Insights from an affiliate Team Lead
Can an affiliate network provide marketers with something more than just access to offers? What about helping them grow their business? We had a chat with Zachary Surov, an...
Alfaleads – iGaming Voice by Yeva
In the latest installment of iGaming Voice, AffPapa talked to the CEO of Alfaleads and co-CEO of Advisability, Roman Manuylov, about the affiliate company and how it has achieved its success. He also discussed how startup affiliates can establish a presence for themselves in the ever-expanding iGaming industry and shared his insights on what Alfaleads looks for in prospecting partners.
Yeva: Tell us about Alfaleads, Roman. What is the brand’s main focus, and how did it come to be?
As an affiliate network, Alfaleads is part of the complex Advisability holding with multiple subdivisions including, among others, media buying unit, SEO company, influencer marketing agency, in-house marketing and product development units.
Alfaleads is mainly focused on the iGaming vertical, which we have been developing for over six years and have accumulated significant expertise and knowledge in this field. Previously, the network also worked on other verticals such as Dating and Finance, but we realized that the team needed to focus its efforts on what it knows best — Casino and Sports.
The GEO and product diversity is extensive, ranging from legal betting products for the Tier-1 countries to various local Asian and African casinos, as well as popular international brands such as William Hill and BetMGM.
In addition to providing affiliates with diverse and high-quality offers, Alfaleads prioritizes customer service. Our goal is to provide a seamless ecosystem that allows affiliate marketers to focus solely on driving traffic without having to worry about resources, negotiating with advertisers, or handling finances.
Yeva: What sets Alfaleads apart from other performance marketing agencies in the iGaming industry?
Our affiliates get something very important from us — confidence in our reliability and transparency. We have been in the affiliate marketing industry since 2016 and in those 6 years we have grown from a team of enthusiasts to an international company headquartered in Europe with offices in Hong Kong, UAE, and other parts of the world. We have built a reputation as a responsible business partner that always delivers. I think that is the most significant thing.
In addition to a strong team of affiliate managers and BizDev managers, Alfaleads also has extensive expertise in finance and legal services, our own media buying unit, and Research & Development department. This means that we are always ready to support our affiliates in any situation. For example, our Alfa Defense service provides comprehensive legal support to affiliates and advertisers: they have hundreds of successful cases on their account&
Yeva: How does Alfaleads help its affiliates monetize their traffic?
In addition to taking care of all the technical aspects of setting up links and tracking tools, Alfaleads specialists help affiliates launch campaigns for new traffic sources and GEOs. Our R&D team advises affiliates on the campaign launch, optimization, keywords, and more. So don’t hesitate to ask questions — we are open to share our expertise!
We also have a special offer for big media buying teams. Our key account system allows managers to work with a small pool of affiliates, handle only large clients, and work with large budgets. Together with the affiliates, Key Account Managers set quarterly goals, brainstorm, strategize, and develop campaign flows for new products, as well as work on the performance and organics of the brand.
Yeva: Which are the key markets for Alfaleads right now? Are there any regions you’d like to expand into in the near future?
Tier-1 countries such as Norway, Germany, and France remain key markets for us. Last year, the entire affiliate marketing community discovered Brazil with its abundance of iGaming products. Latam countries have an incredible amount of traffic, because 8.9% of the population of the entire Earth lives here. If for some reason you do not want to work with Brazil, then you can try Chile or Peru, and we will offer you interesting products for these geos.
Today, we are one of the few performance marketing agencies offering legal access to the US market. This market is incredibly attractive to affiliate marketers because of its high standard of living and technology, as well as its highly-solvent gaming audience. The traffic from a single American state can be as significant as the traffic from an entire European country, and payouts can soar up to $400. Alfaleads provides offers with American licenses from well-known sportsbooks and casinos in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other states.
African countries like Mali, Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana, and more are becoming popular this year. These countries are attractive to marketers due to their lower campaign launch costs, and to advertisers because they offer new markets with fresh gambling audiences.
The Indian Premier League (IPL), a highly popular cricket competition, is currently underway. Alfaleads offers tens of products that are tailored to this event. Ask your manager for more information!
Yeva: What do you believe makes a strong collaboration framework with affiliates? What major aspects do you consider while partnering?
Affiliates can benefit greatly from having a dedicated manager or support from our CCT team who can negotiate exclusive deals for them based on their product knowledge, market understanding, and affiliate network reputation.
The manager is supported by a team that includes technical support, business development, finance, marketing, and more. For affiliates, their manager serves as a gateway to a large company with tremendous opportunities.
Nowadays Alfaleads is a whole ecosystem, we don’t just provide access to iGaming offers, we also care for our affiliates and help them grow their business. As an example of a remarkable collaboration I can mention an inspiring story about one of our affiliates who achieved remarkable success within a short period. Right from the outset, we worked closely with him to create a roadmap for his success. To keep the process exciting, we gamified it by setting up bi-weekly targets for traffic volume and quality, and incentivized him with a payout rate increase from the advertiser upon successful completion of the targets. In just 30 days, the affiliate surpassed the milestone of 40-50 daily deposits and doubled his volume a month later.
Yeva: What advice would you provide to someone looking to start an iGaming affiliate business? Do you believe the industry is becoming saturated, or do you feel there is still room for expansion?
iGaming is not the easiest vertical to get into, especially for beginners. However, there is still a lot of money in the industry, it is constantly evolving, and new markets and opportunities are emerging.
For example, ASO (App Store Optimization) has a lot of potential. After all, almost everyone now has a smartphone and access to an app store. So there is a lot of room for expansion, but it takes expertise and budgets to get started. Another example of great potential is influencer traffic. This is a promising source, and whoever is at the forefront of learning how to interact with streamers and bloggers will reap all the benefits.
If you’re new to our industry and still figuring things out, here’s my advice:
- When choosing an affiliate network, make sure to partner with a reliable and trustworthy company with significant budgets, as they will have your back in case of any issues. Focus on picking a time-tested CPA network as your main guide to the world of affiliate marketing. Listen to your manager’s advice and learn from the affiliate network’s recommendations, especially if you’re new to affiliate marketing.
- Allocate a sufficient budget to test your ideas, as iGaming is a challenging vertical. You’ll need more than a thousand dollars to find the right combination of “traffic source — offer — creative”. Don’t limit yourself to one country, test different GEOs.
- Attend industry conferences like SiGMA, iGB, Affiliate World, etc. to network with advertisers, networks, services, and other affiliates for excellent results through personal communication.
- Regularly participate in affiliate marketing forums like STM, GPWA, BlackHatWorld, Afflift, and others. Additionally, subscribe to Telegram channels that focus on SEO traffic. Feel free to communicate online and ask questions to your manager, in a chat, or in the comments to marketing articles. Join our chat — it is a great way to stay informed and discuss industry topics with others.
Yeva: Alfaleads just received awards from the SiGMA and AGS! What does this signify for the company? What benefits do industry awards bring to the sector as a whole?
You are right, we won an award at the international SiGMA & AGS Awards Eurasia — the “CPA Network of the Year” category. I think the whole team was very excited to receive the award on stage, it was a very bright and memorable moment.
SiGMA is one of the largest iGaming conferences in the world and is well-known throughout the affiliate marketing community. To receive such a “badge of honor” from this brand is to be recognized on an international scale, it is a sign that the most important players in the industry can trust us.
Now, as for the benefits of awards for the industry as a whole. They encourage healthy competition between companies because in order to be recognized by the award, a company has to do something really outstanding that sets it apart from the rest. As a result, the entire market evolves, the quality of customer service improves, and breakthrough ideas get the recognition they deserve.
Yeva: Tell us how the team is organized from the inside!
I can compare us to a sports team where everyone achieves their results thanks to strong coworkers and mutual assistance.
We have a system where newcomers are supported by a “buddy” mentor; an academy for training the profession of sales manager and affiliate manager; a merch store with several collections of clothes and accessories, and so on. The Alfaleads team is constantly learning: our employees listen to lectures from internal experts, work with coaches, and attend all significant iGaming conferences.
We also love to communicate in an informal setting. We share what we read in a book club, cook Italian dishes, mix cocktails in workshops, and play board and computer games together.
And one more important thing: our employees have the opportunity for vertical and horizontal growth. Any of us can move between departments and companies; we even have a case where an employee changed five positions in a year before finally finding himself in the team.
Yeva: Aside from work, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time, Roman?
I’m very much into music. Together with my friends, who are also my colleagues, we often get together and play in a band. We have guitarists, a singer, and I play drums. Recently, we recorded our first demo — it was a very interesting experience! I hope we will perform live really soon.
We are planning to arrange our own music studio, move our guitars, install the drums, and rehearse whenever we want for as long as we want.
It is very important for me to always be in the market, so I often meet with key market players outside of business hours. Having a live meeting in an informal setting is much more productive than in Google Meet or Zoom. After all, human relationships are an integral part of our lives.
Company: Alfaleads
Interviewee: Roman Manuylov
Date: 02.05.2023
Alfaleads shares insights on achieving Super Bowl success
Alfaleads talks about how America’s largest sports event can boost iGaming affiliates.Being the final match of one of the United States’ largest championships, the Super...
