How to Promote Mobile Gaming

[Ixian]

I'm busy setting up a site to promote mobile casinos and while doing so a few questions came to mind.

1. Are most mobile gaming sign ups initiated from a PC first?
2. Are most mobile gaming sign ups initiated from a mobile device first?
3. Is it best to create an affiliate marketing site that is capable of being viewed by all mobile devices and PC's?
4. Are SEO practices the same for mobile devices?
5. Is there a web service that allows you to view your site as if it was being viewed from a certain mobile device?

As you can see I don't know much about the mobile market and would appreciate any advice. Please feel free to add your own questions and answers.

[alexpratt]

Few resources below that might help. Also if you don't subscribe to our magazine I would as we cover mobile more and more, may also be worth going through the past issues which you can see digitally on the site.

PPC on mobile*http://www.igbaffiliate.com/resource...hy-it-big-deal
Taking your campaign mobile*http://www.igbaffiliate.com/resource...ampaign-mobile

Get the best position in app stores*http://www.igbaffiliate.com/resource...ile-app-stores
General mobile article*http://www.igbaffiliate.com/resource...age-smartphone

Very good mobile webinar for industry not so much affiliate*
http://www.igamingbusiness.com/conte...ent-and-future

[casinoplanet]

1. Are most mobile gaming sign ups initiated from a PC first?
2. Are most mobile gaming sign ups initiated from a mobile device first?
3. Is it best to create an affiliate marketing site that is capable of being viewed by all mobile devices and PC's?
4. Are SEO practices the same for mobile devices?
5. Is there a web service that allows you to view your site as if it was being viewed from a certain mobile device?

1 + 2 Most mobile casinos offer both mobile and web sign ups. However, keep in mind that some casinos promote a shortcode on their regular website. These won't be linked to your account if visitors use them to sign up. I personally generate most sign ups from mobile.
3 In general it's advisable to make the site mobile friendly, so you can also benefit from smartphone traffic. If you're planning to set up mobile ad campaigns it's even necessary to have a mobile friendly site.
4 Yes, however site loading times seem to be of more importance than for regular sites.
5 I mainly use iPhonetester.com and mtld.mobi/emulator.php for wap devices

[Louis - Income Access]

From the mobile affiliate programs I have worked with, I would say that the majority of sign ups are initiated from a mobile device.

However, I think increased awareness of mobile gaming and evolving user behaviour are causing this to trend back towards PCs. You see that volumes in Google are increasing for mobile search terms and I noticed it's getting a lot more competitive to rank for these terms, as big SEO players are starting to get in to the game for these terms.

[Ixian]

As the average cellphone contract is two years, which means people would upgrade to a new phone every two years, does that not imply that the majority of mobile devices will soon be smart phones and better? Games on anything less than a smart phone really suck.

[casinoplanet]

As the average cellphone contract is two years, which means people would upgrade to a new phone every two years, does that not imply that the majority of mobile devices will soon be smart phones and better? Games on anything less than a smart phone really suck.

True, therefore the majority of mobile programs also offer a special smartphone version or even focus entirely on smartphones, but since there are still many millions of lower end devices in use, one should not this ignore this segment (yet).

[ocreditor]

True, therefore the majority of mobile programs also offer a special smartphone version or even focus entirely on smartphones, but since there are still many millions of lower end devices in use, one should not this ignore this segment (yet).

I would add that not all smartphones are born equal: while some are large, others have small screens, some may have double core processors and others 800MHz only. Smartphones too can be "old" or "simple."

[Leo]

Right now I would estimate that at least 50% of mobile signups are not correctly tracked to affiliates. Of course it depends on the program, but I often see brands linking to their apps on the iPhone or Android markets - and if the player downloads from the Market and can register a new account from within the app then there is no way the affiliate is going to be compensated, because the iPhone and Android markets don't have any way to notify the brand of the referring affiliate.

I'm seeing it more and more often, and it makes sense for the brands to promote the Market links because phone owners trust downloads from the official market, since they've already got apps from the market in the past... So the affiliate gets cut out of the deal, even though they referred the player to the brand's site.

The only way to avoid the problem is to only promote brands that don't link to their apps on the markets, or that don't allow players to register a new account from within the app - so they have to register using a browser, which hopefully has your affiliate cookie.

I imagine in the future the better programs will make sure that all mobile signups are tracked correctly, but at the moment it seems even good programs don't seem too concerned about this problem. I guess referring players to the app markets means they get the player AND don't have to pay any commission, works out well for them

The same problem also exists to some extent with non-market links, eg. when the player enters their phone number on the site, and the download link is sent to their phone - if it then allows them to create a new account directly on their phone with no affiliate cookie then I'm sure this often isn't properly tracked to the referring affiliate (although it is technically possible with a custom download link, unlike downloading from the Markets which allows no tracking).

If you're focussing on mobile for a site then it would be a good idea to personally test all the download links for the brands you're promoting, to see if they're really tracking mobile players to your affiliate account.

[casinoplanet]

Right now I would estimate that at least 50% of mobile signups are not correctly tracked to affiliates.

True, and some mobile casinos also promote a sms shortcode on their website which aren't tracked either.

For this reason I hardly promote my regular websites (merely for seo purposes), but drive the majority of traffic to my mobile sites and apps. Tracking works well via mobile in my experience.

[issaco]

Hi,

To get the beset conversion you need to optimize your site for both online and mobile traffic. You will be able to use tools such as the iframe for the best conversion form your online site. (Marketing tools)

1.2. The answers to your first 2 question will depend on the type of traffic you are targeting.
3. Yes. I recommend setting up sub-domians to redirect your mobile traffic and have a dedicated page for major devices (iPhone, Android, iPad, Smartphone).

4. SEO is quite similar - get great links and add value to your users. User experience however is quite different.
5. you can use either GEOSURF on FF and explorer or SDK (both android and iPhone)

Good luck

Cheers,
Issac

SKYPE: issac.orland
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