The iGaming creative strategy comes as a mixture of business goals and players’ dreams. As a marketer, you must stay honest but entice users to click, play, and deposit. We have drilled down a heavy load of campaigns to outline the basics of successful creatives. Use these best practices to win players’ votes converted into deposits, installs, and signups.
Why it’s important to polish your iGaming creative strategy
The iGaming marketing has never been more challenging and competitive. Although the number of players will continue growing and hit 290.5M by 2029, operators and affiliates will face several issues:
- New iGaming regulations will pose more limits to ad messages
- eSports will break into the market
- Operators will have to adapt innovative ad formats to combat ad fatigue
- Players will demand more clear values and benefits
- Responsible operator-to-player communication will take the lead
- New geos outside the US and the EU will become key profit sources
For advertisers, it only means they have more opportunities than ever. By building a clean sales funnel of ad messages, brands can enhance ROI by up to 40–70%. But to do so, they need to know:
- Who the players are and why they involve into games
- Top geos players come from (as of Adsterra)
- Best practices for all creatives
- Future-proofing your iGaming creative strategy
Understanding your audience: Who are the players?
- Globally, players tend to become younger, approaching the lowest age limit (18 to 35 y.o)
- About 64% of the players are men, compared to 36% of female gamers. However, in some countries, the percentage of male/female users is almost 50/50.
- Women prefer simple online games of chance while men tend to deposit on sports or iGaming platforms
- 42% of sports game fans are millennials (in the US)
- In the US, 44% of all players are occasional while 38% are regulars
To adapt your iGaming creative strategy the best way, you need to be familiar with players.
To Contents ↑Player behavior types
Behavior-wise, you will be communicating your message to three main groups:
- Occasional players
- Regular players (with or without a strategy)
- Team players
Occasional players are usually inspired by friends or just want to support their favorite teams at major sporting events. These folks also may be drawn by an opportunity to get easy money they need right now.
Regular players have been playing for a while. They participate in one or several types of games weekly. With or without serious gaming skills, they stick to their own tactics. They may need money or look for a chance to change their life.
Team players are sociable, and their motives stem from a desire to be a part of something big and important. Their choice falls for games of chance, primarily easy ones or sports matches. This group may also play regularly but their motives are not financial.
Reasons people play
These three groups of players also act in reliance for some reasons. Generally, you will operate with these basic incentives:
- Social reasons. A group of sports enthusiasts, friends, or even peers feel united when playing. These partnerships have a great impact on how people think about themselves.
- Financial reasons. People believe one day they’ll win and relieve their financial burden, or they dream of winning a big prize that will be a life changer.
- Coping (or escaping) reasons. People need to shake the stress away or escape the clutches of mundane work. They may also seek to digress from unwanted thoughts or obligations.
- Entertainment. The last major group of players expects playing to make them feel good and excited. They’re thrilled to play as if they were driving a sports car.
Reasons people play may intersect as well as groups of players. Advertisers can use several levers to grab user attention and help them make a final decision. We will structure the best tactics in this guide!
Top countries players come from and how it affects creatives
iGaming leaders among geos
Traditionally, the US and Europe send the majority of profits. As of AGA, 49% of Americans were involved in gaming over the year. FDU poll revealed some 57% of Americans got engaged in offline&online gaming activities over the past year. Meanwhile, Europe still has the largest market share of online gaming (52,6%). In the UK only, about 28% of consumers revealed they played online, which makes the country the second largest gaming market after the US.
Next, come Australian and Japanese players. The first ones highlighted that they have engaged in online gaming (21%). Some 8% of consumers in Japan are likely to get involved in gaming, and 11.3 million Japanese are projected to step into the industry by 2028 (source: Euronews).
Another research by Sports Value and GWI claims Brazilains to become one of the most active nations in sports predictions (22%) taking the lead over the Brits (19%). While Brazil is in fifth place, countries that come ahead are: New Zealand (4th place), Greece (3rd place), Norway (2nd place) and South Africa (1st place). South Africans are leaders as about 30% of the population are active online players.
Geos experiencing a surge in player activity
Apart from the obvious Tier-1 countries, there has been a surge in spending from Tier-2 and Tier-3 players over the past few years. Players from Brazil, Mexico, India, Thailand, and African countries are both adventurers and regular players. They seek to change their lives for the better and stay connected with those with the same interests.
To Contents ↑Recommendation from Adsterra experts:
Tier-1 traffic is overheated in terms of prices. Try acquiring traffic Latam, Asian, and African ad views. CPM traffic volumes are huge while players are loyal. Ensure, however, that the first deposit is doable: people may not be ready to start with $100-200 right away.
