Background
Our client hosts an online casino service in the United Kingdom. This domain was established on 28 July 1999, and site ownership changed ten years ago. Personnel carried out data aggregation from this site and its 70 affiliate marketing accounts manually – this is a time-consuming task fraught with human error.
Business Decisions Based on Data Trends
Highly ranked sites receive more listing requests. The higher the ranking, the better the affiliate marketing deals offered. Once listed, affiliate managers typically measure conversion rates and player satisfaction to determine the listing’s success.
To compare sites accurately, it is essential that you analyze data per player. We’ll explain this using the following example:
Assume you’ve listed two casinos in the first position for one week. The data is as follows:
| Casino A | Casino B | |
| Signups | 100 | 80 |
| FTD* | 80 | 70 |
| Net Revenue | EUR 40 000 | EUR 60 000 |
*First Time Deposit
At first glance, it appears that Casino B achieved better conversion rates. However, on closer inspection, the data tells a different story.
Casino B has one VIP player that contributed EUR 50 000 to the net revenue. This means that the average player’s worth for Casino B is EUR 142, while it is EUR 500 for Casino A.
Having accurate, up-to-date, and detailed data is essential. Suppose the affiliate account manager had made business decisions based on the face-value data displayed in the above table. In that case, he could’ve lost significant amounts of revenue had the one VIP player left Casino B.
Gambling affiliates work with lifetime revenue share deals, unlike other affiliate verticals. When managed correctly, the potential profits are considerable. The downside here is that other players’ actions affect your account net revenue. It is risky to assume that your revenue is driven by recently generated traffic.
Solution
On 19 April 2018, this client posted on GPWA (Gambling Portal Webmaster Association), enquiring about web tracking solutions. He signed up with Routy on 28 May 2018. Initially, he only added one account to Routy’s platform, testing the waters. Upon achieving initial success, he added 13 more accounts on 12 June 2018.
What Necessitated the Move to Better Data Management?
Our client realized that he needs to change how he treats data. Two reasons prompted this decision:
Understanding User Behaviour After Clicking Affiliate Links
Understanding what site visitors do after clicking on an affiliate link allows for more significant optimization. The first conversion is clicking on an affiliate link, redirecting to the online casino. However, this does not necessarily generate revenue. The most significant conversions are registration, deposits, and the actual revenue generated per user. Account managers should carry out optimization based on revenue, not clicks.
Having accurate data available enables better decision-making and optimization.
Managing the Google Ads Platform is Cumbersome
Our client was working with Google Ads on a large scale. They were spending large amounts on buying ad media and had difficulty uploading ad conversion and revenue data onto the Google Ads platform. This hampered optimization of the Google Ad campaign, decreasing accuracy and cost-efficiency.
Routy offered a script that served this function at that stage, simplifying the client’s work. Now, Routy has a fully functional pixel tracking script that simplifies conversion data importing to Google Ads. This service saves time and money, optimizes marketing campaigns, and improves monetization.
Web Metrics Improvements
In December 2019, the site had 10 939 organic visits and 2 579 visits generated through paid traffic from affiliate sites. Crunching the numbers, we see that this amounts to 80% organic traffic and 20% paid traffic. In November 2021, the web traffic situation looked much better: 70% organic traffic, with 30% from paid Google Ads.
Before the Google Search Core Update in early 2020, this casino ranked for high-quality keywords such as “online casino UK” and “top 10 online casinos”.
Traffic generated through SEO is essential since most users find sites through search engine queries.
Another common issue with monitoring SEO performance is spam. Every site gets spam traffic, especially those that rank well, but this can be minimized. The first step is understanding your site’s traffic quality – which visits convert, and how much are they worth?
Optimization is also much more complex when your site has relatively low volume traffic, but that traffic is high quality. The challenge here is that the affiliate must provide the best quality brands for the site visitors while maintaining site profitability.
Routy Offers Detailed Data
Before changing to Routy, this client received data in an aggregative model. Here, tracking ad-hoc changes was difficult. With Routy, this client receives detailed data sorted and filtered to show changes in both major and minor trends.
After implementing Routy’s protocols, they eliminated the need for manual data aggregation. Now, statistical aggregation from all affiliate programs was done automatically and accurately. Since the errors inherent in manual data aggregation were no longer an issue, business decisions were based on accurate results, improving their marketing strategy and resulting income.
Setup was completed within four days, integrating
all data tracking and aggregation into one easy-to-use platform.
In Closing
Automated data aggregation eliminates human errors and enables faster, more accurate data analysis. When account managers and business owners have detailed, up-to-date data readily available, they can make informed business decisions, optimize marketing campaigns, and generate more revenue.
Routy offers automated, easy-to-use data tracking solutions. Data tracking and reporting are carried out in near real-time, and reports are available on a single platform in a user-friendly format. The data is detailed enough to track minor changes and comprehensive enough to facilitate company-wide analysis.
For more information on how we can help your business grow, contact us.
