Income Access Survey: Most Popular Commission Structures in iGaming

IGaming affiliate marketing is a unique market within the affiliate landscape. One factor that makes it so unique is the comprehensive data collection during the sales process. Depending on the software and payment platforms used, operators can be in a position to provide and store more sophisticated tracking information than on regular ecommerce sites.

The ability to store this information depends on the reporting of metrics on customer loyalty and value. Operators can offer commission structures on a broader set of criteria and actions when they have this information. It provides operators control over their acquisition and loyalty marketing spends. For affiliates, this information offers additional insight into the quality of their traffic.

As far as popular commission structures go, the results of the Income Access Affiliate Survey 2008-2009 revealed that revenue-share continues to be most favoured commission structure across our sample of surveyed affiliates. This comes as no surprise, because as mentioned above, revenue-share offers affiliates more insight into their sources of higher quality traffic. The survey results also demonstrated that the more experience an affiliate gains, the more likely they are to rely on revenue-share than any other form of commission.

Ninety percent of affiliates reported working always or often with a revenue-share structure, and over half work always or often with cost per acquisition (CPA) and hybrid models. In addition, less than a third of the sample reported using cost per impression (or cost per mille) (CPM) and cost per click (CPC) commission models.

A more detailed look showed a distinct pattern of use related to particular commission structures. Affiliates reporting the frequent use of CPC and CPA tended to be younger in age, not working as a full-time affiliate, and running newer, lower-earning businesses. In contrast, the use of revenue-share structures was associated with an older business age.

It was also revealed that CPM and CPC (the least used commission models) are used significantly more often by respondents promoting mobile and skill games verticals, which are newer verticals. Hybrid commission structure models were preferred significantly more by respondents who promote poker, bingo, and mobile verticals.

All these trends indicate that as affiliates gain more experience, they change their focus from CPA and CPC to a more long-term model such as revenue-share. With time and experience, affiliates realize that revenue-share allows them to determine the value of a player and, therefore, which sources offer the highest quality of traffic.

Nicole Fortunaso, Director of Marketing, Income Access

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