For affiliate managers, paid media teams and user-acquisition specialists, the ultimate aim for the next 12 months is driving quality traffic at scale to their brand or brands.
Of course, this is easier said than done but by taking the right approach, affiliates and paid media can be used to boost new player sign-ups at pace and at scale.
But this requires goal setting and planning, as well as effective execution and real-time optimisation. Below, I talk through five key success factors for driving quality in 2023 and beyond.
Allan Petrilli, VP of Sales and Growth at Intelitics
Factor one: Undertake a performance review
The best place to start is to look back at the previous year and what did and did not work.
Some activities and campaigns will have been a success and should be rolled over into the next 12 months, while others will have failed to hit the mark and should be cut.
Doing this will allow you to make an educated decision as to how to start in 2023 but the review does need to be as comprehensive as it is thorough.
It should cover goals and data for each success or failure; it’s also important to understand the WHY factor behind each.
For example, you might have struggled with efficiency and overall ability to make the most out of each campaign. This could mean your tech-stack isn’t up to par. If so, now’s the time to fix it – Intelitics is here to help in this regard.
But not every positive/negative from 2022 will correlate this year.
Some campaigns and activities might not have been tested for long enough, so make sure you understand what really needs to be carried over and what should really be left behind.
Many companies see the new year as a fresh start, but this means they can miss important lessons from the previous 12 months.
Factor two: Set aggressive but achievable goals
As well as being aggressive and achievable, goals must align with those of the company and fit with the budgets allocated for affiliate and paid media activity.
It’s always good to have goals for the year but breaking them down into quarters is important as this means progress can be reviewed and changed if need be. I always recommend breaking this down even further into monthly and weekly targets – the more granular the better.
Again, make sure goals are realistic. A lot of companies set big goals they are unlikely to achieve and this just causes internal friction and stress, which can ultimately lead to high staff turnover.
Factor three: Failure to plan is planning to fail
The only way to achieve the (aggressive but achievable) goals you set is to put a proper plan in place.
This will help identify what you will need – an improved tech-stack, the ability to provide partners with more real-time data, etc – and understand what if any additional resources and/or expertise will be required. Once you are clear about what you need, you can then go out and get it.
When it comes to the traffic itself, you need to have a clear breakdown of user acquisition and what percentage of players are coming from affiliates, paid media, organic, etc and where you want those percentages to be – a list of key partners and media sources can really help here.
It is incredibly hard to plan while also executing so it’s important to have a framework already in place. Plans can and do change, but a clear structure gives you and your team a foundation from which campaigns and activities can then be optimised.
The best plans and frameworks are those created with input from the entire team, ensuring they are aligned and accountable with your overall goals.
Factor four: Execute, optimise and scale
Ultimately, this comes down to having both the right team and a modern and powerful tech stack that allows you to access the real-time data you need to understand what activities and campaigns are and are not working so that you can enhance, fine-tune or cut them accordingly.
It’s also vital to set up campaigns so that they allow you to achieve your goals. I cannot state how important this is: the way you set up campaigns will directly lead to your ability (or inability) to effective optimize). For example, traffic partners should be using sub-ID to differentiate subsets of traffic, so you can review and decide where to pull-back and where to scale.
Utilizing meta-data you collect including device-type, operating system, geo-location, etc, and sharing this information with your partners, will inform targeting decisions, and allow you to confidently scale. At the end of the day, the more data you can arm your internal teams or partners with, the higher chance you have of succeeding.
Always hold people accountable, both internally and external partners, and don’t be afraid to test new traffic as this can accelerate progress towards achieving your goals.
Factor five: Every day is a school day
It’s important to take a step back – whether quarterly, monthly or even weekly – so that you can gather and assess the learnings from your day-to-day grind.? This will let you to spot trends, changes and opportunities to pounce on, allowing you to amend your plan accordingly.
Not doing this can be the difference between hitting and surpassing your goals and failing to even get close to achieving them.
