3 Mistakes to avoid when giving Bonuses in your Online Casino

3 Mistakes to avoid when giving Bonuses in your Online Casino

When bonus incentives go bad

When bonus incentives go bad

February 14, 2022 • 3 min. read •

February 14, 2022 • 3 min. read •

A lot of the iGaming promotional strategies rely on the basic “bonus”, be it a no-deposit one, a deposit match, a cashback or a free spin. Because it’s so easy to use, there is always the risk of overusing certain aspects and falling into traps that can limit your financial performance.

Let’s go through 3 of the main pitfalls when using bonuses in iGaming.

1. Don’t use bonuses without budgeting properly

Bonuses are a cost. Every time you will offer one to a customer you’re going to make less from that customer. There are 3rd parties to pay and there is an increased risk of your players hitting that high multiplier win which will diminish your revenues. It’s extremely important to create a promotional budget and try to stick with it.

How much a bonus costs is going to vary based on each particular situation:

• What deals are available with 3rd parties?
• What kind of games your playerbase enjoys the most?
• What the terms and conditions are for each promotion you’re offering?
• Can you share the cost of the promotion with your partners?
• Are your most played games more volatile or less volatile?
• How does the RTP look like?
• Do you have safe terms protecting you from the worst situations?

The more of the questions you can answer, the easier it’s going to be and the more precise calculations you can make.

2. Don’t use bonuses to make up for a mediocre product

Bonuses are a great promotional tool, but at the end of the day players come to iGaming sites to enjoy their time. The product needs to be good enough. Games need to work, buttons need to do what they advertise, the KYC process needs to be swift, withdrawals need to be paid in a reasonable amount of time.

Promotional tools can make a good product great and can even minimize the impact of some off the issues customers might be encountering. But they’re not going to turn a mediocre product into a good one. If clients can never withdraw their winnings because of various reasons, it doesn’t matter how many or how large bonuses you give out, they’ll rarely going to choose your product over others’.

3. Don’t use bonuses without proper segmentation

We talked about how bonuses represent a cost for the business. And like all other costs, we should try to optimize it as best as we can. One of the main ways to do that is to match the offer with the right customer. There is rarely an offer that’s good for everybody. There are players with a lot of time, players with little time, players with a high risk appetite and players with more conservative play patterns. And that ignores you and your business interests, your own appetite for risk, investment possibilities and cash flow requirements.

What you more often have to do is make promotional offers that cater to different segments of your playerbase. Otherwise if you target everyone, you target noone. You can segment based on the spending amounts, the games played, time spent with the brand and even frequency of claiming promotional offers. It all depends on what kind of analytics you have available. Just don’t ignore it.

It’s also worth mentioning that more often than not, offers will have a segment of players that try to “game the system”, who are going to try to abuse your bonus offerings. The faster you can identify these players and exclude them, the better it’s going to be.

***

In the end, bonuses are a great tool to have in your repertoire that’s going to be used probably every day you’re operating. Using it well can bring you great dividends so make sure you properly plan this. And if you need a bit of help with the process, we’re just an email away.

Until next time!