Expectations...

[LA-Martyn]

I've been thinking on where an affiliate thinks they should be in terms of earnings, when they start with a new program at the end of their second month. I know this is a bit of an open ended question and is affected by many factors such as how many FTD's are sent, conversions, position on sites etc.

But affiliates must go in to a new partnership with some kind of plan or expectation as to where they should be two or three months down the line so they can determine if they should continue with the same level of exposure, more or less?

If we base this on revenue share commissions on your average FTD send, how much of the green stuff would you be expecting to reach after your second month with a new program? I'm talking in USD for the US market here. It's a private poll too.

 

[TheGooner]

30%-40% cut expectation. What that means in cold hard cash really depends on the quality of the site, the USP of the offer / banner / landing page ... and a bit of blind luck as well.

We get players who deposit $50 once and disappear, and others who deposit five figures a month.
Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, and sometimes they get comped so who knows what happened.

However, this probably helps you better - if we are not earning four figures + a month after three months then the program probably doesn't suit our geo / market segment - and we will let it go.

 

[LA-Martyn]

Decent look at it, thanks as always Gooner. So if you were to kick off the voting, you'd be a $1001 - $2000 as a minimum?

 

[Joonas]

It's too subjective to consider. Performance of casinos varies so much. I usually don't have any expectations and then time will show the numbers.

 

[KasinoKing]

It's too subjective to consider.
Performance of casinos varies so much.
I usually don't have any expectations and then time will show the numbers.

EXACTLY my thoughts!

Historically when I add a new casino I usually get a small flurry of sign-ups - but actual $ earned ranges from $0 to $x,xxx
And there's no predicting anything either: Some casinos with crap welcome offers do much better than those with great offers!
After all these years, I think maybe the NAME a new casino chooses is more important than anything else when it comes to attracting new payers.

KK

 

[LA-Martyn]

It's too subjective to consider. Performance of casinos varies so much. I usually don't have any expectations and then time will show the numbers.

I agree, it's a bit of a crappy question but I wanted to see if there were any expectations from the outset. The scale is also not the best but I got bored of adding options.

 

[Biti]

Depends on the market, website, etc. With some no deposit freebie website, you cannot expect the same income as with a website having better quality visitors.

In regulated markets usually, not many new brands appear and the old ones are listed already.

We test casinos by ourselves before we list them. I think 9 out of 10 (or even worse) has issues or is just a very average product that we doubt if it will do better than the ones listed. Testing brands many times we face technical issues, things that are not going smooth, payment hassles, rude customer services, etc. Besides that, a lot of new brands disappear fast or run into financial issues fast.

We ask them a fixed fee for 1 to 3 months as we are not going to spend exposure and traffic in something that probably doesn't work. That fixed fee works like a guaranteed amount. If the commission, for example, is higher than the fee than they pay just the surplus. If it's lower, we have the fee. So, if a program doesn't have the confidence it works, why should we? Usually, we ask to pay upfront as we've had issues with clowns that want to run a test and cry after because their brand doesn't work. Websites are income for us, no playground or lab. We can't run a website for $ 200 or something like that.

 

[the_dave]

Honestly don't have any expectations after such a short period of time in terms of earnings. At this point I'm much more looking at clicks sent, sign ups and depositors vs other programs I work with to see how the program is going to perform. Having said that I can't remember when I last added a new affiliate program to one of my bigger sites but stilll... earnings at this stage is a poor indicator of future performance.

 

[LA-Martyn]

Good insight, thanks. If you fancy testing out a newer brand, do let me know.

However, I agree that early commission levels either high or low in the early stages is not an indicator how it will pan out further down the line. Who knows which way it'll go?

Good to hear peoples general thoughts though.

 

[Jon Sand]

Will it be too presumptuous to expect more? I want to pump a lot into this

 

[Jon Sand]

Honestly don't have any expectations after such a short period of time in terms of earnings. At this point I'm much more looking at clicks sent, sign ups and depositors vs other programs I work with to see how the program is going to perform. Having said that I can't remember when I last added a new affiliate program to one of my bigger sites but stilll... earnings at this stage is a poor indicator of future performance.

I was at this point too not too long ago

 

[Jon Sand]

It's too subjective to consider. Performance of casinos varies so much. I usually don't have any expectations and then time will show the numbers.

Looks like ive found my new philosophy

 

[awesamko]

In my opinion, expectations have to based on existing results from other affiliate programmes. For example, if a casino on a top position is bringing 100 Ftds a month, then new affiliate programme on the 2nd position should bring at least 70% of that. If it doesn't, it is not worth to continue cooperation. The assumption is that traffic to the affiliate site is almost constant.

 

[The Stone]

For me it's all about stages.
1. the affiliate manager and how clear they are with answers to my questions
2. payment - how quickly it arrives and whether they delay it with stupid things they should have asked when I first signed up
3. traffic conversion and volume as you never know this until the casino is live
4. then comes the commission as only then will I put a casino into good positions.

So in response to the thread the monetary value comes at little later for me

 

[betizen]

I have only experience in the Latin American market, but after some years of unexpected good results, and anticipated failures i think its a mix between:

1. How good (often how bad) the affiliate program is (willingness to pay what you earn)
2. The financial situation of the casino (which makes possible for them to pay if they actually want)
3. How good the product is for players, which is something many affiliates forget (sometimes it boils down to how good or bad the support is at helping players, specially with anxious players)

A good affiliate program with a crappy product is useless, also a good product & good financial situation with a rouge affiliate program is useless for the affiliate prespective. So it should be a mix of those things. Also the amount of money expected depends on those three things and of course the quality and volume of your traffic.

 

[Biti]

3. traffic conversion and volume as you never know this until the casino is live

I'd partly disagree with this.

We're testing each and every brand. If we're facing difficulties during these tests, players might face them too. Buggy software, deposit methods not working, games not working, crappy terms, rude or even unavailable customer service, etc. It all affects the performance of a product. People are not patient nowadays. If players are having a question and helpdesk opens again the next morning, they'll look for another casino. Same thing if their favorite game is not working, the software is buggy, a payment method is not working properly or if they have to send in a bunch of documents + waiting 2,5 week for a payout of 150€.

But sometimes it's even with good products near to impossible to make any money. VideoSlots, in essence, is a good product for players, but it's almost impossible to make decent money with them. Similar experiences I've got with IGC products running on IA.

 

[Joonas]

I'd partly disagree with this.

It generalises a bit, you can surely see if a casino is not up to date with best practices that can impact performance.

 

[LA-Martyn]

Some great points made here. Thanks.