How do you run sports betting advertising campaigns?

The betting vertical is considered one of the most lucrative for a reason. It’s a huge market that, with the right approach to shedding, can bring good profits. But there is a nuance — it can be challenging to promote betting offers if you don’t know all the intricacies of launching successful advertising campaigns. In this article, the 888STARZ Partners team will tell you how to drive traffic to bet, as well as provide you with a step-by-step guide to launching campaigns in this promising and profitable niche.

Betting: niche overview and prospects

Betting is a vertical that includes all types of betting on sporting events, cyber sports, and other disciplines where several outcomes of the final events are possible. To better understand the principle of conducting successful campaigns in this niche, we need to talk about its key characteristics.

Size and dynamics of the betting market

The betting market, which means betting on sporting events, is actively growing due to the universal spread of the Internet. The global industry is estimated to be worth hundreds of billions of dollars with an annual growth rate of 8-10%, especially in North America and Asia. Regional differences are significant: in Europe and Australia the market is mature and legal, in Asia the illegal segment prevails, and in North America is booming after the liberalization of laws.

Features of the betting niche

The betting industry is technologically dependent — AI, blockchain and mobile solutions are being introduced here. Stiff competition forces companies to spend up to 30% of their budget on marketing, including integration with bloggers and sports broadcasts. User activity fluctuates due to seasonality: peaks occur during major tournaments, while the decline is compensated for by betting on cybersports or niche disciplines. High LTV is another difference in the sports betting industry. Companies retain customers through personalization, loyalty programs, and exclusive promotions, as well as attract new users, which is more expensive. Despite legal restrictions and market saturation, the industry is adapting to trends and maintaining growth trends.

Defining the target audience

The main part of the target audience of betting is men 18-45 years old who consider betting on sports and gambling as a hobby. They actively follow matches via streaming platforms, participate in sports forums, and bet for fun. However, women should not be ignored: their share of betting is growing, especially in the niches of tennis, athletics, and cybersports. Both women and men appreciate the availability of convenient mobile apps, transparent terms and conditions, and generous deposit bonuses. To better analyze your target audience, you can use tools like Google Analytics and Heatmap services like Hotjar. Google Analytics will help you see the most visited pages of your target audience, and Hotjar will give you information about user behavior on those pages.

Traffic sources

New traffic sources for promoting betting offers appear every year, but not all of them can be called effective and proven. Here are a few traffic sources that will help you get the highest volumes and conversions for promoting betting offers:

• Push networks. Push notifications are compact alerts that are sent directly to the user’s screen and lead directly to an offer. Push traffic remains a favorite for promoting betting offers due to the high conversion rate, flexible targeting, and low cost of launching RC. 
• Teaser networks. Teasers are a type of advertising in which ads have clickbait content. Teaser advertising rates are characterized by a low cost of launching the RK and cause a sense of intrigue. But for most users (especially the audience under 45 years old), teasers cause a negative reaction, and in white advertising networks they are often blocked.
• Social media.  This is a complicated but promising source of traffic. In Instagram and Facebook, open advertising of bookmakers is often blocked, so you need to use workarounds such as cloaking and anti-delete browsers. Setting up targeting in social networks may cause difficulties for novice affiliates, but it will increase the quality of traffic many times over.  
• Google and search advertising. Google Ads is the most popular advertising network in the world, which includes advertising on all of the company’s services and partner platforms.  It is also worth considering that promoting betting through Google is more expensive than when choosing other sources of traffic. In addition, it will be difficult to promote a gray offerer, and bookmaker advertising will not be shown in regions where the operator does not have a license. But these disadvantages are justified, as the potential to get coverage here is greater than in other sources of traffic. 
• Native advertising. Native advertising is banners that are displayed only to target users based on their search queries. With this type of advertising, you can attract the most engaged audience, thereby significantly increasing the quality of traffic.

Creating effective advertising materials

Choosing an offer

In the betting industry, there are a huge number of offers from large and small bookmakers looking to attract new players. When choosing an offer, pay attention to the following factors:

• Terms and conditions for players.

Players are attracted by the favorable conditions offered by the bookmaker. The presence of various welcome bonuses, freebets, cashback for deposits and high odds will make it easier to promote the offer and help keep players on the platform. 

• Withdrawal Methods. 

Popular withdrawal methods, such as Visa/Mastercard and cryptocurrency wallets, are not available in all countries, especially in Tier 3. When choosing an offerer, be sure to research the available withdrawal methods in the region of promotion, as well as the minimum deposit amounts and time of receipt of money. The more convenient it will be for players to deposit and withdraw their winnings, the more traffic you will be able to attract.

• Choice of sporting events.

In different regions, popular sports may differ. For example, in India they prefer cricket, in Canada they love hockey, and in China, cybersports are very popular. Therefore, it is important to research which sports are in demand in the region of promotion and check if the bookmaker offers such sporting events.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account the geography of the offer, as the further strategy of sports betting promotion will depend on it. In Europe (Germany, UK) the audience is used to legal betting and is ready for high deposits, while in regions like Latin America or South-East Asia, users are more likely to react to aggressive promotions. Always check with local legislation — in some countries, like the US, betting is only allowed in certain states. 

