iGB Affiliate iGB Affiliate 59 | Page 35

FEATURE back, this was a great time to join the party, as there was less competition and Google was a whole lot easier to dance with. Why did you launch a bingo skin? TW: Baskets and eggs! Having spent five years as an affiliate I had become keen to diversify. I don’t think owning a white label is an essential step for every affiliate, however at the time it seemed sensible for my business and I’m still content I made the move. Why did you pick the software supplier that you did? TW: I knew I wanted to create a brand with some USPs, particularly by way of exclusive offerings for my players. I had seen this work previously, so the flexibility offered by Jumpman to offer exclusive promotions, particularly stand-alone rooms, within their quickly improving software, was a strong attraction. Pre-signing, I studied a few contracts from various suppliers and noted some fairly ‘uncomfortable’ clauses - the devil can definitely be in the detail! (more on that later). However, I generally felt at ease with the Jumpman contract and the positive attitude of their team. In addition to the above, it was Jumpman who first suggested I start a skin. Whats are the pros and cons of owning a skin? TW: The pros are that as a skin owner you will have a great, albeit not total, level of control over the running of your brand. If used effectively and where permitted by supplier, this control can allow you to stand out from the crowd and offer your players that special something. In addition, you’ll also have access to reporting that you simply don’t get as an affiliate. This assists you in spending your marketing budget effectively, particularly where PPC is concerned, thanks to conversion tracking and other tools issued by ‘Big G’. As for the cons, set-up costs can be high and you need to keep a close eye on your marketing spend. Be selective when choosing affiliates to work with; know their traffic source as all traffic is not equal. I learnt this lesson through a couple of runaway CPA campaigns, that are still heavily negative. Take home point - periods of financial loss are entirely possible. Other challenges rise from costs that will be payable from your portion of the revenue share including, for example, affiliates. It’s difficult to offer an appealing deal to affiliates whilst leaving something ‘in it’ for yourself. How have you marketed your skin? TW: I’ve used a variety of different methods including affiliates, PPC, SEO work for my business and amounted to unnecessary risk as opposed to incentive to succeed. And finally, know your marketing strategy before you launch and never rely exclusively on any one particular traffic source. Good luck! In conclusion Online bingo is a busy, very competitive, saturated market, but despite this, there are still opportunities out there. Hopefully this article will help if you are considering starting an online bingo skin from scratch, inform you about what to expect, whether it’s worth your while, how you can market it to make it successful and whether or not you are then going to make money. “Pay particular care to understanding all the deductibles from net cash, especially those which are not shared with the supplier; costs such as chargeback commissions can stack up” Tom Waites, Rocket Bingo and making use of my own opt-in mailing lists from years gone by. Going forward I am focussing heavily on further scaling my PPC campaigns as I see this as a relatively stable traffic source compared to organic, especially at a time when Google is piling an ever-increasing amount of adverts on top of the organic results - I doubt this trend will change. What tips would you give to someone planning to launch a skin ? TW: Take your time finding the right supplier for your business. Be early in asking for a copy of the ‘standard’ contract - examine it forensically and negotiate strongly! Pay particular care to understanding all the deductibles from net cash, especially those which are not shared with the supplier; costs such as chargeback commissions can stack up. If the contract requires you to guarantee net cash after launch or a minimum marketing spend, consider carefully if it will work for your business. Such requirements didn’t Should you require any further help or advice on starting your own bingo skin or any aspect of online bingo please email [email protected]. PHIL FRASER owns WhichBingo Ltd. which runs the multi award-winning comparison and review website WhichBingo (www.whichbingo.co.uk), the online bingo industry’s premier awards, the WhichBingo awards, and FreeBingo UK (www.freebingo.co.uk) the UK’s largest, and first, free-toplay bingo game. Phil also chairs the industry’s annual ‘Online Bingo Summit’. You can find Phil on Twitter at @Mr_Online_Bingo iGB Affiliate Issue 59 OUT/NOV 2016 31