Top countries sending the most profitable iGaming traffic:
- IN – India
- ZA – South Africa
- PH – Philippines
- BR – Brazil
- BD – Bangladesh
- NG – Nigeria
- NP – Nepal
- ID – Indonesia
- BG – Bulgaria
- US – United States
- MX – Mexico
- MA – Morocco
- PK – Pakistan
- LK – Sri Lanka
- EG – Egypt
- AR – Argentina
- PE – Peru
- TH – Thailand
- RO – Romania
- IT – Italy
- CM – Cameroon
- DE – Germany
- CL – Chile
- EC – Ecuador
- JP – Japan
- CA – Canada
- CO – Colombia
- KE – Kenya
- GH – Ghana
The iGaming creative sales funnel
Your iGaming creative strategy should involve minimum steps before users convert. Every step must either engage the right audience or filter off the unwanted traffic.
Sales funnels for CPA campaign will be:
For Popunders: Publisher’s Site >> Prelander >> Landing page
For Social Bar and other display formats: Publisher’s Site>> Creative >> (optionally: Prelander) >> Landing page
To Contents ↑CPA campaigns in the iGaming niche are the most expensive. We at Adsterra recommend tapping into this field only with a simple conversion flow: app installs, player sign-ups or registrations.
Sales funnels for CPM iGaming campaigns:
For Popunders: Publisher’s Site >> Landing page (no prelander)
For Social Bar and other display formats: Publisher’s Site >> Creative >> Landing page (no prelander)
To Contents ↑CPM campaigns should digest as much traffic as possible. Therefore, using a prelander may be unnecessary unless you need to weed out specific groups of users (e.g., by age). Prefer CPM pricing when your conversion flow requires deposits or credit card submissions.
How to advertise iGaming offers (top formats)
Despite trends requiring advanced solutions, we’re going to start with an evergreen format.
Popunder (recommended)
A Popunder is a direct path to your offer. Still, they’re leaders in quantity and quality of iGaming traffic. Users are literally led from a Publisher’s site to your offer, where they convert into leads or deposits.
Popunder advertisements require you to check through your landing page, making it a conversion machine. We’ll talk more about the elements of a great lander. And here’s what an expert in affiliate marketing and Popunder lead gen techniques says:
Popunders are all about engaging users before they close the browser window. Surveys, spin games & scratch cards — are just examples of what works well in capturing users’ attention in niches like dating, gaming, finance, and more.
Joey Babineau, owner of Powerhouse Affiliate
To Contents ↑
Social Bar (hot)
Now, it’s time for real innovations. Social bar ads keep pace with technological advances. If you want to scale a Popunder campaign or refresh an ad message, wrap your offer in one of the Social Bar’s creatives. The format allows for almost unlimited designs. You can use templates or apply for a fully-customized solution.
Interstitial (trending)
Interstitials fully capture player attention. These iGaming creatives overlap the web page’s content featuring your offer and its benefits with large visuals and headings.
In-Page Push (optional)
In-Page Push are optional for the Sports and Entertainment niche; their main area is App and Software advertising. Although we will list some effective iGaming creative examples that can generate lots of clicks and conversions.
Our next stop is iGaming creative strategy for visuals: prelanders, ad formats, and landing pages.
iGaming creative assets: Prelanders best practices
A prelander (or pre-landing page) is a middle page between a publisher’s website and the main landing page. It’s aimed to hook target users so that they don’t churn before making a conversion. Or, alternatively, they weed out unwanted traffic.
Gamification
People of all ages still love trying their luck with all sorts of spins, wheels of fortune, or scratch cards. That’s why gamification with such simple instruments is a great attention grabber.
Tips:
- Hide real bonuses or valuable gifts in your mini game
- Don’t make the game too easy
- Allow several attempts
- Keep the prelander super simple in structure but vivid in design
- Remove all unnecessary texts (you can leave licenses and certificates, though)
- If you promote an online game or app, integrate a game preview
Traffic segmentation (exclusion)
Sometimes, you need to verify your audience matches the main entry criteria. You can use a prelander to weed out traffic that is unlikely to convert or unwanted. Right here, is an example of a prelander that verifies player age.
Storytelling (testimonials)
A prelander can serve you as an additional means to convince users you’re a reliable platform. Add players’ stories or testimonials as a separate page or provide a set of news headlines. Ensure you add details like the player’s name, the amount of money won, how the winning became possible (the story itself). This format allows for a longer and more emotional copy.
Using “The Chosen” effect
Share exclusives or non-regular bonuses on a prelander. If a person gets an opportunity to increase their earnings or simply gets listed as a VIP player, they are unwilling to miss out on this chance. But stay honest: you need to provide precious gifts or bumps.
iGaming creative assets: Social Bar, Interstitials, Push Ads
Before players come to your landing page, they meet advertising creatives on publishers’ websites. Let’s list some of the timeless tactics to grab user attention and prompt multiple clicks.
To Contents ↑One basic tip here: generate tons of clicks is a no brainer, but that’s not your final goal, right? So ensure you’re using clickbait ad tactics wisely.
