Christoffer Gronlund, Co-Founder of Winlandia, on conversion rate optimisation and how it’s helping operators and affiliates get more bang for their buck
You are a big proponent of conversion rate optimisation, but can you explain exactly what you mean by that? And is it something that only operators need to consider?
“You’re right. I believe that conversion rate optimisation (CRO) is one of the most overlooked aspects of player acquisition for both operators and affiliates. CRO simply refers to the practice of increasing the percentage of users or website visitors that take a desired action. In the case of operators and affiliates, this is mostly encouraging more players to sign up, deposit and play. The higher the conversion rate, the higher the number of sign-ups and FTDs, and, ultimately, the higher the revenue generated by both parties. CRO is important because it ensures the maximum return on acquisition spend and, at a time of rising costs and tightening margins, this can be the difference between success and ultimately failure.”
Do the ways in which operators and affiliates approach CRO differ?
“The general principles of CRO apply to both operators and affiliates, but the exact strategies and approaches each takes will be slightly different. And this is because while they are essentially targeting the same customer/users, the journey that customers go on will be different depending on whether they are arriving at a gambling brand via an affiliate or directly. For affiliates, the focus is on driving traffic from their sites and pages to their casino partners and this means considering things like calls to action, bonuses and the way casinos are displayed and listed. For the casinos themselves, it’s more about the sign-up process and the journey from when they first land on the homepage through creating an account, claiming the bonus, making a deposit and finding a game to play. In both cases, CRO must focus on making things as easy and seamless as possible.
“At Winlandia have taken this a step further by offering each player an individual journey with our personalisation platform which works in the same way as Netflix with game recommendations based on each player’s individual preferences and behaviours.”
How should operators and affiliates approach CRO?
“The first thing to do is identify objectives and goals specific to the areas of friction being addressed through CRO and then come up with a hypothesis for how friction can be reduced or removed. You then need to test the hypothesis by experimenting with different ideas and solutions. A/B testing is a thing, but I’d suggest pushing this further with A/B/C/D testing to really see what delivers the best results. It’s also important to consider time frames as a critical mass of populated data is required for making good data-driven decisions and to refine CRO strategies and changes.”
Can you share an example of CRO in action?
“Of course. So, we had a belief that most affiliates find they get clicks to their casino partners, but these clicks don’t convert into sign-ups and FTDs at the rate expected. This ultimately means the conversion rate tanks. One theory for why this is the case put forward by the Winlandia team was that the player leaves the affiliate site and lands at a generic online casino page with ad copy, bonus offer and CTAs that have not been optimised. To test this theory, we tailored the design, ad copy, CTAs and the bonus offer for each affiliate we work with to see if it would improve conversion rates. The next step was lots of A/B testing to understand what design, content, CTA and bonus worked best and to determine the optimal set-up. Off the back of this, we now offer affiliates a personalised landing page and an exclusive bonus offer, tailored for their traffic. Of course, that’s just the start of where CRO can be used by operators.”
Tell us more!
“For casino brands, getting a player to click “sign up” is just the start. The drop-off rate between this point and actually making a deposit and playing is still incredibly high. Then of course there are the usual challenges around retention, especially in markets where operators are restricted in terms of the bonuses and incentives they can offer. This means operators need to really analyse their flows and identify where the drop-offs are happening and then come up with ideas and theories as to why and how they can be stopped. As with the example above, it’s then a case of implementing these ideas and extensively testing them. Try different things, gather lots of data, analyse results, make data-driven decisions and keep fine-tuning and repeating until the optimal set-up is achieved.”
It sounds like CRO is an area where operators and affiliates can actually work together.
“It is. In fact, when both parties collaborate, the best results can be achieved. The operator and the affiliate have different parts to play in the process, but essentially, the affiliate passes the player to the operator at some point. If both parties have carried out extensive CRO, the entire process is as smooth and seamless as it can be for the player, and this means both parties ultimately benefit. At the end of the day, we have a shared goal and that is to drive players to the casino and guide them from being a converting player into a payer.”
What will happen to operators and affiliates that don’t embrace CRO?
“They will find it increasingly difficult to compete with their rivals that do. This is a highly competitive space – for both operators and affiliates – and where the cost of acquisition continues to rise. CRO helps to unlock the biggest return on acquisition costs, helping operators and affiliates increase profitability when break-even is becoming tough for a lot of brands – just look at the sheer number of market exits in recent years. CRO ensure maximum bang for your buck, and that’s why it has become a major focus for Winlandia and our affiliate partners.”
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