Gambling business news often touches upon the marketing of iGaming products. Although the new regulations emerge and caps are constantly imposed on advertising games of chance in multiple jurisdictions, SEO remains an integral part of a successful promotional campaign in the casino and betting sectors.
Andrea Belleza, VP of EU & Asia Pacific markets at KaFe Rocks, has talked about the key factors of a successful SEO campaign and outlined the main risks and benefits of this type of promotion.
Andrea, how does building an efficient marketing strategy in the iGaming sector differ from the other industries?
I believe there are two main differences between iGaming and other industries:
1. there are strict regulations to comply with, depending on the country in which you operate. These regulations can greatly impact your strategy and make some tools unavailable in certain territories;
2. considering the revenues generated by our industry, competition is extremely fierce. This makes things more expensive for marketers. For example, the iGaming industry has one of the highest CPC on AdWords.
When working with the different gambling markets across the world, there must be a different approach taken to each region. In your experience, how does working with Asia-Pacific customers differ from working with Europeans?
As we all know, we already have big differences within European customers. When comparing things to the Asia-Pacific markets, the differences are amplified. Users approach the product in different ways. For example, what could be considered a minimalistic and user-friendly website design for us, most likely will not attract a Japanese player, who is used to more flashiness. This is when it becomes crucial to have local people in your team and that’s why we invest in that greatly. This makes a huge difference, yielding insight that a European might otherwise overlook. We are able to offer a product that a person born and raised on the opposite side of the world can relate to.
In your opinion, how important is SEO strategy for the promotional campaign of an online casino?
It is important, especially in countries such as Italy, Spain, and similar, where other forms of advertising aren’t allowed or are strictly regulated. SEO, therefore, becomes one of the only ways to acquire new customers and should not be underestimated.
Do you believe that it is possible to acquire organic SEO traffic for gambling websites in 2021?
It is definitely possible, but not easy. It really requires a lot of effort and investment of time and resources, especially because the market has become very competitive in the past few years. Also, depending on what side you are on, ranking for certain keywords might be more challenging than others. For instance, the site of an operator will hardly be able to rank for searches that involve reviews or opinions on their own brand.
What are the biggest obstacles for SEO in the modern iGaming market?
Changes in regulations and compliance can be big issues. These often involve drastic changes in the sites and their content. Achieving top SERP positions takes time and a lot of work, and many different elements coincide to achieve the goal. Sometimes regulations come in and it becomes necessary to:
- change the appearance of a site;
- avoid using certain words;
- reposition CTAs;
- and add long and repetitive disclaimers.
These are all factors that influence how a page is perceived by the users, Google, and other search engines. We also try to always promote responsible gambling, as well as legal and safe operators. But this can limit creativity in a campaign. Sometimes the challenge comes from the search engines themselves. They are always improving and changing the rules of the game.
Could you give some tips on launching a successful SEO campaign in the iGaming sector?
Do as much research on your competitors as possible. By doing your due diligence, you will get a good understanding of how challenging things will be, the resources you will require, and possibly the kind of budget you will need to achieve your goal. A successful SEO campaign depends on many elements such as quality content, fast and light site technology, outreach, link building, and more. The more info and accurate vision you have, the more likely you will be to succeed.
In your opinion, how will the marketing vertical of the gambling industry transform in the next 5 years?
It’s not easy to predict how things will be in five years’ time. Five years ago, people were saying SEO was dead. Yet here we are, still running and kicking. Social media platforms were supposed to be all the rage. While they brought some results and took a decent size of the pie, they are by no means what people were expecting them to become. We also had all sorts of doom forecasts due to new and stricter regulations that would impact marketing campaigns. However, we have adapted and new ways to legally promote things have been found. We are moving away from broad mass marketing campaigns, and we are going toward a specific targetization of the users and their intent.
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