audience and generate a good income. Whether you’re a beginner affiliate or an online casino operator building your affiliate program, you need to know how to adapt your marketing strategies for gambling newbies, skill-based players and high rollers.
So, understanding the behavioural characteristics and motivations of different types of gamblers is the key to your success as an affiliate marketer working in iGaming. We are here to talk about the features of different players including high rollers, casual gamblers and regular players, as well as to help you develop really effective casino affiliate strategies to maximize your profits.
What is an Online Gambler?
Gambling has its origins several millennia ago in ancient China. In those times, people used dice and game boards to enjoy gambling entertainment for real money. There are also references to gambling in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, with the latter having even specialized gambling houses.
For a long time, people could gamble only in secret. The real heyday of gambling came in the 19th century, followed by its legalization during the 20th century. However, today, thanks to the development of internet technology and mobile devices, gambling has become available to almost everyone. On this basis, an online gambler (or iGaming player) is a person who prefers to gamble remotely from the comfort of their home or on the move via their smartphone.
From gambling enthusiasts and casuals who come to online casinos to try their luck to seasoned pros who gamble for a living, there are many types of gamblers. When developing your iGaming affiliate strategies, you must clearly understand the motivations and behavioural characteristics of different types of iGaming players to generate decent profits. Below, we will detail the features of the different types of gamblers.
Casual Gamblers
As the name implies, casual players are those people who come to iGaming platforms casually. They bet on games of chance or make sports bets relying solely on luck and not on their skills. In simple words, they are amateurs who are ready to spend their money on slots, roulette, dice and other casino games for fun.
So, let’s find out the key characteristics of casual players to better understand what affiliate marketing methods to apply to them:
- The desire to have fun above all else. Unlike other online casino users, casual players prefer bright and colourful games to brighten their leisure time rather than to win money.
- Behavioral traits. Unlike other gamblers, casual players make deposits of small amounts. In addition, they prefer to place bets of below-average size playing rather short gaming sessions.
- Game selection. When it comes to casual gamblers, online slots, bingo, dice, scratch cards, arcade-style and casual table games resonate most with them.
To capture the attention of casual players, use ads with bright and colourful designs. Deliver clear messages to this audience segment that will be understood by potential customers. Using social media, mobile apps and some other channels, you will easily connect with casual players. Keep in mind that casuals make up a significant part of the audience of online casinos and sportsbooks so don’t ignore them in your marketing campaigns.
Regular Players
Being something of a foundation for the iGaming industry, regular players show much more interest in iGaming platforms than their casual counterparts. In simple words, these are the existing players on a platform who come back again and again for gambling entertainment. The desire to win a round sum and also have a good time are the main reasons why they visit online casinos almost every day. Having a large user base where most of them are existing players means that your strategies to increase user satisfaction are really working.
High Rollers
While the players described above have a fairly low risk tolerance, high rollers prefer to spend large sums on gambling. Since any game has a house advantage, many high rollers lose big. Desiring a personalized user experience, high rollers often generate quite high profits for affiliates who prefer strategic affiliate marketing. To get these very promising – in terms of potential profits – players, you need to develop strategies for affiliate marketing based on a deep understanding of their preferences and expectations.
Developing iGaming Affiliate Strategies for Different Types of Gamblers
So, now you know about the different types of players and their interests and motivations. It’s now time to develop affiliate marketing strategies for each type of player. We have outlined below the most effective approaches to targeting gamblers of each category.
Attracting the Attention of Casuals
If you are a beginner affiliate, you should first focus on casual gamblers as they respond best to affiliate marketing. Aimed at gambling without the hassle, they are easily converted with demo versions of casino games as well as bonuses.
Show casuals that you have something with which they will reduce the risk of losing their money and you can easily attract their attention to the online casino you are promoting. In practice, casual players easily agree to fund their casino account with a small amount of money right after they have tried a free demo version or received a small bonus.
Engaging Regular Players
When you are dealing with individuals who may become regular casino users, engagement and satisfaction levels are the things you need to emphasize. Unlike casuals, they clearly understand why they come to a particular online casino. Therefore, you need to build your affiliate marketing strategy so that you reward customers for their loyalty.
According to recent data, online casinos and sportsbook platforms using effective rewards programs for loyal players were able to increase player retention by 20%. This means that by creating a well-thought-out tiered loyalty scheme and launching an invite-a-friend program, you can attract the attention of players in this category.
Bringing in the High Rollers
Wishing to feel like VIPs, high rollers need a personalized approach. Eager to bet big money, they are always on the lookout for high-stake online casino games. By offering high-limit tables, a personal account manager and access to exclusive tournaments and promotions, you can keep high rollers engaged. Keep in mind that with the right approach, high rollers can account for up to a third of iGaming revenues.
Setting Up and Integrating an Effective Affiliate Program
All of the above may look good on paper, but the real power of affiliate marketing lies in the skilful implementation of strategies. Below, we’ve covered how to choose an affiliate platform, integrate it with your online casino and optimize campaigns for the best results.
H3: Picking the Most Promising Affiliate Marketing Platform
Today, understanding the behavioural characteristics of gamblers is fundamental for success in affiliate marketing. By obtaining and analyzing large amounts of user data, you will be able to develop and adapt strategies to suit all the characteristics of your online gambling business. The first thing you need to do is to choose a reliable affiliate marketing platform that meets your requirements in terms of functionality, security and available marketing tools.
If effective targeting and gambler retention is your priority, then you should try Affter affiliate program. Launched in the summer 2023, it is backed by a team of skilled managers with 10+ years of experience in iGaming and affiliate marketing. Affter Affiliates offers a variety of fresh and direct affiliate offers, a flexible commission payout system and exclusive partnership terms, which makes it very attractive for gambling and betting affiliates. Aimed at maximum efficiency, it works only with experienced affiliates who have passed the test of time.
Partner Platform Integration
To ensure a seamless experience for players brought to an online casino, an affiliate platform must integrate well with the iGaming platform. With seamless integration, players will be able to quickly access payments, games and other elements of the iGaming platform. This will eliminate unnecessary points in the journey from a potential customer to an engaged player who deposits and plays casino games for real money.
Analyzing the Behavioral Characteristics of Gamblers
Being able to handle large amounts of information is an extremely important skill for an affiliate marketer. Working as a gambling affiliate marketer, you have to do much more than just launch a campaign while sitting back and watching conversions. You’ll have to put processes in place to effectively track and monitor player behaviour to make improvements to your marketing strategy right in real-time. Without neglecting this, you will be able to significantly increase the revenue generated by each player, regardless of the category they belong to.
Bottom Line
Although iGaming is a large industry that still has quite a high potential for further growth, the level of competition here has reached enormous proportions. Therefore, in order to succeed as a gambling affiliate, it is necessary to effectively utilize all the accumulated knowledge and use different approaches to each category of players. While casuals are more frivolous and unpretentious players, high rollers prefer personalized experiences and exclusive offers. By adapting your affiliate marketing strategies with behavioural characteristics in mind, you will be able to significantly increase the user base of the promoted iGaming platform, as well as increase the level of engagement and satisfaction of existing users.