How to Run Cricket Campaigns: Ad Formats, GEOs, and Creatives in Focus
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You probably won’t believe this, but after football, cricket is the most popular sport in the whole wide world, with 2,5 billion being the estimated number of cricket fans.
That’s right, it’s not basketball, nor baseball but cricket.
If you’re still in doubt about the magnitude of popularity this sport enjoys, know this – brand new Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, a true state of the art, was unveiled in New York City just a few days ago, 30 miles east of Manhattan, and with a capacity of 34.000 seats.
And we are here talking about the USA, which takes the 28th place on the list of countries that show the biggest interest in cricket. Just imagine how it is in India, Australia, or the UK, where cricket is considered to be an absolute favorite.
It’s a sport that ignites passion and awakes national pride, solidarity, and devotion in millions of people all around the globe.
So why not exploit it? As an affiliate, you must seize all the opportunities presented in front of you, and in the field of sports campaigns, cricket is the key you were hoping to find.
Let’s see how you can profit when running a cricket campaign.
What’s so special about cricket?
The global cricket market size was valued at $289.78 million in 2021 and is expected to reach $358.15 million by 2031. With that being said, marketing and advertising spending in India during the ICC World Cup Finals increased by 20-25%. At least that were the predictions tied to the period of October last year to March of 2024.
Fun fact: Women are a huge factor that affects the growth of the global cricket market. Actually, during the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, 41% of the audience were women.
We are talking about England’s national summer sport, which was considered to be a gentlemen’s game, but over time, it spread throughout the world and became an integral part of other cultures.
Today, England’s population represents 65% of Cricket followers and you can see the game being played all over this country, in schools and local clubs.
It’s quite a similar situation in Australia, where domestic competitions have the strongest following. Just last season there were more than 93 million social media engagements wrapped around it.
But in India, cricket is not just a sport. Approximately 1.1 billion Indians follow cricket religiously. And their national league is one of the most-watched cricket leagues globally.
This game enjoys a tremendous viewership, especially when major cricket events are happening. Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 was the most-watched cricket event, with a 1.6 billion global audience.
Full-on guide: Campaign settings on Cricket-relevant offers
As you can see, the numbers are impressive. And to make sure you get a piece of this huge and delicious pie all for yourself, you need to pick an offer and launch a campaign.
“History has shown how businesses that leverage IPL (The Indian Premier League) season with strategic offers and promotions witness a significant boost in sales as the enthusiasm surrounding the tournament translates into increased consumer spending, making it a lucrative period for them“, Anastasiia Valiaieva, Senior Account Strategist at PropellerAds shared her thoughts and added:
“Consequently, during IPL season, competition among brands intensifies, and launching exclusive offers sets you apart from competitors, making your brand more memorable and enticing to consumers.”
One more reason for you to take this seriously and really get into strategizing. Luckily, we’re here to help.
Step 1 would be to search for the right offer. If you don’t know where to look, we suggest starting from:
- CPA networks, especially if you have some favorites; just check the iGaming vertical and see what’s trending
- CPA aggregators, the systems that collect CPA offers for a more convenient browsing experience
- or you can look for iGaming affiliate programs, especially if being affiliate newbie (check the minimum payout and payment frequency to see if it works for you)
At this point, we can move on to the very next step.
To Popunder or to Push: Pick the right ad format
As you can assume, Push notifications and Popunder are the strongest ad formats when it comes to iGaming offers, so our suggestion would be to launch both!
The best strategy would be to kick things off with the Popunder ads campaign to make an impact with your creatives (will talk about it later on!) and maximize your reach. Popunders are actually one of the most effective ad formats, mostly because they are hard to miss. They don’t need users’ permission to be displayed, and they can bring really high conversion rates.
Then, you should move on to Push Notifications in order to scale your campaign. There are several features we developed especially for Push, and you should make sure to tap into them for better campaign outcome:
- Push Badges – add these small icons that can boost your CTR
- Interest and demographic targeting – make sure you are aiming at the right users (regarding their age, gender, and interests)
- + you can get a pack of free icons for Push and speed up the campaign setting process
Note: Set the S2S (server-to-server) postback integration correctly so you are able to pass the conversions on our end. It’s highly recommended to start with registration as the first conversion – the simpler flow will help us get linked to more slices and get the FTDs out of there.
