"What is quality traffic?" - Victoria Mazur, Head of Affiliates at Play.Partners

Traffic quality is one of the main characteristics that provides several advantages for webmasters and influences the successes of advertising campaigns. A lot depends on this: the amount of earnings, the reputation of the specialist, his qualification, and the establishment of strong trust-based partnerships. 

But what traffic will be considered truly quality in the iGaming sphere, how to improve it, can one expect leniency, and what happens if the quality turns out to be low? 

Victoria Mazur, Head of Affiliates at Play.Partners team, answers all the most common questions on this topic.

*tap here if you want to read interview in the RU version

What is quality traffic in the context of the iGaming niche?

In general, traffic refers to people who visit a website or any other resource representing your brand. Quality traffic is when these individuals are targeted users who take the desired actions. 

In the context of the iGaming market, quality traffic consists of real, active, and financially capable players who come to the casino, play, and stay with it for years.

What indicators are considered when evaluating traffic quality?

First and foremost, there is always an assessment of traffic for fraud, which involves attracting a knowingly low-quality audience as valid players. 

If the fraud check is passed, the quality of traffic is further evaluated based on several criteria:

• player activity (bets, frequency of casino visits, level of engagement in games); 
• number of repeat deposits per stream (on average);  
• number of repeat deposits per player; 
• average deposit amount per paying player; 
• overall potential of attracted players; 
• withdrawals;
• average player lifetime in the casino; 
• percentage of closed accounts after one month.

Are there any indicators that can be overlooked in assessing quality if they are low? If so, what are they?

Yeah, in this case, it depends on the type of traffic and the speed of its driving. These points are individual to each situation, but for example, if the traffic doesn’t show a high average check, but the players are active and real, then a weekly hold is possible, which will show the real picture.

What determines whether an advertiser sets KPIs for an offer?

The presence of KPIs depends on three main factors: 

• the type of traffic it is; 
• the history of cooperation with a specific affiliate; 
• the overall KPIs of the brand owners.

If there are no specific KPIs, how will traffic quality be evaluated?

Even if there are no specific KPIs , traffic quality will still be evaluated based on the same characteristics and indicators. The only difference is that the result won’t be communicated to the affiliate.

Can a webmaster independently access traffic quality before it is evaluated by the affiliate network/advertiser?

If this information is available in the webmaster’s account, then yes, of course. To have a basic understanding of how traffic performs, one should primarily pay attention to the number of “first-time depositors”. 

For example, if out of 10 players, 9 only made a minimum deposit and didn’t play further , then the traffic won’t be considered high-quality. Even if the remaining one turns out to be a highroller compared to all others.

Which method can help to improve traffic quality, if the webmaster realizes it’s low during the traffic acquisition process?

The methods can vary and depend on the type of traffic. If a webmaster notices low traffic quality before receiving complaints from the advertiser, it may be worth pausing it and making changes. 

Each webmaster should test and evaluate which methods work best in their specific campaign. However, some main strategies to consider include: 

• testing different GEOs and audience; 
• refining traffic sources, such as adding pre-landers, manual processing, etc.; 
• studying the interests of the audience in your GEO and incorporating them into creatives. 
• testing different creatives (formats, approaches, etc.)

What traffic is considered low-quality and how does it differ from fraud?

Low-quality traffic refers to non-targeted traffic. In other words, these are players who come to the casino, only operate within the framework of a minimum deposit, and after losing, and leave permanently. 

Fraud, essentially, is the same thing – invalid leads, with the only difference being that fraud is often intentional actions by the webmaster aimed at deception and dishonest earnings.

What actions does the affiliate network take if the traffic is of poor quality?

During the traffic acquisition process, we monitor traffic quality on a daily basis, and if low performance is noticed, we promptly inform the webmaster about the issue. 

To address it, we may provide:

• recommendations on target audience; 
• necessary push notifications; 
• temporary pause to allow players to reach the desired level; 
• implementation of daily caps to slow down traffic acquisition.

What possible actions can advertisers take regarding low-quality traffic?

Much depends on the specific advertiser and the conditions agreed upon at the beginning of cooperation. Initially, if the traffic is low-quality, the advertiser may attempt to conduct player retention efforts through internal support. If this doesn’t yield results, the actions may include: 

• holding payments; 
• reducing rates; 
• paying only for active players; 
• refusing to pay for traffic altogether; 
• adding to a stop-list.

Why is it important for webmasters to pay special attention to quality?

A verified webmaster who brings in quality traffic and pays attention to this aspect will always have good cooperation conditions with affiliate networks or advertisers: exclusive offers, high rates, uncapped, and timely payments.