Engage is the brand new affiliate discovery platform which is designed to help iGaming operators identify new affiliate opportunities at scale using machine learning technology.
Following its launch, we caught up with Engage’s Neil Walker to discuss the platform. He spoke about which market gaps this will fill, as well as its particular benefits for affiliates and more.
And without further ado, we’ll let him take centre stage!
Affiverse: When developing Engage, what were the biggest problems you saw with similar products already on the market?
Neil Walker: “From the outset we wanted to keep Engage simple. We wanted our product to be easy to understand, easy to use and provide immediate, actionable results.
“When researching the market, we found that a lot of similar products tend to provide data that an affiliate manager would need to wade through or research further. We spotted a gap for a product that automatically gives the user the same results they would achieve through a manual search. We’re providing an answer to a familiar question, in the way the user can understand immediately.
“The other challenge we found was the need to provide localised results. We found that existing solutions struggle to give accurate information for different territories. Engage does away with the need for VPN software as we scan from within the geographic regions and provide localised results. Depending on the region, you can scan in multiple languages that further segment the results.”
AI: India, Canada and New Zealand are listed as territories where this product is available in. Can you tell us a bit about the iGaming/affiliate marketing potential you see in these markets?
NW: “India, Canada and New Zealand are some of the first available territories because that’s what our customers requested. We have a long list of countries and are adding new ones all the time. Popular requests include LATAM, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Scandinavian Countries, Australia, Europe etc. The Engage platform is very effective at identifying affiliate sites working in new markets which helps brands get a foothold in the market quite quickly.
“Interestingly, we’ve found there are still lots of opportunities for brands in the supposedly “saturated and established” markets.”
AI: What in particular do you think that affiliates will enjoy about your product?
NW: “Affiliate programs will enjoy how easy the tool is to use, how accurate the information is and how many opportunities they’ll get in a very short space of time. They’ll also enjoy the Auto Search feature, which acts like a personal PA, looking for opportunities when they are not using the system. The alert feature sends an email when new opportunities have been found.”
AI: Tell us about the biggest challenges you faced when developing Engage?
NW: “Our primary focus has always been to ensure that the product is simple and easy to use. We’ve built in machine learning and other facilities to help improve our coverage and learn from what it finds to improve the data we return. Ultimately, we want people to trust the data and the information we provide.
“The other challenge is technical. Developing the tech behind what you see on the screen has taken a long time and improvement is an ongoing process. We hold over 7.5 million pages of information and that grows every time we enter a new market. Managing these volumes and making sure the results we provide are produced quickly has been central to our design.”
AI: Aside from saving time, what else do you think is unique about Engage?
“We hold very detailed information about each affiliate site, about the brands being promoted on the sites and the pages they appear on.
“As far as I know, our Auto Alert feature is unique. This works in the background even when you don’t have time for finding new affiliates and presents new opportunities when they are found.
“We have introduced a pay as you go feature called Subscription Pause and this is something I am particularly proud of. During the beta phase, we found some of our clients had stopped using the product and discovered that they had found so many opportunities to follow up they didn’t need to use it for a month or so!
“Rather than continue to charge them a monthly fee, we decided to provide them with credits that can be redeemed against future use. This offers our customers fantastic value for money and they love the idea!”
