Part 3: The future for affiliates
regulation, not dodge these by
looking to other markets. The industry
is only moving in one direction and it’s
a direction that we fully endorse and
support at Kindred.”
There is, as he says, an opportunity
cost in any change of direction in
business. “It’s this equation affiliates
will need to take a view on; is it
worth the loss of focus from existing
operations? For many, mostly larger
affiliates, it will be. For smaller
operations, it may be unwise for
them to take their eye off the ball.”
Quality thresholds
For some, affiliate marketing remains
at heart a simple game: operators
need affiliates because they are bad
at organic search. “Affiliates will
fill that vacuum and not much will
change at a structural level,” says
Garner. “Different markets demand
different content but content is just
‘words’ and is therefore malleable.
Words change depending on
circumstance.”
As Galanis points out, affiliate
Operators need affiliates
because they are bad at
organic search
Nick Garner, RIZE Digital
22
marketing is guided by the product
that is there to market, which is likely
to develop in different ways and
evolve to suit local tastes. “Quality
versus volume is always going to
be dependent on the type of traffic
affiliates source and both will continue
to have their place in operator
acquisition budgets,” he says.
With the major sourcing channels
(Google, Facebook, Twitter et al)
continuing themselves to evolve and
innovate, performance marketers in
any sector are in a constant race to
keep up with newer technologies
and platforms. One such, Galanis
says, is influencer marketing, which
in gambling terms is a market that’s
yet to be cracked.
“I would put this down to the lack
of contextuality of the endorsement
of gambling, as well as issues
surrounding social responsibility,”
he says. “Perhaps verticals such as
esports may change this; it has a
more tangible endorsability than
traditional betting and gaming.” cash is fairly low. So there will always
be room to go into the ring with
them and fight.”
“I think the changes to regulation
and M&A are driving affiliates to
think differently,” says Sims from
Rightlander. “The days of starting
with a quick couple of sites to
drive easy traffic are gone. You
have to come in with a way to
be authoritative. The players are
more knowledgeable and they are
expecting now to go to sites that
demonstrate authority. They are
much more aware of the fact that
mis-selling is a misdemeanour.”
He suggests that the way sites
present their information has to
change. “Opinion hasn’t necessarily
been borne from knowledge,” he
adds. “The punters are now used
to the TripAdvisor approach, and
that means the affiliates need to
think differently. It’s an evolution;
the internet is just a few seconds old
after all.”
A matter of trust Where the affiliate marketing
sector goes from here will largely
be determined by the operators
themselves and their individual
relationships with regulators in
various jurisdictions. The pressures
on operators are clear. Even if a
dwindling collection of grey markets
provide the equivalent of an escape
valve, regulated jurisdictions are set
to both multiply and become trickier
to negotiate. The affiliates large or
small will find themselves subject to
this pressure by default, if not directly,
and will be forced to cut their cloth
accordingly. In such circumstances, it
might be that size will count.
Yet, more definitively, it is also
true that online gambling operators
in every jurisdiction need affiliates as
much as before. The mechanics of
the relationship may change, but not
the necessity.
As Garner suggests, social-media
marketing generally isn’t particularly
effective for affiliates and without any
other large infrastructural technology
coming along to change the nature
of the game, “you ultimately come
back to search engines, rankings and
targeted content”.
Yet on the other side of this basic
transaction, there has been more
movement when it comes to the
consumer and this changes how
affiliates can go about their business.
In this sense, the coming of the
super-affiliates has raised the bar
for all affiliates. “We will see affiliates
becoming way more professional
and whatever you think about super
affiliates, you will need to rethink,”
says Mecan from KaFe Rocks. “So
far, the amount of true innovation
compared with buying with cheap
Under pressure: Regulation and the evolution of affiliate marketing
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