Gambling Guide – how to promote online casino & betting affiliate programs
: part 1

How to promote online casino & betting affiliate

“Lock, stock, and two smoking barrels…” No, this is not a story about Guy Ritchie’s iconic movie, but rather a thorough guide on how to earn money on online casino affiliate programs legally and with minimal risks.

Gambling is everything that concerns such games as online casino, roulette, slot machines, unusual games for money such as miners and thimbles. This also includes sports betting, sweepstakes (betting), as the activity is also imbued with the spirit of excitement. Mainly, the review focuses on online casinos and slots.

Gambling and Casino Affiliate marketing – how it works

Online casino affiliate programs are one of the simplest and most profitable verticals in affiliate marketing. 

It’s relatively easy to attract customers. With proper targeting settings, 5-15 clicks or 200-300 impressions are enough to get a conversion for some GEOs.  Of course, it’s not an absolute but only an average indicator.

Last but not least, the argument in favor of gambling is the low price of error. So this vertical is suitable for newbie marketers. And experienced specialists prefer not to change this gold mine for more complex niches.

The quality of the offers is less critical here; traffic will reduce, but not to zero if banners and landing pages are sloppy. Plus, there’s a small entry price. You can start with a hundred bucks or even $30-50,  and you can do a niche test with $20. Anyway, if something won’t work as it was planned, the losses will be small.

Online casino may be simpler than other verticals, but it is still easy to go into the red if you work thoughtlessly. This guide will put everything in its place and help you start making money on gambling.

How to choose and where to find betting and casino offers

The tempting option is to choose the one with the biggest payment per customer. But this is not a guarantee of a large income. You need to take into account the requirements for traffic quality – the fewer requirements, the better. And the popularity of a particular platform in the region. For example, in England and Ireland, it is best to enter the offers of local bookmakers (bet365, William Hill). In Italy, Canada – large casinos with a wide range of slots, such as LEOVEGAS. In Runet – Vulkan, an online reincarnation of popular gaming clubs in the 90s-2000s.

Most Online casino companies prefer to work with partners through CPA networks, such as LeadBit. It’s also more convenient for affiliate marketers since they check the affiliate programs and only include those that don’t deceive customers and pay out the gain. Plus, they do not cheat partners and pay a commission. So you can be sure that you are not working in vain.

Target audience for gambling and targeting features

Now the main question is who we should target. Your earnings depend on how well you create your buyer personas. Everything is very ambiguous here. The buyer persona is a variable value, as people’s interests often change with time. 

Advertising networks accurately identify site visitors and allow you to choose who to show your banners to. However, the effectiveness of advertising directly depends on the parameters entered. Here are the basic settings: age, gender, device, OS, browser, country.

The buyer persona should be divided into several categories:

Interest

There are different types of players:

• regular players –  they are looking for new bonuses, promotions, slots, or betters who professionally earn money. They make repeated deposits, more often deposit large amounts;
• newcomers – people who have nothing to do or who decided to come in out of curiosity. The probability of repeated deposits is relatively low. However, the first deposit can be pretty large.

We recommend that you spend around 70% of your budget on regular players based on our data. You can entice them with a payment guarantee, bonuses, various contests, competitions, or lotteries, and cool prizes, from an iPhone to a convertible.

The rest of your budget should be focused on newcomers. Among them, there is a good chance of luring a new player to an online casino or a VIP customer. You can entice them with a bright design, beautiful slots, special effects, and the opportunity to try to play for free.

Prosperity

Sure thing, there are wealthy and low-income players. 

Wealthy players aren’t concerned with money; they play for fun and tempt fortune. Consequently, they require secure payments, simple registration, and a wide range of games.

Low-income players seek to make quick money. They are attracted by freebies, bonuses, and beautiful stories about the lucky ones who won a million or made enough money to buy a BMW. However, betting on such people is often useless. Affiliate programs frequently reject such traffic.

Time

This is an important indicator for launching ads or publishing reviews on a blog.

The best time to launch ad campaigns:

• Spring-summer. The peak of activity is Friday from 16.00 to 22.00. On weekends and holidays, activity is weak. It increases smoothly from Monday to Friday. In addition to the evening time, you can make tests for the time from 9.00 to 12.00;
• Winter-autumn. The main activity is in the evening, after work, from 18.00 to 22.00. Peak starts Friday evening and lasts all weekend.

How to promote betting and online casino offers

Let’s summarize the information from the previous section and form several schemes for promoting gambling offers:

Bonuses

The most popular version of creatives. It works in Western Market, Asia, and Runet. Few people will turn down the opportunity to spin the roulette wheel for free and win a bonus on the first deposit.

This method has a relatively high conversion rate.  So if you don’t know where to start, bonuses are the right option.

Online Casino gambling schemes

People in Tier 2 countries still believe that it is possible to defraud a casino. So enticing advertising teasers with casino hacking messages pique their interest. Then there’s a pre-lander with a story about how a programmer/former employee hacked the online casino’s algorithms. Then comes a summary of the secret loophole and history of enriching people, followed by reviews.

The disadvantage of this strategy is that you must carefully select your audience because not everyone believes in such myths. However, with proper targeting, you can achieve a conversion rate of 20-30%. But keep in mind solid online casinos often do not accept such traffic.

Jackpots, promotions

A simple and safe approach that works with different GEOs. The essence is an ad with a Jackpot offer. In the flow, you can add a pre-landing with news from a popular media congratulating the winner—alternatively, a landing page with a description of the promotion. The conversion rate on the first deposits is high. The number of repeat deposits may be low. If the affiliate program has a KPI requirement, you should use this approach carefully.

Review of the functionality, news about the appearance of new slots, emphasis on legality

These approaches are suitable for a paying audience from Tier 2 countries (VIP clients) and Western Market gamblers (Tier 1). The flow includes a banner and a landing page with in-depth reviews and an emphasis on legality and honesty. The approach is simple, harmless, and attracts high-quality traffic. However, the conversion rate is not high, especially in Tier 2 countries.