It can be tricky to plan long term. That’s a statement that could be applied to most professions and people. And as a publisher, it can surely be a pain! With Google updates and changes in your traffic sources etc. the changes to your site could be around the corner in an instant.

One thing, however, that is certain, is the upcoming football World Cup in Russia this summer. The event is one of the most popular sporting events in the world and attracts millions of people worldwide.

This is good news for publishers as advertising spend will increase significantly! So as a publisher, it’s time to get your share of the cake!

Stats you need to know

According to the international marketing intelligence service WARC, the global ad spend is expected to grow 4.7% in 2018. These figures are boosted, amongst other factors, by the FIFA World Cup. The expected spend is set to be in the region of US$572bn.

Who is going to benefit from that?

During the spring and all throughout the event one category set out to be the major spender is the gambling sector. Every major sports betting company will have their existing welcome bonus customized. As well as several different customized pre-bet, live-bet and match-bet bonus offers.

Sporting events with a lot of viewers with new found love for football, new and exciting offers from the gambling companies, normally mean good results in the acquisition of new players, which lead to good rates for publishers.

Especially for publishers targeting the sports section, it’s time to start optimizing your site for higher earnings up until, and during, the most prolific sporting event of the year.

From a Publisher’s perspective

One startup publisher in the sports segment that will be putting a lot of focus during the World Cup is the Footall.com. The site is an example of an effort created primarily for the World Cup this summer.

The owner of the site saw an opportunity to benefit from the football event and wanted to add this type of property to their portfolio of entertainment sites. As most publishers are aware, it can take a long time before you reach any significant organic traffic volumes. Therefore Footall.com, amongst others, will start promoting their content to gain additional traffic through various channels. A lot of publishers will be targeting social media in order to reach a football and betting interested audience.

Carl Hearn from Footall.com explains that they will remove most of the traditional banners that they currently run and put all the focus on gambling offers related to the World Cup. They will also use traditional Ad Networks for larger formats such as Pop-Unders as the rates are set to increase during the coming period. The aim, says Hearn, is also to sell inventory for branding campaigns for brands looking to be seen in conjunction with some of the biggest stars in football.

He also mentions the importance of mobile traffic and that they will put a lot of focus on reaching a mobile audience when promoting the site on social media. Mobile traffic tends to skyrocket during sporting events -and it should mainly be expected during the World Cup!

Quick Tip: To get additional profit, try mobile formats: Mobile Interstitial ads and Push ads

Brazilian World Cup 2014

Last time the World Cup was held in Brazil 2014. Forecasters then said the spend during the year, in relation to the massive sporting event, according to ZenithOptimedia, would be $1.5 billion globally. Some figures showed on a spend of as much as $2.3 billion globally according to media buying agency network Group M. TV being the most traditional and important channel for spending during the cup, but online spend should surely be expected to continue to gain a significant increase this year compared to former World Cups.

Regardless of what segment your website belongs to, it’s really time to dig into a piece of that share! As every publisher knows, it’s not certain what your visitors are interested in. A sports betting customer could be a frequent visitor to a movie, food or music related site. Not only gambling companies are interested in being seen during the event. Clothing brands, payment solutions, and beverage companies are all set to be increasing their spend throughout different marketing channels!

The FIFA World Cup is held throughout different cities in Russia and starts on June 14, 2018.