I don’t think banners generate as many clicks as they used to, but don’t get me wrong, they still have a very important function for the casino/bingo/poker/sportsbook.
They are branding tools, the more often the visitors are exposed to an image, no matter if they consciously look at it, the more familiar they will be with the name. The more familiar they are with the name, the more likely they are to pick it when they are ready to play.
That is tried and proven in all industries, and ours is no different.
What is different is that affiliates provide this branding for free, they are only paid for performance. There are literally millions of sites out there providing free branding, even if the owners never make a cent.
Being paid for impressions has fallen completey by the wayside.
Branding itself is not practiced much in this industry anymore, look alike billboard type casino sites in various colors and joomla and VB affiliate sites, all a dime a dozen and not memorable.
This is why paying by impression isn’t working – since none of the sites are memorable, it’s all about getting the click now or losing it forever.
If you ask me, this is a really unproductive way of doing business.
This industry needs to rethink and regroup the way it does business.