For instance if you have over 50% of your traffic that are returning visitors and not fresh traffic, it is quite normal that conversions of casinos that have been promoted heavily on your site would drop.
This is true for me, Laurent.
Over 50% of my visitors are repeat visitors I know of (using bookmarks). It is definitely a point to consider, and I do take it into account.
On the other hand, I have also a lot of visitors who love to play games online but have not yet been converted to casinos, so that flaws the matter again.
Then there is this to consider: Are conversions dropping, or are they just not accumulating, as in you cannot build a player base?
Some programs are great for building player bases, and some seem to lose all players after a month.
Then you have the “player for life” matter. Some casinos are extremely well branded and often get a lot of clicks and downloads, but few conversions. Why? Because the clickers have played there before sometime, maybe years ago. They belong to another aff.
This will work in your favor once you have been in the business for a while. This accounts for some of the programs holding on to the large affiliates for years and years. Programs who remove players after a certain period, like a year, of inactivity, are unable to hold on to the big affiliates. Why? No player base.
After all is said and done, you want to see a loyal player base at the casino. And that is up to the casino – the affiliate and the program have little to say about it.
I personally think that a lot of shaving takes place at the casino level, not the programs.