The digital marketing landscape of the iGaming Industry is constantly evolving with technological advancements and increased digital adoption. This constant evolution in the iGaming world is guided by the growing prominence of affiliate and influencer marketing.
Affiliate marketing offers several advantages for businesses, making it a highly effective strategy. It is cost-effective, operating on a pay-for-performance model that ensures companies only pay for actual results. This approach allows for scalability, enabling brands to expand their reach without significant upfront costs. Additionally, affiliate marketing provides measurable results, allowing businesses to track their return on investment accurately. If affiliate marketing is a new to you, you can learn more here.
On the other hand, influencer marketing offers significant benefits, including building brand credibility and trust through authentic relationships with followers. Additionally, influencer marketing generates relatable content that resonates with consumers, increasing engagement. The potential for viral marketing is another advantage, as compelling content shared by influencers can quickly gain traction across platforms, amplifying brand visibility. To understand how influencer marketing can benefit your brand, click here.
Despite being similar in certain ways, affiliate and influencer marketing are distinct in various aspects and choosing the right option for your brand can make all the difference. To decide which is the right option for you, we’ve put together this piece that outlines the differences between the two and helps highlight what can help your brand most.
Key Differences Between Affiliate and Influencer Marketing
Compensation Models:
- Affiliates have a compensation model that is prominently commission-based and can request flat fees for premium exposure.
- Influencers work with various payment structures including flat fees and wager models. Streamers sometimes work with a controversial wager model in the iGaming space, where they request a "stake" or "wager" to use for betting during their streams. At the end of the agreed-upon period, the streamer keeps a percentage of any winnings above the initial stake amount. If the streamer loses the entire stake, they typically don't owe anything to the platform.
Primary Goals:
- Affiliates can help with the growth of direct sales and conversions as they target and bring you dedicated players looking for reliable and trustworthy iGaming brands.
- Influencers help achieve the goals of brand awareness and engagement. The personalization of influencer marketing is more interactive and helpful in creating communities around your brand.
- Affiliate metrics emphasize direct sales and revenue, while influencer metrics often prioritize brand awareness and engagement. Influencer metrics often include more qualitative measures like sentiment, whereas affiliate metrics tend to be more quantitative and sales focused.
Content Creation:
- Affiliates create product focused content as their content is created to inform iGaming players and share new bonus offers.
- Influencer can work with a variety of content. Even streamers who exclusively stream iGaming activity use their personal affects to gain the trust and attention of their viewers.
Platforms and Channels:
- Affiliates use websites and blogs to help them establish authority, generate organic traffic, and have content flexibility. Email marketing helps reach targeted audiences, but email marketers work on CPM models which isn’t cost effective for operators.
- Influencer use social media platforms including blogs and streaming playforms like Twitch to reach their audience. Influencers choose these platforms based on their target audience, content style, and marketing goals.
Choosing the Right Option
When determining the right marketing strategy for your business, several key factors should be taken into account. First, consider your available budget and resources, as this will influence the scale and scope of your campaign. Next, evaluate your long-term versus short-term goals and objectives to ensure your chosen approach aligns with your overall business strategy. It's crucial to assess your target audience's preferences and behaviors to select the most effective channels for reaching them. Finally, stay informed about current industry trends to ensure your marketing efforts remain relevant and competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape. By carefully weighing these factors, you can make an informed decision that best suits your business needs and maximizes your marketing potential.
Conclusion
Both strategies can be effective for iGaming companies, with the choice depending on specific business goals and target audience characteristics. Additionally, both strategies can work well together when you determine your campaign goals and think about the differences between affiliate and influencer marketing to help you select a strategy that will most likely get you those results. You are allowed to be flexible and test out each option to see what is best for you. You can also partner the two together for each campaign to extend your reach even more!
