Where to Get iGaming Traffic and How To Run Online Gaming and Sports Campaigns
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No time to explain: you need to buy iGaming traffic.
Well, okay, we’ll explain:
The market size of the global iGaming industry has reached $61.5 billion in 2021. It is expected to reach $114.4 billion by 2028.
So, imagine how much profit is hidden in this niche. But how to find it?
This is precisely what we will talk about here.
What Does iGaming Have to Offer?
What we specifically love about iGaming is that this industry is really diverse. Just think about it: you can select between thousands of offers in sports and online gaming niches — but there are also fantasy sports, eSports, raffles, card games, social gaming, and many more.
So, you can test and play around with various offers before you find your best-performing one.
Getting iGaming Traffic: ‘Free’ Sources
Now, it’s finally time to get down to business: where to obtain iGaming traffic? Let’s start with the sources that can be almost free — unless you use paid advertising within them.
Note: This part will mainly help direct advertisers, but affiliate marketers and media buyers can also use some of the tips.
- SEO. SEO traffic is helpful if you have a full-fledged, regularly updated website with iGaming content. This may involve various iGaming platform reviews or some sports highlights — anything related.
The main point here is to build a strategy that will allow users to find your website among the first positions of the search engines’ rankings. This involves relevant keywords, backlinking, and, of course, unique enough content that will answer the top popular questions about iGaming.
The monetization of such a website through iGaming affiliate programs involves placing native or sponsored ads on the pages — here is one example of how it may look:
- Twitter/TikTok/Facebook/Telegram/Instagram. Social media is not limited by paid ads — and you can successfully drive organic traffic using one of these platforms. Nobody prevents you from promoting iGaming content via Instagram Reels, TikTok videos, some tweets (xeets now?😆), or a Telegram channel subject to the existing limitations above.
In a nutshell, it may look like an Instagram/TikTok account with an affiliate link in the bio. However, just like with the ads, you need to coordinate all this content with the account teams.
Note from PropellerAds: Telegram is pretty harsh in terms of organic traffic, so a better idea is to redirect users there from more organic-friendly platforms.
- Twitch. Twitch hasn’t gone too far with restrictions at the moment — so you still have a chance to promote some affiliate links by showing gameplay during live streams. Many Twitch streamers are willing to operate as affiliate marketers in this case and broadcast themselves having fun on a particular platform.
Getting iGaming Traffic: Advertising Networks
While socials might seem a little bit of a mining field for media buyers in terms of iGaming, advertising networks are usually more online gaming-friendly.
On the example of PropellerAds and based on our managers’ experience, we will show you how to get iGaming traffic for CPA offers and create striking ad campaigns.
Which Traffic Formats and Bidding Models to Use?
So you have found some excellent offers and want to start your campaign. Here is a strategy suggested by Maria Kotova, our Sales Team Leader:
Step 1. Launch an Onclick (Popunder) campaign. This will allow you to strive for a maximum reach of your campaign during the testing period and further.
Step 2. Time to scale! Create a Push Notification ads campaign with Classical Push or In-Page Push ads. Don’t forget about all the small things Push has to offer:
- Banners (Landscapes) and icons — main images of your notification
- Badges — additional icons that make notifications more clickable
- Customizable CTA button — grows CTR with a more engaging copy
Step 3. With the new but already much-loved Survey Exit format, you can give your campaign an even more fantastic boost. It perfectly suits the iGaming vertical and will bring the most relevant audience warmed up by a survey on an iGaming, Finance, or Social topic.
What GEOs are the Best to Try?
Today, iGaming beats all records in converting traffic in African countries, Asia, and LATAM.
Here are some details:
- Africa, for example, KE, NG, and MA will require moderate budgets and so will perfectly suit both seasoned media buyers and novices. However, some regions, say South Africa, have already gained a high competition level and might require higher spending.
- Some Asian countries keep appearing in the top gaming regions worldwide, so Asia is also a profitable place. However, it has a pretty harsh regulatory environment — so check every GEO carefully.
- LATAM, especially Brazil, has high competition and, just like South Africa, is a better choice for experienced affiliate marketers.
- You can also try US and Indian markets with Fantasy Sports app offers, which are gaining immense popularity and growing in budgets annually.
Note from PropellerAds: Check the regulations for every GEO and every offer. There might be some restrictions depending on what kind of offer you run.