At this point, where you are passing us conversions, we can start with the CPA Goal pricing model, and get quality conversion at the desired price with this advanced tool.
!Important!: Last but not least thing is: don’t forget to collect audiences for the retargeting. You can do that by marking “Collect users who completed conversions in this campaign” when setting up a campaign. This user base will be our asset in the long term! Retargeting campaigns help to increase CR from registration in the form of FTD (first-time deposits).
Focus on targeting: GEOs to test
When it comes to geotargeting, it’s no surprise that India is listed as number one. We already mentioned that cricket is the most beloved sport there and that it has a massive audience.
Here’s another fun fact – according to Business Insider India, the semi-final match between India and New Zealand in 2019 made a new record for the highest concurrent livestream viewership ever, with 25.3 million users.
Regarding the rest of the countries we mention below, we encourage adverts to test them as well. Especially those GEOs where the iGaming vertical is already pretty big, and cricket is on the rise.
For example, in the UK, it has a considerable fan base, especially among the large South Asian community. Also, South Africa has a vibrant cricket culture, and the IPL has garnered quite the attention and viewership during earlier seasons.
The IPL has a significant fan base in Bangladesh as well, mostly because cricket is a deeply ingrained part of the culture.
Super important: Before you move further along, make sure to check the regulations for every GEO you are interested in. It might happen there are some restrictions for the type of offer you are willing to run tied to a specific GEO.
If all is clear, it’s time to launch campaigns with separate budgets, following the advice below ↓
Next stop: Win them over with Creatives
To get a higher conversion rate, you must step up your game with exclusive and engaging creatives, especially for the next IPL season. And pre-landers are strongly suggested. To make them right:
- Highlight the importance of the IPL event and the unparalleled opportunities it presents
- Create compelling pre-landers that resonate with cricket enthusiasts and casual fans alike
- Make them bright and exuding the mood of the event, which is festive, or go with the safe option and include the image of cricket sportsmen or cheerleading ladies
When it comes to Push creatives, stand out from the crowd with eye-catching push alerts that capture the spirit of IPL. Engage your audience with dynamic visuals and compelling messages that drive action.
Something like this could work: branded icon + bonus and IPL mentioning on the big image.
Aaaand don’t forget about Interstitials, at least if you are in the mood to spice things up a bit. They can be a great opportunity to score more conversions. But given that so much work was done with Popunder and Push creatives, setting up an Interstitial campaign should be super simple. Our suggestion is to rely on the Landing template, and the specified landing page will be shown as creative.
Last stop: Fantasy Cricket
In case you are interested in exploring beyond conventional iGaming offers, we suggest you think about Fantasy Sports offers. Clearly, the accent is on Fantasy cricket.
The biggest advantage of these offers lies in their not-so-strict legal status. So, if you are worried about restrictions, here’s your plan B. Plus, the rules of advertising Fantasy Sports offers are way less tight.
Now, this probably won’t surprise you, but Indians are huge fans of Fantasy Sports. And clearly, cricket is the absolute favorite. In fact, there are 18 million Indian fantasy players, and 85% of them are involved in fantasy cricket.
It’s no joke. And according to forecasts, the global Fantasy Sports market size is anticipated to exceed $89.92 billion by 2032.
To conclude
If you got this far you must be geared up and ready to unlock some new levels of success with cricket campaigns. As you should be. It’s quite obvious football is not the only field you can play with your offers and achieve great results.
We won’t present you with additional stats and information about the cricket market, although there’s definitely more that could point to all the opportunities the ICC World Cup or IPL presents to marketers. We are quite sure all the above was enough to make you wanna explore them.
But here’s a short summary of why you should do it:
- After football, cricket is the most popular sport in the world
- There are 2,5 billion cricket fans
- The global cricket market is expected to reach $358.15 million by 2031
- One semi-final cricket match in 2019 made a record for the highest livestream viewership
- In India, cricket is more than just a sport; around 1.1 billion Indians follow cricket religiously
No more talk. It’s time for action. Let’s make this cricket season one to remember – together!