Personalization
In general, personalization is about addressing someone by name. Indeed. But there are other ways to make people think more connected with your offer:
- Use the name of a country or city (city targeting)
- Offer “personal bonuses”
- Write in your audience language (localization)
Nice bargain / benefit
The most trivial but effective way to make players click and convert is to offer valuable bonuses they can use after registration. You can highlight the accessibility of the game, literally “anyone can win” and provide an anchoring freebie: bonus added to a first deposit, free spins, access to advanced options, etc.
Success stories
Adding short stories of the luckiest ones is a powerful move, and you don’t need a full-page copy to do this. Use In-Page Push ads or an Interstitial to start an inspiring narrative you will support on the main lander. Or, just provide facts about who and how won big.
Direct engagement (call to action)
You can use all workable techniques here: fear of missing out, scarcity effect, urgency effect, direct incentives. You will succeed if you are assertive and straightforward – not too pushy, though.
Answering players’ frequent questions
With this tactic, you anticipate the most frequent questions and players’ concerns, providing a proper answer. You don’t need to be a mentalist, just use your basic knowledge about what players ask and their popular misconceptions.
Thrilling and entertaining users
Players get excited right when they start planning how to participate in the game. If talking about supporting a sports team, the grade of thrill arouses twofold! Use it to deliver your ad message and win all clicks. Appeal to players’ eagerness to try their luck and add a dash of risk to their daily routine.
Our final stop in the sales funnel is a landing page. There’s a common misconception that there is a universal selling formula for all landers. We insist that there is no such formula. But you can keep to basic principles of user engagement and UX to make players complete the most important step.
To Contents ↑iGaming creative assets: Landing pages
Clean and clear offer
You need to deliver an offer that will be both clear and conversion-boosting. Meanwhile, this should be connected with the previous message players viewed when clicked the ad.
UX-friendly and simplified registration
You need to deliver an offer that will be both clear and conversion-boosting. Meanwhile, this offer should be connected with the previous message players viewed when clicked the ad. Try to stand out and include a unique selling point (what differs you from the competition,) or provide a valuable benefit to users.
Outstanding visuals resonating with your idea
Take care of the quality landing page design. Add branding elements and support your offer with a main illustration that resonates with the topic:
- a sports match or team,
- famous players (if you’re allowed to use their photos),
- gaming process,
- exclusives, VIP communities, limited offers, etc.
Future-proofing your iGaming creative ideas
All iGaming creative ideas tend to get outdated. Nevertheless, you can future-proof your marketing strength and efficiency by following these rules:
Prepare for regulatory changes
The iGaming industry is becoming more complex due to constant regulatory changes. Stay informed about upcoming iGaming regulations and adjust your traffic sources accordingly. This proactive approach ensures you get cost-effective traffic outside the overregulated zones and keep your ROI high.
Keep up with technological advances
Adtech offers multiple smart tools for cost optimization and reducing mundane tasks. Apply a Smart CPM algorithm to optimize traffic for conversions, or try CPA Goal to obtain CPM/CPC traffic with a desired number of conversions (or eCPA.)
Create a long-term iGaming creative strategy
A long-term iGaming creative strategy means staying prepared to improve your campaigns:
- Refresh ad creatives that started deliver fewer clicks
- A/B test multiple creatives that appeal to different user behavior patterns
- Adapt innovative ad formats (start with Social Bar templates)
- Stay responsive to players’ feedback and enrich your offer with valuable benefits.
Bonus: The iGaming creative strategy cheat-sheet
With all said (and maybe, done) we definitely need a drilldown of the best hacks. Use this list as a cheat-sheet or draft, enrich it with your tips and tricks, and stay profitable!
- Don’t use one ad creative for all your campaigns
- Make sure creatives don’t look cheap or outside your branding
- Check your copy for typos and grammar mistakes
- Make sure ads deliver a clear and valuable offer
- Add a USP (unique selling proposition) to differentiate from the competition
- Refresh and retest old creatives
- Maintain consistency between your creatives, prelanders, and landers
- Personalize ads by using dynamic tags (city, language, etc)
- Localize all iGaming creative assets when advertising in Latam and Asia
- Keep the balance between great CTRs and further CRs
- Remember various reasons people play and combine different hooks
- Use FOMO, scarcity, and urgency tactics in your ad copy
- Add clear and engaging CTAs, prompting users what they need to do next
- Add all available licenses and certificates to your landing page to prove your credibility
- Provide a possibility to reach you out after user has registered
- Ensure your prelander and landing page load fast
- Walk through the conversion funnel yourself as if you were a user
- Test new ad formats, especially those with great UX
- Upload as many creatives per test as possible
- Partner with ad networks offering several ad formats and creative skins
Ok, like we said in “add a clear and engaging CTA.” So we encourage you to try Adsterra and its innovative ad formats along with top traffic for the iGaming vertical.
