Creating a scalable and profitable affiliate programme all starts with choosing the right technology, says Lee-Ann Johnstone. Think of it like a building: get the foundations right and the rest will follow.
An affiliate programme can be a lifeline for new brands who want to obtain maximum brand reach but have a limited budget. The whole concept of affiliate marketing is based on the premise that your brand will be promoted far and wide, but you’ll only be paying for that exposure when a customer deposits and wagers at your site. Although this channel has evolved into a complex digital medium it is still considered to be one of the most prominent acquisition drivers for the igaming industry.
When managed correctly, an affiliate programme can build longterm sustainable wealth for your business. It requires a dedicated set of skills and experience as well as a clear strategy to start right, then needs scale for maximum ROI. You have to have the right tools, commercials and digital acumen in place to ensure your programme delivers the best results. The technology you pair up to launch an affiliate programme therefore has to be exactly the right fit.
Don’t get stuck paying for things you don’t really need Nowadays you’ve got your pick of technology providers to choose from. The first thing you need to do is decide if you can manage and resource your own private, white-label solution or if you want to piggyback off an established network to get things going. There are pros and cons to each option. The point is you don’t need to splash out on a top-of-the-range tracking solution when you just want to dip your toe into the channel to see how it feels.
A white-label solution will allow you to set up your programme with a degree of tailoring specific to you. This is still an off-the-shelf scheme so it won’t be bespoke in design but it does offer your brand a level of customisation that a network cannot.
White-label tracking solutions also give you more control over how you run the administration of your programme, from the data you show internally and externally to features such as language translations, payment options and frequency, and multi-brand management within the one platform.
A network doesn’t offer this kind of customisation but it does provide benefits such as help with programme account management (resource), automated payment processing (functionality) and access to an established base of affiliates that you can contact to help launch your programme (recruitment).
These features, along with a lower price point, can really help smaller brands get a foot in the door without incurring high start-up costs. What’s more, they support growth and scale as well as any white label solution. White-label tracking solutions also give you more control over how you run the administration of your programme, from the data you show internally and externally to features such as language translations, payment options and frequency, and multi-brand management within the one platform.
A network doesn’t offer this kind of customisation but it does provide benefits such as help with programme account management (resource), automated payment processing (functionality) and access to an established base of affiliates that you can contact to help launch your programme (recruitment). These features, along with a lower price point, can really help smaller brands get a foot in the door without incurring high start-up costs. What’s more, they support growth and scale as well as any white label solution.
Build a solid foundation to grow from You have to select a provider that meets your current business objective and will also support future programme growth. For example, you might want a lot of flexibility to run your own unique promotions, commission incentives and payments to add value for your affiliates. But not every network or tracking solution would be able to support these kinds of functions. Get your technology wrong and it could cost you a lot of money down the line when you need to expand – or worse, have to migrate because you can’t customise to allow your programme to grow. If the structure of your affiliate programme is not correct it can have a huge impact on your revenue and impact your profit margins for negotiating better commercial terms with partners.
You might want a platform that can handle tracking all your digital marketing activity to help ease the burden of data analysis. Services such as mobile app store optimisation, payper-click tracking and the ability to build attribution modelling will make your acquisition function a lot easier as your programme grows.
Time spent at the beginning researching the various platforms and pricing structures will pay dividends in the end. While start-up pricing may look reasonable to begin with, often there are hidden costs for add-ons or plug-ins and any additional customisations you might need later down the line.
This can prove expensive in the long run so match your requirements correctly at the start to avoid additional costs later. The tracking and reporting that you have at your disposal for this channel is just as important for your affiliate partners. Remember they are working with a number of operator brands, not just your own – so the easier you make it for them to access their data and optimise their campaigns, the more they will support your programme growth.
Understand what features come as standard versus what you have to pay for Compliance features are absolutely essential, especially in our regulated markets. Ensuring the solution you use to track your affiliate activity can also monitor content and campaigns across thousands of sites and multiple geographical areas is key to managing a larger programme base. To make this channel really work, you need flexible, changeable software supported by reputable companies that invest in its continued development.
Payment processing also plays a vital role in your affiliate programme. Paying on time and offering multiple payment options (to make it easy for affiliates to receive their commissions quickly and securely) will help support your programme growth and build affiliate reputational trust. Some affiliates specialise in recommending sites that accept PayPal or cryptocurrencies. Even those that don’t specifically mention this as a feature of their site may be hesitant to recommend sites without certain payment methods embedded, possibly because they have conversion rate concerns. Making sure you have the right payment mechanics in place to support the programme delivery, and the right internal resourcing to manage those payments, is therefore key.
Another important feature that you should look at when choosing a platform provider is the ability to manage communications and email marketing campaigns to your affiliate database. Email sends and updates will help encourage your affiliates to actively promote your latest offers on their sites. You also need to think about how conversations and negotiations will be managed in the platform. People change jobs frequently in our industry and you don’t want the nuts and bolts of a commercial agreement to leave the company with them. Having a tool in place that can manage the affiliate conversation, deal negotiation and keep a record of what is meant to be delivered and when is key in terms of programme management. Loyalty and retention are vital components for building an affiliate programme, so find a technology partner that can help you automate this function within the programme management platform.
Recruitment is the most labourintensive part of managing an affiliate programme. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to search, recruit and build a programme, so if you can find a technology partner that offers a recruitment service or tools to help your programme grow then it’s a great USP to have.
Get the right support for when things go wrong Support service packs are often overlooked when considering a technology provider but it’s probably the most important thing you’ll need. Why? Simply because it’s the first thing you’ll call on when a problem occurs and your affiliates are affected. Technology isn’t perfect and the way you react when it breaks down can have a big impact on how affiliates perceive your programme service. Make sure you ask for the service level agreements, check whether you have a personal account manager to escalate problems to and if there is an out-of-hours service for when critical items occur. The last thing you need in a crisis is a ticket number and no human to speak to. Being able to use these support options when you need them (and not paying extra for the privilege) is what you want to aim for in negotiations.
Importantly, you don’t want to be tied into contracts that make you pay over the odds for services that you don’t need. Try to negotiate sliding scales or minimums for when you first start your programme. It often takes six months to build momentum and during this time you don’t want to pay costly overheads for a service that is barely being used. Once again, this ties into the flexibility that is important to your programme if it is going to thrive. The right network operator will provide this.
Get expert advice Last but not least, get an expert in to help if you don’t have the right knowledge in-house. The affiliate space is a specialised area of digital marketing and it needs a specialist to advise you on how to navigate it. The benefit of using an expert or an agency is in the breadth of experience that they have in the wider marketplace, something that will be invaluable to a fledgling business. If you do not get this help then you run the risk of failing in your attempt to juggle the complexities of infrastructure, promotion, commercials, technology, programme maintenance and management.
Invest in the right infrastructure at the start and you will reap the rewards in the longer term. Become involved in the wider community and invest in insight from the experts. If you follow these tips for choosing the right technology, you will be building the right foundation for creating a scalable and profitable affiliate programme. It isn’t the easiest job on which to spend your time and resources in the short term, but laying these foundations is vital for creating a programme that will bring you a return on investment.