How Much Should You Pay Your Affiliates in iGaming?

Arguably the greatest stimulus for your existing and future affiliates are the commissions. They are the foundation of affiliate programs. Needless to say, every time your partner leads a new customer to your website, he has to be paid rewards according to agreed terms.

Coming up with the conditions that will suit every party of the affiliate program may turn out to be quite a challenging task. A commission rate has to draw affiliates and incentivise existing ones to draw in new players and, ideally, new partners. Meanwhile, the expenses for your partner program should not outweigh your revenue.

Read on to learn ways to set attractive yet affordable affiliate commission rates and increase the exposure of your project.

Common affiliate commission types in iGaming

Businesses all around the world hire affiliates to generate traffic to their online gaming brands using referral links. Payment for such services is called affiliate marketing commissions. The reward varies in accordance with the commission model that the affiliate and the operator have agreed on. These are the most typical types for the iGaming industry:

CPA

Cost per acquisition or action is a commission type where the remuneration happens when the visitor performs a specific action: makes a deposit, wagers a certain amount of money, or performs another pre-arranged action in the casino, sportsbook, or poker site. There are specific criteria affiliates have to meet to get the reward.

Revenue Share

In RevShare, unlike the CPA, the affiliates get commissions as long as the referred customers keep on bringing revenue to the business, be it a casino or a sportsbook. Usually, these commissions are a percent of that revenue. This model is considered long-term since mostly there is no time limit and affiliates receive their rewards during the whole player lifecycle.

Hybrid

This type is a blend of CPA and Revenue Share. First, the affiliate is remunerated for bringing the player, then they receive constant long-term rewards as part of the revenue the aforementioned player generates.

Pay per Click

In Pay or Cost per Click (PPC and CPC respectively), the payment is linked to the quantity of clicks that lead from the partner website to the operator. The more clicks made, the greater the fee will be. Google’s AdSense program is a good example.

Cost per Lead

In the CPL commission (also called Pay per Lead or simply PPL) the affiliates get paid for the contact information of an already interested customer. Mainly, the commission is paid if the player created an account on the website.

Pay per Impression

In the PPI commission type, the more times the visitor has viewed an advertisement, the higher the reward will be. You can mostly come across this commission type on niche websites that target a specific audience.

To better understand affiliate marketing commissions, read our article here.

Benchmarks for determining a player’s value

Figuring out the right affiliate commission rates and terms requires time and effort. That is why we have compiled a few pieces of advice and reference points to help you determine how much you should pay.

Primary commission plan

There is no need to limit yourself to only one commission type when your partner program may have, in itself, several at the same time. And although each of your affiliates can have an individually customised commission plan, you need to establish a basic commission structure that your potential affiliates are going to see.

Set an average affiliate commission rate that is desirable for partners and motivates them to draw in more and more traffic. Yet it has to cost reasonably for your business, so you can make payouts on time.

At the same time, be open to reviewing the conditions for your partners. Motivate them to drive better quality traffic by having a possibility of improving the commission plan terms.

When you are coming up with your standard plans, take some time to think about how you are going to deal with negative carryover – when the player your affiliate brought wins more money than loses. In some affiliate programs that negative carries over into the next month, and some operators reset the carryover after an agreed amount of time.

Bear in mind that having the policy of a negative carryover can discourage affiliates from working with you. That is why many modern affiliate programs don’t do negative carryover, and we don’t recommend it either.

Lifetime Value

Knowing your LTV (or CLV – Customer Lifetime Value) can be helpful in identifying the most cost-effective commissions. Instead of looking for a single solution for all groups of players, be flexible and adapt the conditions to the situation.

In essence, LTV shows the income the player brings in while being your customer. The longer the player remains an active customer, the higher the LTV becomes.

Not all players are valued equally. Different players bring, or have the potential to bring, different profits. There are a lot of factors that matter, like deposit amount and geographical location. Some affiliate management platforms, like Affilka, have a flexible Commission Constructor that allows you to differentiate players and set commissions depending on the country, deposit amount, and other parameters.

Commission bonuses

Unique and engaging bonuses are a very effective instrument and a good stimulus for your affiliates to be consistently at the top of their game. You are not obligated to incorporate them into your affiliate program, but bonuses for achieving a defined goal have been proven to draw more new affiliates and encourage existing ones.

Think about offering bonuses to partners who reach specific all-time revenue targets or just one of the highest-performing affiliates within your program. Offer a temporary commission increase that will be in effect for a given time period. Or you can offer an affiliate an opportunity to increase the commission rate permanently. Try to come up with really interesting and valuable bonuses, so that your affiliates stay motivated.

You can also remunerate your partners for bringing new affiliates. Affilka’s Commission Constructor allows operators to set up payouts for sub-affiliates. They can help partners increase their profits even further. This is a solid additional investment for you that will result in high affiliate motivation to find the best customers and partners.

Affiliate payments

Finally, to take your affiliate program to an even higher level, think about payment frequency and payment systems. Some payment methods can be more preferable, depending on where the particular affiliates are based. When choosing an affiliate management system, choose the one with the most popular methods and currencies. Let the payouts be easy for both parties.

Frequency

Partner programs tend to remunerate partners once a month. Usually, rewards are paid within 10 days after the end of the business month. So if the affiliate has earned $500 in September, their performance will be paid on the 15th October. Though, sometimes it may take several days for a payment to go through, this varies from system to system.

As a rule, affiliates prefer to be paid as soon as possible. Though some operators offer a so-called ‘threshold method’, that suggests that an affiliate has to reach a specific sum in order to qualify for a disbursement. Let’s say, the operator sets a threshold of $1,000. Then the affiliate will be able to get their payout only after earning that sum. Thresholds may vary from company to company and can be as low as $20 or as high as $200.

After you have agreed with the affiliate on the frequency, be sure to always make timely payouts. And do bear in mind that high thresholds or payment delays may put affiliates off from joining your program.

Payment methods

You have a variety of options you can use to get your partners paid. Overall, affiliates prefer the more simple methods that will ensure they receive their commissions without any additional trouble, preferably as soon as possible.

That is why bank transfer is among the most popular global payment methods in iGaming. Each market, depending on geographical location, has its own popular payment methods. The other global methods include PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, WebMoney, EcoPayz, and cryptocurrencies (mostly Bitcoin).

Affilka has most of them integrated, including different types of crypto, with an option to use almost any other method in the world. You need to constantly evolve and adapt to the ever-changing online environment, so being able to make payments in crypto would be a huge plus for your potential affiliates.

In terms of currencies, it mostly depends on your arrangements with the affiliate. As we have already established, it is best to have different options, so you won’t lose a potential affiliate because of that.

The Affilka Commission Constructor offers a range of fiat and cryptocurrencies for affiliates commission payouts. You simply have to choose 2 main currencies – 1 fiat and 1 crypto – and all other currencies will be converted when invoicing. Affiliate payments are made via built-in payment processing tools according to an agreed-upon schedule. Everything can be customised for each affiliate individually and even automated.

Summary

Hopefully, this article helps in guiding you through the nuances of affiliate payment. Try to calculate the affiliate commission rates and terms that are attractive, fair, and keep your partners inspired. The more options you offer, the more great partnerships you will find. Use an affiliate management platform to help you with customising commission plans, determining the LTV, and making timely payouts.