However, when white promoting an offerer in a GEO where the bookmaker has an official license, you should also take into account the rules for launching advertising campaigns. In addition, in Facebook and Google for advertising licensed bookmakers, you need to re-apply for the launch of campaigns, which will also take some time, so white promotion is not always the best choice.

Betting creatives

Sharing a few tips to help you create high-converting promotional material creatives:

• Talk about bonuses.

People are attracted by favorable conditions, like bonuses to bets, and increased odds for new users. Be sure to add relevant information about current promotions on the landing to attract players. They should not mislead the user or make empty promises.

• Keep an eye on trends.

Promotion of the betting vertical is tied to current sports events, be aware of popular tournaments and championships in different GEOs.

• Optimize your call to action.

The call to action should motivate users to perform a targeted action, but simply writing “click here!” won’t be enough. Use techniques such as adding urgency by explaining to users that the offer is limited. For example, “+1000 for signing up: 24 hours left” or “Risk-free Manchester United bets for new players”. This will trigger the FOMO effect in the audience — the fear of missing out on possible benefits.

This is a great way to indicate exactly what you want from the user and encourage them to take action right now by enticing them with a valid exclusive offer. For example, “Bet TODAY and get an exclusive bonus of +50% on your bet”, but this information must be relevant and not misleading.

By the way, 888STARZ Partners don’t need to bother with creatives at all — we provide ready-made advertising materials, from banners to high-quality mobile PWA applications. We localize all creatives for the chosen GEO and provide them to each partner upon preliminary request.

Targeting and customization of advertising campaigns

By setting up targeting for the betting audience, you will be able to separate irrelevant users from relevant ones and your campaign will start bringing only targeted traffic. To set up targeting correctly, take into account geographic, and demographic parameters of the audience, and also consider the seasonal nature of the betting industry. Let’s talk about these nuances separately.

Geotargeting

The success of betting campaigns directly depends on the right choice of GEO for the straight. Regions are divided into three categories:

• Tier-1 (UK, Germany, Canada): high-income audience, legal betting, but high competition and cost per click. Offers with large bonuses and emphasis on premium services are effective here.
• Tier-2 (Brazil, Mexico, India): fast-growing markets with moderate competition. Users are sensitive to promotions (“+200% on first deposit”) and prefer mobile betting apps.
• Tier-3 (Nigeria, Kenya, Vietnam): low conversion rate but minimal traffic cost. Offers with simplified registration are suitable, and optimization for mobile devices is important.

For all the partners who drive traffic from African countries, we have a special offer. Just recently 888STARZ Partners became an official operator in Nigeria and in honor of this we have launched the “Nigeria’s Goldmine” contest. As part of this promotion, participants can get up to $400 for bringing in FTDs from Nigeria, and that’s not counting additional bonuses for repeat deposits. Want to know more about Nigeria’s Goldmine contest? Then follow the link, read the terms and conditions carefully, and start driving traffic from Nigeria!

Demographic and behavioral targeting

The main audience is men 25-45 years old, but in niche sports (tennis, cyber sports) the share of women reaches 30%. Given this, it is necessary to segment the audience by:

• Age: Young people (18-24 years old) react to creatives with cybersports and quick payouts, the older group (35+) — to forecasts and analytics.
• Behavior: set targeting on users who visit sports sites, download betting apps, or search for thematic search queries.

Launching campaigns

During major sporting events, interest in sports betting increases significantly, so it is best to launch campaigns in the betting niche during such events as soccer championships and the Olympics. And since many sporting events are seasonal (for example, soccer matches are usually held in the warm season), you should also focus on this factor to increase traffic. But you should take into account that on such days the cost per click also increases due to the influx of competitors. 

Analytics and optimization of the advertising campaign

After launching the campaign, track metrics via trackers (Binom, Keitaro) and optimize the advertising campaign based on this data. Key metrics: signup conversion rate (CR), cost per customer acquisition (CPA), and Lifetime Value (LTV) — total revenue per user. A/B testing is your main tool. Test different elements: headlines of push notifications (“Win Now” vs. “Get Bonus”), colors of buttons on the landing page (red vs. green), length of videos (15 seconds vs. 30 seconds).

Legal and ethics aspects

Avoid advertising in countries with a ban on betting (e.g. Saudi Arabia). Use geotargeting and VPN filters to exclude untargeted audiences. In your texts, avoid promises of guaranteed winnings — this can lead to ad blockers and penalties. Focus on “entertainment” and “analytics” rather than gambling.

Conclusion

Launching advertising campaigns in betting is not a science that is enough to learn once and successfully apply the knowledge for years to come. The sports betting industry is constantly changing and new, more promising methods of promotion regularly appear, without the use of which your competitiveness is called into question. Test new formats, analyze trends, and conduct experiments to keep your advertising campaigns flexible, gaining more and more profit. 

And if you want to maximize your income and work with offers with the most favorable conditions on the market, go to the 888STARZ Partners platform. Our affiliate program offers betting and gambling offers at some of the best conditions on the market, and the number of GEOs exceeds 100 regions around the world. We also provide affiliates with various promotional materials so that nothing distracts you from the driving traffic.