Affiliate Marketing vs Social Media Marketing in Gambling

In today’s reality of internet technology on the rise, the importance of marketing for business development can hardly be underestimated. Marketing aims to meet the needs of both businesses and their customers by using many different strategies and tactics to increase the effectiveness of relationship building, with SMM and affiliate marketing being the most prominent among them. Although these techniques are different, they have a lot in common and are related to each other quite closely. For example, affiliates often use social media tools to engage audiences, so social platforms, in general, are an important and relevant channel for affiliate marketing. So, we are here to compare affiliate marketing vs social media marketing and talk about the key advantages and disadvantages of each method with regard to gambling projects.

Affiliate Marketing vs Social Media Marketing

To find out who is the winner in the affiliate marketing vs SMM confrontation in terms of the results being achieved, you need to find out what the fundamental difference between the two techniques is. By using affiliate marketing to promote an online casino website (or sportsbook), you are relying on other people to do all the work for you. While getting the benefits of wider reach and access to new audiences, you lose some control over exactly how you promote your brand. As for SMM, you get more control and can determine how the audience will perceive your project online, and this is a fundamental difference in the pair of SMM vs affiliate marketing. Thus, using the SMM technique, you take control and decide for yourself which content to publish and where.

In simple words, affiliate marketing is when you reward another person for promoting your project. Your affiliate marketer can use any channel, including social media. The affiliate gets a share of the revenue generated by the traffic they bring to your iGaming platform, that is, they earn money for results.

As far as SMM is concerned, it is a set of your efforts to build your brand by posting on social media and expanding your company’s social profile audience. If you entrust the task of maintaining your social profile to another person or brand, it will be the case that affiliate marketing and SMM become the same thing. However, the main point to find out is, which of the methods (social media marketing vs gambling affiliate marketing) works better for gambling projects? We have tried to answer that question below.

Affiliate Marketing vs SMM – Which Method is Better?

To find out which gambling project promotion technique is best, you need to take into account some of the characteristics of gambling projects and social platforms – here are some key takeaways:

• Online casino games can lead to gambling addiction, so it is a sensitive subject that can be perceived ambiguously by audiences.
• Many people see social media as a place to relax and socialize, so inorganic advertising can be an irritant (promoting gambling organically is quite a challenge).
• Gambling laws must be adhered to (which is not in favour of the first of the SMM vs affiliate marketing opposing parties). Thus, in some regions where online gambling is banned, it is not possible to promote iGaming platforms via social media.
• Choosing the right platform with the characteristics of its average audience in mind. While a third of Facebook users are aged 25-34 (the target audience for gambling projects), TikTok’s audience is mostly young people who are illegal for gambling.

Based on the above, it is clear that affiliate marketing – which uses far more different channels to connect with the target audience – is the winner of the affiliate marketing vs SMM rivalry when it comes to gambling projects. However, let’s look at the main advantages and disadvantages of each technique for a clearer picture.

SMM Pros & Cons

To find a winner in the affiliate marketing vs social media marketing rivalry, let’s look at the benefits of SMM first:

• Low cost as you will be using your own profile and basic social platform tools for promotion.
• Easy to run – just register a profile and start content-filling it to attract an audience.
• Broad reach. The user base of some social platforms exceeds 1 billion.
• A wide range of platforms. Considering the specifics and audience characteristics of different social media, you can easily find an option that suits your project (e.g. Facebook is the best for gambling products).

However, we wouldn’t have to compare social media marketing vs gambling affiliate marketing head-to-head if the former is the perfect method – here are a few drawbacks of SMM every marketer should be aware of:

• You need to create fresh, unique and relevant content that conveys some value to your audience. Writing a good content plan is a very complex task.
• It is a time-consuming process. You will have to invest a lot of time and effort in developing a social media profile before you achieve tangible results.
• You will have to confront critics. Social platforms give people more freedom to express their thoughts, so you will have to deal with negative feedback from time to time.

However, by staying in touch with your audience and knowing how to face critics, you can maintain a good reputation and make progress with SMM.

Affiliate Marketing Pros & Cons

Emerging before the first social media, affiliate marketing has evolved over a long period and has the following advantages:

• Low risk of loss as you pay solely for results.
• The opportunity to reach a wider audience of other brands that are associated with your own.
• A wide range of affiliates, from micro-influencers to big brands with a wide audience reach.
• High ROI as you only pay your affiliates when you make a profit.

Although affiliate marketing is our favorite for gambling projects, it is also subject to some disadvantages:

• Most affiliates in the market are low-skilled specialists.
• You lose some control over your marketing efforts.
• You are more likely to get large volumes of low-quality traffic that does not convert well.

However, given that you are essentially risking nothing by hiring affiliates, this advantage outweighs the drawbacks of affiliate marketing outlined above.

Closing Thoughts

While both SMM and affiliate marketing can prove invaluable in promoting an iGaming project, the latter is the most promising as it has a lower entry threshold and requires almost no upfront cost. However, if your goal is to establish brand loyalty and gain an audience of engaged customers, SMM may be the preferred option.