How to Reduce Wasted Ad Spend in iGGaming
Every advertiser in the iGaming industry desires to acquire more players for their company. However, simply increasing the marketing budget for the company will not guarantee that there will be better results from those increased funds.
Every advertiser who works with channels like affiliate marketing, social media, or search will eventually find that a portion of their marketing budget gets wasted on users that do not convert to players. Whether from bad targeting of their ideal players, blocked traffic, or inefficient landing pages and campaigns, players’ money is lost.
The best iGaming operators spend time analyzing their marketing campaigns to find where they can eliminate wasted budgets and improve where they currently focus their marketing budget.
Why Marketing Budgets Get Wasted
Even the best of marketing budgets have some wasted portions of their budgets. Many of these budget losses come from the following:
Poor targeting of potential players
Low quality traffic from various channels
Players from markets that do not support the company
Slow landing pages
Weak relationships with affiliates
Poorly designed and promoted promotions
Focus on Qualified Traffic
Not all traffic is created equally. Players from various channels may visit your website, but the best traffic comes from individuals who are more likely to register, deposit, and return to play for your company over time.
Review Acquisition Channels Regularly
The best players come from various channels. Review each of your acquisition channels individually to see which brings you the best players and return on your marketing spend.
Common acquisition channels include:
Affiliate marketing
Organic search
Paid search
Display advertising
Email marketing campaigns
Referral programs
Analyze Player Lifetime Value
It is important to measure the success of your marketing and advertising channels not in the number of players that registered with your company, but in the lifetime value of those players.
Common metrics to track include:
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Revenue per player
Deposit frequency
Player retention rates
Net gaming revenue
Eliminate Low-Performing Campaigns
Some of your marketing campaigns will perform better than others. Eliminate the low-performing campaigns so that you can reallocate the budget toward the top performers.
Warning signs of a low-performing campaign include:
Low registration rates
Low rates of players making a deposit
High acquisition cost
Low player retention rates
Low engagement with your games
Improve Landing Page Performance
Your advertising campaigns are only as good as your landing pages. Ensure that your landing pages draw in players effectively by ensuring they are:
Fast loading times
Mobile friendly
Great value propositions
Bonuses for players
Easy registration processes
Optimize Geographic Targeting
Do not waste your marketing budget advertising to markets that your company does not support. Focus your advertising on markets where you can:
Hold gaming licenses
Offer available payment methods
Offer promotions
Have players eligible for those promotions
Strengthen Affiliate Relationships
One of the best ways to acquire players for your company is through affiliate marketing programs. Ensure that your affiliate marketing programs are working in your favor by:
Providing advertisers with accurate reporting on your traffic and players
Making sure you have a system for paying your affiliates for the players they bring in
Providing updated creative content for affiliates to use in their marketing channels
Creating a commission model that is competitive in the affiliate marketing industry
Providing account management services and departments to help your affiliates
Monitor Traffic Quality
Traffic volume is not the same as qualified players. Use traffic analytics to monitor your traffic quality by measuring:
Bot traffic
Invalid clicks
Duplicate registrations
Geographic information about players
Player devices
Use First-Party Data
Your company has unique insights into your players. First-party data metrics include:
Registration history
Deposit history
Promotion engagement
Session history
Playing specific games
AI Is Improving Advertising Efficiency
Artificial intelligence programs are automatically improving the efficiency of the advertising industry by automating tasks such as:
Budget forecasting
Audience targeting
Fraud detection
Traffic quality analysis
Campaign optimization
Test Campaigns Continuously
Do not allow your marketing and advertising channels to remain the same for long periods of time. Regularly test your campaigns, rotating certain elements such as:
Headlines
Creative content used in advertisements
Layout of your landing page
Bonus offers
Call-to-action buttons
Monitor Campaign Performance in Real Time
The performance of your campaigns may change from one day to the next. Monitor your campaigns in real time to respond to changes in:
Player registration
Traffic levels
Website performance
Operator availability
Budget performance
Reduce Blocked Traffic
Any traffic that is blocked from visiting your site wastes the marketing budget that you have set aside for acquiring new players. Common causes of blocked traffic include:
Geographic restrictions
Licensing restrictions
Operator availability
Compliance requirements
Build Better Attribution Models
Many players do not convert from just one marketing channel. Your attribution marketing model will help you to understand how many players come from each of the following channels:
Affiliate marketing
Organic search
Paid search campaigns
Email marketing
AI Is Improving Advertising Efficiency
Artificial intelligence programs are automatically improving the efficiency of the advertising industry by automating tasks such as:
Budget forecasting
Audience targeting
Fraud detection
Traffic quality analysis
Campaign optimization
Common Budgetting Mistakes in iGaming
Many advertisers lose profitability due to the following mistakes:
Focusing on acquiring players with high click counts but low registration rates
Ignoring the growth of mobile gaming
Ignoring campaign data and analytics to make marketing decisions
Running outdated promotions
Depending on only a few marketing channels to acquire all your players
Only measuring the number of registrations instead of lifetime value of your players
Correcting these issues will result in an improvement in the profitability of your company.
Best Practices for iGaming Advertisers
To reduce the wasted spend on your advertising channels for your company, follow these best practices:
Review the performance of your acquisition channels each month
Focus your efforts on qualified traffic
Optimize your landing pages
Track the lifetime value of your players
Reduce the amount of traffic that is blocked from playing
Test your campaigns continuously
Diversify your acquisition channels
Invest in automation for your marketing campaigns
Each of these improvements will result in significant cost savings for your company.
Final Thoughts
Reducing the amount of money spent on advertising for your iGaming company is one of the best strategies to improve the company’s profitability. Rather than throwing more money into the marketing budget, focus on improving the quality of the players that are acquired by your company.
By eliminating the worst performing marketing campaigns, investing in better analytics for your players, and embracing automation in your marketing department, you will not only maximize your ad spend, but you will acquire higher-value players for your company. In the current industry, efficient spending on acquiring players has become almost as important as the marketing strategies that you deploy for your company.