CPA Vrs Revenue Share

We send about 5 test players from different countries to all the groups we promote to see how they treat players. we have them deposit from $100 -$2500 at the casinos and we see how each is treated regarding communications ,bonus offers weekly incentives etc.
Unless you know how a player is treated , you really cant be sure who to deal with.Cpa is something we may do for one month to try a group but definitely not long term.

Let’s be clear about this.

CPA is offered to affiliates up front. The casino is taking a risk – because they don’t know the size of the players bankroll – but they’re prepared to stump up a $100, $150 or even a $200 payment.

Why?

Because the Casinos are kind and generous charities that like to provide easy cash for hard working affiliates and their families ?
:roflmao:

No. They pay an “average” up front CPA because it’s a cheaper way of acquiring traffic. The headline CPA value looks like a good deal – but if you have good traffic it’s poor value.

If you believe that your traffic sources, your reviews, your visitors are “average” or better then you are definately leaving money on the table by accepting a quick one-off payment.

On the other hand, if you are working with free-loaders, or known traffic sources that just provide minimum deposits – then CPA will pay better – until the Casino works it out and stops paying.

—-

Finally some anecdotal evidence.

I’ve just started promoting a European facing Casino that is certified on this site – I got 3 players last month – so what was the “fair CPA” ? People seem to think $100-$200 is a great CPA. So maybe $600?

My rev-share share was GBP 950 (around USD$1900) – and I have all their future residuals to look forward to as well.

CPA = Chicken feed!

Rev Share and only rev share! :wink-wink For 7 years in the industry I never worked on CPA bases.

As an affiliate Manager I always hear people wanting more and more CPA for casino and usually after a brief explanation of “lifetime Earnings” with Rev Share they change their minds and accept.
I always thought what if these players they send generate great revenue and stay loyal to our site, the affiliate loses out huge, I don’t want that, I want them earning monthly so they stay happy and continue promoting my casino. I think that some sites perhaps take advantage of that and affiliates get mislead or distracted by an upfront payment.
CPA also puts more pressure on the affiliate because they have to continuously send more players to the casino to get paid, whereas if they have Rev Share they still have to get new players to grow but they have a steady reliable income that can snowball into huge payments.

So lets hear it for Rev Share!!

CPA is good if you have some sport betting sites and poker sites but only if you have lucky.For me , revenue share is the best method because in long term you can earn a lot.

Heres my take on it as an Affiliate Manager.

It depends on your site, and the quality of traffic that is coming from it.

To broadly generalise (and to simplify the post), there are 2 main type of affiliate sites – content sites that have comparisons and reviews with associated affiliate links, and All Other Types (which include Free Money, Make Money, Cashback and other sites that can be easily be PPC’d).

So, lets say you run one of the latter sites – *most* of the players you send will not have been looking for a casino. They wil have been looking for free money. Lets look at this scenario.

A player comes from a site of this kind – they deposit a fairly generous $200 and they lose it. They are unlikely to deposit again, as they were intrigued about how they could get more money.

On a Rev Share basis at 40%, you would earn $80 on this deal. Its a no brainer – a CPA of $250 would be a bigger earner for you.

However, if you run a site that is delivering players that deposit $700, then on the same RevShare model you would earn $280, so obviously a RevShare model would be better for you.

Now, as everyone knows – this isnt an exact science – you will always get trends that buck this – people will sometimes deposit more or less than is expected.

It is also worth noting that there are two main reasons why a gaming site will be willing to work with you like this.

1. A player you deliver to my casino isnt playing at another rival casino.
2. All revenues have an element of the cost of Brand Building built into them. By being on your site, my product becomes, more well known, more recognised, more respected and ultimately will generate more players through the trust that is implied by my casinos presence on a lot of different sites. Imagine how much money is spent on TV, radio, press and other offline marketing channels – and they cant even be measured like interwebulator traffic.

So, I would recommend one of two things.

*Either*

Decide before you sign up as an affiliate which one of the two scenarios is more likely, and take CPA or RevShare accordingly.

*Or*

Talk to your Affiliate Manager! Thats what they are there for. We are employed to generate revenue for our clients (the casinos) and this cant be done without you. You can always switch from RevShare to CPA and vice versa if you feel you need to.

From an Account Managers point of view, we make money for our clients when you make money, so it makes no sense for us to try and maximise our profits at your expense. Proper and real Account Management involves building a working relationship – you may only have one site now, but why cant I help you generate enough revenue to build two, three or ten sites. So when you sign up as an affiliate, *please* put as much information down as you can. This isnt cos we are nosy, but if I know *how* you are generating traffic; if I can *see* your sites, then I can help with recommendations, tips, contacts – even some limited SEO tips!

So, in summary (and sorry for the length of the post). Decide on the likely quality of your traffic based on your type of site, and dont be afraid of your Account Manager. Good Account Managers will always help you to succeed, because that helps us to succeed. I may look all scary and intimidating (and you can either ask Alex or Yvette or grab me at a CAP
event, but I aint!)

Any thoughts? Would be interested! Feel free to email, MSN or phone me if you have more questions about me, or what I have just written – even if you arent an affiliate of mine (yet!)

Neil Mitchell
Senior Account Manager
http://www.blackpoolclub.co.uk
email – [email protected]
MSN – [email protected]
Old Skool – 02078389399

Mostly rev-share. I have tried CPA and still using it on some deals.

CPA is good for sctatch card sites because I can see players trying them out but cant see them returning like for Casinos or Bingo.

@TheGooner 150019 wrote:

But once you you get ONE serious player at a room – then you’ll never consider CPA …

I have to agree with Gooner. Poker is small at my site, but I recently had 5 conversions at poker that CPA would have hardly equaled my reveue share earnings.

@Sam David 149922 wrote:

As an Affiliate Manager I can defently say that my affiliates are happier to recieve CPA than Rev Share.
Its always depend on the rate of course but if its good and successful casino there is no reason not to work on CPA.

That’s because they don’t know the value that they’re leaving on the table under CPA
And how much better they’d be if only they’d taken RevShare.

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And I’ll disagree with the general theme of CPA for Poker too.

I have revshare accounts at several sites – we’re not huge poker earners – but bring in a small trickle of serious players … and quite a few casual players.

The CPA price might just about break even for a casual player – (indeed that’s probably the thinking of the poker rooms – assuming that they’re all fair minded fellows)

But once you you get ONE serious player at a room – then you’ll never consider CPA …

I have one player at FullTilt who is worth 20 CPA payments to us – EACH and EVERY month for the last six months …
:hattip:

CPA is good ? Bahhhh ….
Believe in your own good work fellow affiliates – and stop looking for quick money.
Rev-share is the only way to generate ongoing income streams.
:wavey: