World Cup 2026 Campaign Strategy: Mexico iGaming Case Study – 89.4% Deposit Rate & 260% ROI

Are your Mexico iGaming campaigns ready for the 2026 FIFA World Cup? Because if not, this is your sign to get cooking and start launching. Heavy test, collect data, and whitelist for days, and you’ve got yourself a solid start. 

Or are you eager to miss momentum and trade high-intent traffic for testing and overpaying during high-competition bidding?

During the previous World Cup, Mexico accounted for 83.5 million digital stream users. This year’s tournament will only include more matches (104 instead of the regular 64), and will be hosted by 3 countries, including Mexico. If you’re planning on targeting Mexico for this year’s FIFA World Cup, then your shot for heavy traffic flow is really strong. 

Plus, based on our in-house estimations, Mexico will be the second runner-up in terms of traffic potential, with ~153M impressions anticipated. Careful, though, we’re also forecasting a high competition for this core host-country GEO.

However, there are a few things you need to plan ahead for, before the big days. That’s why we’re bringing you yet another Case Study to show how one of our advertisers prepared a solid iGaming campaign, targeting Mexico. Now he can now just replicate it during match days. 

Because at the end of the day, in-depth testing, heavy data collection, and serious whitelisting are the base of any good campaign set for high performance. And for one of our advertisers targeting Mexico exclusively, that foundation translated into a 260% ROI.

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Here’s His Campaign Setup

Campaign setup

iGaming mobile app campaign scaled in Mexico

The campaign combined Direct Click traffic with managed bidding and premium PropellerAds inventory to drive app installs and deposit conversions.

GEO Mexico Primary target market

Ad format Direct Click Premium OnClick traffic

Offer type iGaming App APP installs + deposits

Platforms Android & iOS Mobile-only traffic

Traffic source PropellerAds OnClick, Premium & Premium+

Campaign period Oct 1 – Dec 31 Q4 campaign window

Tracking S2S Postback Registration + deposit events

Bidding model Managed Optimized scaling strategy

Budget scaling $1K → $15K/day

The campaign started with a controlled $1K/day testing phase before scaling up to approximately $15K/day during peak spend periods.

The first week, he handled everything himself, but as he was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, he passed over the reins to PropellerAds through our Managed Account.

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What did This Advertiser Get during the Testing Phase

Our advertiser started his testing with low bids, followed by gradual budget scaling, during the first week of October. To get as much data and start optimizing, he set a  $1K daily budget.

He chose to work with Direct Click on a CPA Goal bidding model, tracking installs.

Testing Phase Totals

Let’s break these numbers down. First off, you can see launch day performing normally as the learning curve of every CPA Goal campaign – lower CR but higher CPA.

Keep in mind that here the CR is actually an install rate, as our partner was exclusively tracking installs.

You can already see this is not the first tango for our advertiser, since he knew to increase his spend during the second day. You can also see the response from the markets – better CPA, increasing CR, and almost triple installs, while the CTR confirms the campaign performance.

The next two days were all the numbers, including the spending, hike, are during the Liga MX matchdays. Although with a way smaller volume compared to the World Cup, you can see how the traffic reacts to game days. 

The last three days of this advertiser’s testing show the post-match dip, which is to be expected, and the algorithm optimizing, followed by the mid-week cooldown.

Overall, these are decent numbers, good enough to justify the advertiser’s decision to further scale, but not strong enough for the victory.

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PropellerAds Managed Account Phase: Optimization And Scaling

Once the first results started coming, he decided to optimize and scale his campaign, increasing the daily budget to ∼$15K. However, he felt like his campaign was still missing something, so he opted for a Managed PropellerAds account.

For this advertiser, we decided to change the approach from app installs and deposits to tracking deposits as the main KPI (Key Performance Indicator). Gradually increasing CPI based on deposit data allowed the acquisition of higher-quality traffic for his already converting funnels.

The flexible bid adjustments for installs were based on deposit lag, or delayed conversion data. This allowed the acquisition of higher-quality traffic for already converting funnels.

And that made all the difference.

PropellerAds Managed Account Results by Optimization and Scale Phase

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First Managed Phase: Optimization – Oct 8^th to Nov 7^th

During the optimization period, which spanned from the second week of October up to the first week of November, including, we increased his installs by almost 44x – 44.9K, while also tracking deposits. 

Thanks to the S2S tracking, we checked the testing period and saw that he had brought over 300 deposits. However, our effective strategy increased the first week’s figures to 18.4K, with an impressive 82% Deposit Rate (registration to deposit rate).

PropellerAds Managed Account: Optimization Phase vs. Total Results

In order to check his deposit rate, and yet another thing we did differently compared to his initial testing, we also measure registrations. And you can see that already from the optimization phase, he got over 22,4K registrations.

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The Second Managed Phase: Scaling – Nov 8^th to Dec 31^st

PropellerAds Managed Account: Scaling Phase & Total Results

The really significant part of all of his campaign was the results our advertiser registered during the Managed Scaling part. With our assistance, he increased his original campaign’s KPI, getting 102 times more installs – 104,843 compared to the 1024 initially.

And that’s not even the most impressive part. In fact, by tracking his deposits, not only did we verify his campaign’s whitelists during the optimization part, but we also managed to make the absolute best of his outcome. 

Now, before you say that’s impossible, just consider that our Managed interaction also covered the Liga MX Liguilla window (Nov 20^th – Dec 14^th) as the peak event. Moreover, this campaign is tracking a mobile app funnel, which is known to perform exceptionally in Mexico’s iGaming vertical.

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Why Does this Case Study Make a Great Example in Preparation for the World Cup?

If over 200 campaigns that generated 149,776 installs, 82,636 registrations, 73,875 deposits altogether, and a total 84.9% Deposit Rate haven’t already managed to convince you, then maybe the following will. Based on our advertiser’s estimations, this campaign brought him a 260% ROI.

As this advertiser’s campaign ran from October through December, there was no World Cup traffic volatility in sight. Just the same as there weren’t any bidding wars or pressure to be the best. 

Although, as you saw during the testing and Scaling phase, we did have a series of matches from the Liga MX and the Liga MX Liguilla.  So, as this licensed Mexico iGaming platform methodically fed data into his Managed bidding model, the algorithm learned what a Mexican depositor actually looks like. Then the managed account took his success even further.

Olexandr Shovkun, Sales Team Lead at PropellerAds:

In a similar case study for Brazil, we demonstrated how even a campaign with seemingly lower results can have a huge impact. Even more so if you think that the media buyer will be launching his World Cup campaigns starting from 4 months of testing, data gathering, and plenty of fine-tuning to reach the optimum zone whitelists. 

Check out the Brazil iGaming Case Study Strategy to prepare your World Cup Campaigns

So, when the World Cup begins, these savvy performance marketers just need to replicate their campaign parameters and hit launch. Cause they already know exactly which zones bring in converting registrations. No spending precious funds on research, ample tests, and data sourcing. 

Do you want to be like our two clients, or do you want to waste momentum, resources, and precious converting traffic to your competitors that got a head start?

According to the FIFA official numbers, two Mexico-hosted games made it into Top 5 in terms of ticket requests for this 2026 event: Mexico vs Korea Republic in Guadalajara on Thursday, June 18^th, and the opening match between Mexico & South Africa in Mexico City on Thursday, June 11^th. 

Are you sure you want to miss this hype?