Please welcome Mikhail, a Head of the CPM Department at Adsterra. A panelist and keynote speaker at the top Brazilian conferences, Mikhail has connected with land-based marketing pros to share the insights you will unlock in a few seconds. He has compiled a set of 7 best hacks for brands and affiliate agencies advertising in Brazil or willing to enter this market.
Online advertising industry in Brazil is highly competitive, and since it’s the firts Latam economy. But you still can obtain quality impressions and clicks at an affordable cost and grab the best leads. Scan through this brief marketing guide and enhance the impact of your ad campaigns.
Mikhail Zhukov, Head of CPM
Who is this set of tips for?
First things first, I recommend this guide to iGaming global and local brands, agencies, and affiliate teams willing to advertise in Brazil and attract Brazilian audiences.
I’m not going to cover the basics of media buying here or the aspects of choosing CPA offers to promote. You can find all the necessary steps in my previous guides to Marketing in Latin America and iGaming Products Promotion in Brazil.
Today, we’ll narrow our focus to some core local aspects all marketers need to consider when advertising in Brazil and launching regular campaigns.
7 best pro tips to advertising in Brazil
If you’re a global brand aiming to break into the Brazilian market (whether it’s an iGaming or Commerce industry), your first job is learning the country’s culture code and ad consumption patterns.
These hacks will be your starting point. It’ll be much easier to adapt your ad campaigns to local specifics if you take them into account. But — sorry for disappointing you — this list is only the beginning of the journey. Brazil is too vivid, generous, and beautiful to outline in 7 pieces of advice, and its advertising industry is evolving right now as you’re reading this guide.
No English, por favor
To warm up, let’s start with the obvious. Land-based agencies and experts I connected with while attending Afiliados Brasil and SiGMA Americas would say unanimously, “Communicate your ad message in Portuguese.” Brazilians love their language, and you should respect this. So save time for a high-quality translation of landing pages, creatives, and interfaces.
You will need a local representative if you’re going to establish connections with local audiences and build your brand reputation. For iGaming operators, having a Portuguese-speaking support team is also a must.
We at Adsterra had to go the extra mile. Still, finally, we hired a talented marketing manager, Tarcio, who is now in charge of developing our community and sharing our expertise with Brazilians in the most native way.
Sound Brazilian, but don’t be fake
Experts advise using local slang to sound native. For instance, there are specific words used only in São Paulo. You may use such slang to mingle with your audience, but ensure you don’t sound fake or slimy. Respect and genuineness is still the key to success.
Faz mó cota que você não ganha
Here the word “cota” means “time”. This word is used in São Paulo.
It’s important to remember that Brazil is a huge country. Some slang or colloquial expressions are in use only within the state or region. For example, the word “cota” we used above is primarily common in São Paulo (city and state.) If you are talking to the public from another state in Brazil, they might not understand this expression, even if they live close to São Paulo State.
I asked Tarcio to list a couple more colloquial expressions that could sound native in many regions of the country:
- Fera = means “fella” or “buddy”
- Fazer uma fezinha = means “play in the lottery” or “bet in something”
- Sextou = means “Thank God It’s Friday”
- Se liga aí … = means “Stay tuned”
Appeal to emotions, but use the right words
This hack will help you enhance Sports and Entertainment campaigns. Experts advise delving into the sports-related jargon to be closer to your target audience. Your creatives and landing page must “sound like home.”
For example, São Paulo is home to about 20 million people. You may dive into its local sports fan communities and social media pages. Look for how they greet champions, what they discuss, and which tournaments they wait for most. Use local fan chants and slang, as well.
Football is not the hub of the universe
Brazilians are fiercely loyal sports fans. They support their favorite sports clubs and genuinely rejoice in their victories. But football is one of many sports with a massive number of fans.
Brazilian volleyball and handball national teams are also trendy. So my recommendation here is to check the top fixtures outside football and keep an eye on the appropriate CPA offers in your affiliate network. A tiny bonus here: the cost of traffic during these events might be lower compared to the ad views during football matches.
*Don’t forget about the UFC! Those roaring fights also attract loads of watchers and iGamers.
Offer suitable payment options
iGaming platforms and online gaming houses will find my following insight helpful. At SiGMA and Afiliados Brazil, they would discuss PIX as the most demanded system. It was rolled out not so long ago but gained incredible popularity—literally, a revolutionary payment method used by every second iGamer.
If you’re an affiliate, check if your operator provides PIX and mention this in creatives and landers. If you’re an iGaming platform, integration with this system will be your competitive advantage.
A generel rule is to simplify the sales funnel on a regular basis: whichever industry ore vertical you promote, make sure people can put in funds easily. If you’re an agency, advise your advertiser to add a suitable payment option or (if it’s not possible) offer very attractive bonuses on the offer’s page. This will help you from draining out budgets when consumers or players visit a website and churn off simple because they don’t want to deal with complex payment process.
Be where your consumers, customers, or players are
When advertising in a new market, your job is to check the communication channels your audience uses. In our case, you need to find out how Brazilians connect and if there’s an opportunity to promote CPA offers in these channels.
WhatsApp, or “zapzap,” as they call the messenger here, seems to be the #1 messaging app with an estimated penetration rate of 99%.
I can’t tell you if there are plenty of opportunities for advertising affiliate offers there, but our publishers manage to monetize landing pages with Direct Links driving WhatsApp traffic there.
As for iGaming operators and gaming platforms, they must be already using WhatsApp Business App for advertising. There’s an opportunity to create Facebook and Instagram ads that lead directly to WhatsApp chat.
Use non-mainstream ad networks
Both brands and affiliates should add advertising networks to their traffic sources pack. But I must put a focus on “non-mainstream” platforms. They provide clean traffic outside the roaring competition and with fewer restrictions.
Adsterra is exactly this type of ad network. With 35K+ publishers on board, we send loads of traffic from Streaming, Gaming, and Entertainment websites.
Top benefits of buying traffic from a non-mainstream network
- Expertise related to your industry
- Vertical-friendly policy
- Integrations with third-party trackers
- Access to best practices: creatives, landers, prelanders
- Accessible expert support for every partner
- Significant traffic volumes from South America (2.7B monthly impressions, as of February 2024)
- Partner Care Program that embraces both the highest customer support standards and expert advice to any who require help.
What I want to spotlight is vertical-specific expertise. You need a traffic provider who knows where to pick the most loyal audience, can communicate, and can stay in touch. Mass-market ad networks can’t offer you this.
You should tour the Adsterra platform and unlock all its features like CPA Goal, which optimizes CPM traffic by conversions, or Custom Bid.
A bit of bonus advice instead of a conclusion
While advertising in Brazil, your job is to appeal to consumers’ fundamental values and pain points. So, avoid using cliches about Brazilians.
- You know, there are lots of stereotypes about these lovely people. One of them — Brazilians prefer chilling to working, or every day is a festival. That’s so wrong! Brazilians are hard workers. Offices here open at 7:30 or 8 AM. This zeal made Brazil the most outstanding Latam economy.
- Not all Brazilians love footfall. And even when they do, not every Brazilian plays football.
- Samba and carnival mood are not a daily routine. When you appeal to Brazilians, try avoiding these cliches, and your marketing will make a difference.
- And finally, I address all my peers in Cyprus who are used to 86°F in summer. Pack your suitcase with warm clothes when coming to São Paulo in June; it’s the coldest month of the year 😂
