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Author Anna Zhukova is Team Leader (iGaming Vertical) at Famesters Agency
Influencer marketing has evolved from a simple way to promote new mascaras. It is now a dominant strategy for brands, platforms, and products that are complex. Influencer marketing grew at a 46.9% average annual rate from 2016 to 2022.
Nine out of ten iGaming players use this channel as a permanent way to engage and connect with their target audience. The simple explanation is that smartly leveraging the influencers’ power can yield tremendous results even during the test launch.
Why should iGaming use influencer marketing?
Brands can reach a motivated audience by partnering with influencers in the iGaming industry. This audience is more likely than others to respond positively to marketing messages. Influencers also provide a level authenticity and trust which is hard to achieve through traditional advertising channels. This is especially true for products that cannot be promoted due to legal risks. Influencer marketing can help iGaming companies stand out in a market that is booming with competition. The iGaming sector, which includes online gambling, sports betting and casino games, experienced rapid growth in recent years. The industry is expected to reach $61 billion in 2021 and grow at an estimated 86% by 2028.
Current Situation and Future Trends
Content creators are a great way for brands to expand their audience and build communication with the iGaming sector. According to BuzzGuru’s research, 89% marketers believe that influencer marketing has a higher ROI than other channels.
By allocating budgets to influencer marketing, iGaming companies can expand their reach and performance to existing audiences. This allows iGaming players to soar. We see a rise in the collaborations between brands and micro-influencers. 77% of brands prefer to work with these types of creators. This is not hard to understand: Collaborations with niche creators often result in better performance. Micro-influencers can be more engaging and authentic than bigger influencers. This is why they are able to build a loyal and engaged client base.
Influencer marketing trends that will shape the future of this industry include:
1. Diving deep
Influencer marketing has evolved into a comprehensive approach, where content creators play a major role in the promotion of products. This is a far cry from the traditional CPA model, in which influencers were paid for their results. We see today that creators are genuinely excited about the iGaming product they promote and use regularly. It leads to genuine promotions, as the creators not only provide the basics of the product, the benefits and bonuses that the platform has prepared for new users but also their unique experience. The promotions are more genuine and resonate with the audience.
2. Long-term partnership
More and more iGaming companies prefer to create long-term relationships with influencers rather than launching one-off campaigns. This strategy kills two birds at once: Brands build more loyal and authentic relationships with both influencers and audiences, thus expanding their own and attracting new users. To build long-term relationships for iGaming brands, it is best to work with influencers that have already proven themselves and find content creators similar to them. Niche creators form small communities. Partnering with these influencers will help you expand your brand’s reach because they have a large audience.
3. Transparent messages
Transparency of ads is becoming more important. Ads that promote casinos or betting platforms are not allowed on YouTube and Instagram. The ads should be transparent and native. Inform your audience about the platform’s benefits, USP and any bonuses that new users will receive after registering. Use simple calls to action, like ‘click here,”register now,’ ‘use promo code,’ etc.
Opportunities & Challenges
Influencers can help brands expand their audience by promoting betting platforms and online casinos. They can also build trust and brand awareness, and attract new players.
Here’s how it works: An influencer posts a link to a casino lobby, a betting platform or a feature that they found impressive on an iGaming platform or app. This gives the audience a clear picture of the platform or app they can expect to use from a creator they trust.
Influencer marketing campaigns are highly dependent on three factors: the quality of creatives, their relevance and their audience. Finding influencers with a high level of performance and values that align with your brand is essential. Relevance of the product and the content created by the influencer is a key factor to consider. When planning integrations with betting platforms at Famesters, we prefer to work with influencers that create sports or entertainment content. They usually deliver the best results.
But with opportunities comes challenges. It can be hard to find influencers who are familiar with the iGaming sector and willing to take risks. If a creator gets caught promoting iGaming they will get a warning from a platform. After three strikes, the platform will ban their account. It is important to target the correct audience. It is best to identify your audience first. The ‘golden audience’ for iGaming is typically males over 20 who are solvent. In terms of creatives, you should highlight any unique features or bonuses that your platform offers. The expected action should also be repeated several times. At the same time, this call-toaction must be easy to understand and clear.
New technologies and their application for iGaming companies
The advancement of technology is not static. Virtual and augmented realities are a great tool for influencer marketing for iGaming. They allow the audience to have a’real world’ experience with the creator, in a casino or sportsbook. This is especially useful for online casinos that struggle to recreate the thrill and excitement of a real casino.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another technology that can be used. AI can analyze the data of the influencer’s account including the audience, engagement rate, comments, and more. BuzzGuru is one AI that helps you get a clearer picture of your competitors’ influencer marketing strategy, including organic and paid mentions, lists and videos of influencers involved and budgets.
AI, on the other hand can help create more engaging ads for audiences as well as develop tasks and briefs to creators. It will also diversify scripts in order to make each launch unique.
Influencer marketing: The importance of analytics
We as an agency place a high value on the analysis of existing campaigns. This helps us to understand our key audience, and we can make recommendations for future launches. By eliminating non-working solutions on the fly, we are able to increase performance. We can make an accurate estimation by analyzing the creators’ analytics, such as engagement rates, views, reach and average, along with previous launches of similar products.
The industry is constantly evolving and we are always learning. Even small changes to the strategy can have a significant impact on the launch. Only a thorough analysis and the ability of seeing things from a subtle perspective will allow you to take in the new information.
