Levon Nikoghosyan takes over as CEO of AffPapa
AffPapa is pleased to officially announce that Levon Nikoghosyan has taken over the position of the company’s Chief Executive Officer.Levon Nikoghosyan joined AffPapa's...
The ultimate iGaming affiliates commission guide
How to set up casino commission plan? What are the most common iGaming affiliate commission plans?
To answer these questions, first of all let’s understand what commission plans serve for.
Through Commission plans…
- iGaming operators reward affiliates for already gained revenue
- Affiliates are motivated to promote a specific operator in order to gain larger rewards
After reading this article, you’ll have all the insights needed to understand commission plans in depth. A Commission plan is pretty straightforward, once you understand how it works.
How do commissions work and who’s involved in it?
Commissions in iGaming are a means of paying affiliates for the services they provide, i.e. generating traffic and bringing in a targeted audience.
Here are the parties involved during the process:
- The affiliate is the one promoting the company’s offered services and the one driving traffic to the company’s website.
- The operator is the one wanting to collaborate with an affiliate to bring in clients for their website, raise sales, advertise their services, or enhance engagement.
- Networks are affiliate programs comprising multiple iGaming brands under one roof and offering to promote those brands to affiliates..
- AffPapa is a directory that brings the two parties – affiliates and operators together, provides them with all the necessary tools to help them cooperate independentaly and in a mutually benfitial way.
Top 4 commission types
Choosing the right commission plan and rates is essential for keeping your affiliates engaged and satisfied. Let’s go through the most common types of affiliate commissions in the iGaming world.
CPA
One of the most common commission kinds in the market is cost-per-acquisition (also known as cost-per-action). It is quite a simple concept when you gain insight into how it works. The CPA implies that the affiliate receives a one-time payment when a player they linked accomplishes an activity (an agreed-upon action) on the casino website, such as making first-time deposits (FTD), simply registering, or placing bets.
For example, NetBet (shown below) has CPA ranging from 13.00€ to 70.00€.
Rev Share
Revenue Share is regarded as one of the most tempting commission plans. In contrast to CPA, where you earn a commission once per action, RevShare affiliates receive recurring payments for as long as the linked consumer remains to use the brand’s services (or a set duration agreed upon by the affiliate and the brand). The affiliate is paid a percentage of the overall revenue amount.
Revshare is more than just a traffic generator. You need to produce continuous sales, and be able to convert customers’ initial curiosity into a financial result when using Revshare. Although this commission type involves more effort on the affiliate’s part, it is unquestionably profitable with the greatest levels of income.
NOTE: Rev Share is paid as a percentage of total revenue produced – and the percentage might vary from plan to plan. For Sportsbooks it could range from 15% to 40% (sometimes higher), whereas Casinos and Pokers can go up to 60%.
Hybrid
This commission structure combines a set CPA rate with a portion of revenue share model. So the affiliate receives payment when a user registers in the operator’s website and/or deposits (if that is the agreed-upon activity), but it doesn’t stop there. The affiliate continues to receive a percentage from the generated revenue as long as the player referred by the affiliate keeps playing and wagering on the operator’s website.
NOTE: In such cases, both RevShare and CPA are typically offered substantially lower than when given as separate commission plans.
Fixed Fee
A fixed fee is an agreed-upon amount that an affiliate requests in order to list the operator in its website. Typically, such affiliates are well-known brands with a high level of authority among gamers who rely on their reviews. For example, in order to be listed on AskGamblers’ website, the operator has to pay one time fixed amount of 2500 EUR. Further on, affiliates receive commission on operators’ regular terms.
What should you look for when developing a commission plan?
- Examine the market and your competitors to ensure that you are not offering something out of the ordinary. Analyze what they have to offer and what commission plans are available in the industry.
- Don’t jump towards the highest commission plan – the best commission plan is not the highest, but rather the one allowing both the operator and the affiliate to make money at the same time, without one being overpaid or underpaid.
- Instead of chasing the highest commission plan, aim to improve your brand’s relevancy and conversion. With its bonuses, language, and offers, each website is tailored to a certain market. Relevancy is essential for maintaining high conversion rates.
- Following on from the preceding, the significance of identifying the appropriate market to advertise your website cannot be stressed enough. You must ensure that you are as relevant as possible in the market in which you have decided to promote your website. If not done so, the affiliate may choose another operator’s website that is more relevant to that market.
- Choosing a relevant affiliate is also vital, because you can’t work with any affiliate – each one targets a different market.
What should you NOT do when developing a commission plan?
Now that we’ve covered what to consider when developing a commission plan, let’s take a look at what you should avoid at all costs.
- Don’t propose tempting and big payments to affiliates, only to reduce them over time.
- Don’t add any hidden costs to your revenue. Affiliates will sense it – it will be clear within a short amount of time, and you will quickly lose authority.
- Make sure there are no hidden terms (for example: the affiliate all of sudden discovering that the player no longer belongs to them, because of a term in the agreement which unlinks the player after x months from the affiliate.). Try to be as honest as possible with the affiliate.
- Don’t delay payments – delaying your payments, may have major effects – including a deterioration in your relationship with the affiliate
Never try to swindle affiliates – affiliates must be certain that the operators they work with are reliable and trustworthy.
Do affiliates scam operators?
Operators are not the only ones who may defraud affiliates. Unfortunately, it is often the affiliates that engage in unethical activities and cheat the system. For example, they may want a fixed fee and then fail to deliver you any traffic. Such affiliates may not even be authorized. Some may register with their players, play, and attempt to earn cashback. So, they may register their accounts through their affiliate account and earn commission on their turnover.
A helping hand
Many operators go for affiliate networks, or choose AffPapa – the iGaming directory, where operators and affiliates are brought together to connect and do honest business without the use of scams or fraud. Such platforms ensure that you are working with trustworthy affiliates who act responsibly and ethically.
AffPapa takes it a step further by including a section dedicated to iGaming complaints in the event of any dissatisfaction or misunderstanding.
We wouldn’t be giving you all this advice if we weren’t excited to present you with something great, would we?
If you want to collaborate with decent affiliates, we recommend you visit the Best iGaming Affiliates page, where you will find top-tier iGaming affiliates.
But, if you want to make things a lot simpler for yourself, you can sign up on the AffPapa website, where you’ll be able to directly connect with the ultimate iGaming affiliates and get your chance to message those affiliates directly through the system via other communication channels. This will allow you to get a head start on your numerous solid collaborations while also ensuring the security of your affiliate campaign.
4 reasons why iGaming affiliates blacklist online casinos
Why do iGaming affiliates blacklist online casinos? Where does the player fit in this picture, and how to have some influence over the situation as an affiliate?An...
