TRAFFIC & STRATEGY
What YouTube’ s gambling crackdown means for affiliates
In the wake of YouTube’ s update to its policies on gambling content, Sharon McFarlane assesses the changes and breaks down what they mean for the iGaming industry
ABOUT ME
Sharon McFarlane is managing director at Glasgow-based Digital Footprints, a digital marketing agency specialising in content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.
Any affiliates using YouTube as part of their ongoing marketing strategy will be aware of the new policies relating to online gambling content that came into effect on 19 March.
These policies change the way we can leverage this channel. There will be a significant shift in the platform’ s approach to gambling-related material, which in turn will have a huge impact on how affiliates publish content on this forum.
Let’ s deep dive into the policy update itself, what it means for affiliates and how we can mitigate disruption.
Understanding the update
The purpose of the policy revision is focused on restricting content that promotes unapproved gambling services. The revisions are stringent and can affect even those of us directing traffic responsibly. Briefly, affiliates promoting gambling
can no longer:
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Use clickable links that will direct users to gambling websites that are not certified by Google
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Display any logos, imagery or text references to these platforms
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Have any verbal mentions directing viewers to these sites Additionally, content that promises“ guaranteed returns” from gambling activities will be removed, irrespective of the gambling service’ s approval status. While this should push us as an industry in the right direction of promoting our products responsibly and ethically, there is now even less room for error when it comes to making what could be innocent mistakes.
As another layer of protection, videos related to online gambling are also subject to age restrictions, making them inaccessible to users under 18 or those not signed into YouTube. In the first instance this may negatively impact the videos’ reach – it’ s difficult to find statistics
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