Maria Kotova: These are the main GEOs I recommend focusing on right now. But, for a more precise understanding of possible spending, testing period, and an exact strategy, you need to look sharp at every single offer. Your budget, selected ad formats, and optimization might depend on numerous factors: the offer itself, competition in GEO, and even the particular OS. So, don’t hesitate to contact your account manager with any doubts!
What Is the Best Time for iGaming Campaigns?
Overall, iGaming is evergreen. But it brings genuinely head-spinning results during significant sporting events.
Just one piece of proof: here are the results of the Fantasy Sports app campaign. See when the campaign had its peak? Right, this was the Super Bowl day.
| Date | Impressions |
| 2023-02-17 | 35128 |
| 2023-02-16 | 92881 |
| 2023-02-15 | 9736 |
| 2023-02-14 | 5591 |
| 2023-02-13 | 5417 |
| 2023-02-12 | 497773 |
| 2023-02-11 | 486652 |
| 2023-02-10 | 370660 |
| 2023-02-09 | 267542 |
| 2023-02-08 | 12497 |
| 2023-02-07 | 26595 |
| 2023-02-06 | 48819 |
To follow the events and not miss one — bookmark our affiliate marketing calendar.
iGaming Creatives: Converting Images, Pre-landers, and Copy
In fact, we already have a detailed guide on iGaming creatives: here it is:
So, here we’ll give a brief checklist of the top important points you must remember:
- 1. Ladies, athletes, and flags of playing teams in your creatives are safe and evergreen. Just make sure the ladies are dressed enough!
- 2. Pre-landers can become a game-changer, so don’t neglect to test them as well. Some good ideas for prelanders include giveaways and quizzes.
- 3. Your copy must be short and catchy.
- 4. Mind the offer terms. Many advertisers prohibit mentioning bonuses and brand logos.
How to Optimize Your iGaming Campaign?
Here are the top working tips from PropellerAds:
- 1. Play around with OS targeting while testing. Just FYI: You usually get the highest CTR on iOS and macOS, and Android campaigns bring the biggest traffic volumes.
- 2. Speaking about traffic volumes, you can try to increase them by three strategies. The first is changing your bid to a bigger one. However, if you can’t do that, try increasing the ad frequency. Finally, you can try broader targeting.
- 3. Mind your bid. Be generous with your bids for new campaigns: This will allow you to get data for further optimization quicker. If you lack traffic but have a high enough CTR (>2%), try duplicating the same campaign and setting a higher bid.
- 4. Working with several GEOs? Don’t squeeze them all into a single campaign. Besides, separate campaigns are recommended for every platform you target.
- 5. Finally, PropellerAds has User Activity targeting for Push and Onclick campaigns. Separating campaigns by user activity levels can help optimize your budget — e.g., save money.
What is Special About iGaming Traffic?
Regulation Nuances
First, iGaming is not legal everywhere in all its forms. For example, most of the United States legalized online games related to sports — but many games of skill like poker remain in the shadow zone or are simply banned.
So, before you obtain traffic from particular regions, make sure you can actually advertise such activities in a specific GEO. And this is not only about laws in various countries: the regulations may vary even from state to state, like in the USA.
Platform Restrictions
Later in this post, we will discuss various iGaming traffic sources — this is precisely why we are all gathered here. Still, be cautious with each: not all of them allow all sorts of advertisements related to iGaming campaigns.
The basic rule is to carefully (very carefully!) check all terms and conditions for every platform you use.
Here are some examples of possible pitfalls when you are using paid ads on social media:
- TikTok. You can basically mention various information about iGaming, but you can’t place iGaming ads in most regions. However, some countries (for example, Australia) allow you to promote such offers, provided you are not into any scams.
- Instagram/Facebook. Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, permits iGaming ads, but you must follow a particular framework when working with them. First, they require written permission from Meta; second, you must prove that the brand you are promoting is licensed and lawful in your target GEOs.
- Twitch. Although Twitch used to be one of the richest iGaming traffic sources, thanks to streamers showing their gameplay, times have changed. Now, Twitch is tightening the screws and has already prohibited a range of particular websites and iGaming sites with certain activities from showing during the live broadcasts. Although there was a 20% decrease in traffic, they might go even further soon.
- X (Twitter). The policy is similar to Facebook: you need to negotiate with the platform’s account team to confirm the ad content — and target it appropriately to reach only legit users.
To Sum Up
We bet that’s enough for you to get your share of the huge iGaming budgets. So, the only thing that’s left is to
