Let’s start with a quick question: is monetizing sports events profitable for publishers?
And the quick answer is —
Yes, everyone should take their piece of cake during the large events.
So, it’s not just about sports or news websites — while they are the first to stand by! How to do things wisely even if you know little about sports?
Let’s find out together.
What is special about sports events
To start, let’s see why sports events are so essential for monetization that we even dedicated a whole article to them 🙂
Here is a list of the key features you need to know about sports events:
- Big sports events boost search traffic overall, not only for sports. So, you can profit from them even if your site is not fully about sports.
- Your website must be ready for big traffic spikes: make sure your server can stand a sudden increase in visits. It’s especially important during large tournaments, where some games are much more popular than others.
- You should think over your strategy beforehand, like a month or two before the event begins. It will help you be the first among your competitors SEO-wise.
Everything above is true for all kinds of sporting events. Still, tournaments and competitions are different: World Cup Soccer is obviously not the same as some UFC fights.
So, your approach should differ, too, right? Or probably not?
We separated all sports events into four types, and will overview each — with tips and stats, of course!
World Championships
The biggest perk of the world championships: they help you embrace many GEOs, not just the host country or a small fanbase. Such tournaments as FIFA World Cup or IIGF Championship attract all sorts of audiences worldwide — and users are not only avid sports fans.
So, you shouldn’t focus only on sports!
Match overviews, predictions, and scores are great, but there are many more fresh content ideas. Just look at some:
- Travel. People become very keen on countries where World Cups are hosted — especially if they are coming to games in person. So, they often google some general info about the place, and of course search for lodging, flight tickets, and tours.
- Entertaining content. Sports fans watching big events at home are your target audience, too! Game highlights are pretty obvious, but you can also consider posts about sports party ideas or iGaming-related contests.
- ECommerce. Soccer apparel and decorations are also a way to go — just make sure you don’t break any copyright law related to products you mention in your content.
What about ad formats?
All of them will actually do, but Popunder ads (Onclick) stays on top, with the best CPM rates. Here are the stats of one of our publishers during the FIFA World Cup 2021 (that actually took place in 2022 due to Covid-19 restrictions):
Noticed the traffic spikes we were speaking about?
You can even tell when the Final game took place — 12/02 was a really profitable day.
By the way, you can also see that traffic doesn’t drop immediately the next day — and you can collect nice revenues for some time after the event is over.
And here are the stats of the same site, but a month before the World Cup began — see the difference?
Local Championships
This type of audience is more special: you will most likely reach users, who are particularly passionate about sports. Local championships are best for monetizing sports-related sites, and of course news portals, too.
Although the topic is much more niche, we have a couple of ideas on how to broaden your content, too:
- Guest posts. You can engage fans who will be happy to contribute to their fav topic for free.
- Predictions and reviews. This option will most likely attract iGaming lovers — very appealing traffic for many advertisers.
To show you how traffic and profit behave during local events, we found statistics from a sports site during the Africa Cup of Nations 2022.
This is a good example of how even a small website with moderate traffic volumes can boost profits during an event, important for its users:
The profit was not even close to that before the Cup Of Nations — so another important point is that you should be patient enough when you deal with sports-related websites:
We at PropellerAds can keep advertisers’ budgets for the period when there are no events — and provide you with higher CPMs when a significant tournament will boost your traffic again.
What about ad formats?
If you run a media site, the best formats to use are Popunder (OnClick), Vignette Banner, and Interstitial. If you also highlight the games, e.g. post much of the written content, you can try going with Push ads.
Big Games Finals
A big Final is not just a day when you can gather a maximum of traffic considering you serve the highlights for your users. Besides, Finals are special because users become much more loyal to ads of any kind.
Yes, you shouldn’t be afraid of repelling an audience with too many ads, and this is why:
- Most likely, you will attract many one-day users, who didn’t intend to visit you again. Such day-fly customers are the main reason for a traffic spike during finals.
- If you provide users with free information about sports events they will be thankful enough to forgive you a large number of ads.
What about ad formats?
Again, sports has a perfect match with Popunder, Vignette, and Interstitial ads. With these formats, you can get a 5-7 times bigger CPM compared to less popular games.
Just look at the stats of one sports site: the first screenshot shows the Super Bowl day stats, and the second one is a regular daily result of the publisher:
UFC And Boxing Fights
What is special about MMA and boxing? Most will name two points offhand: regular events throughout the whole year, and a very big attraction for iGaming fans.
However, some regular UFC or boxing nights might go almost unnoticed, while a hyped-up fight between the two biggest stars can become a gold mine for a pub.
So, your main task as a publisher is to be aware of the most important and popular events and prepare your content accordingly.
What about ad formats?
There is nothing too unique in monetizing fighting matches. Popunder, Vignettes, and Interstitials remain the best solution.
Here is an example of earnings with Popunder traffic. Again, the first stats come from a very significant UFC event. The second screenshot shows a regular average profit:
You can also try MultiTag to see if it’s more profitable. There are many big fights with larger traffic volumes, so you can compare your test results pretty quickly without waiting too long for the next big event.
To Sum Up
So, it’s high time you checked if your site is ready for the upcoming tournaments. And once you are ready — you are welcome to
