Affiliates frequently maintain secrecy around their advertising strategies. While various tools and tactics for crafting ad creatives are accessible, only the most audacious professionals are willing to disclose their complete strategy. Fortunately, we've stumbled upon one such case study. It resembles a chess match, providing valuable insights into promoting iGaming offers in Portugal and yielding over $3,000 in pure profit.
Hello,
I'm Alex, and I'm excited to share a story about thriving in the iGaming vertical. Many of you might avoid promoting well-established brands that seem saturated. However, today, we'll challenge this notion. It's essential to note that a renowned brand can host various offers, and your job is to discover the hidden gems among them.
Before we begin, here's a preview: you'll learn from two campaigns detailed below. The success of the first campaign allowed me to increase my payouts and improve the overall efficiency of the promotion.
My approach of choosing iGaming offers
To be frank, I'm an avid iGaming enthusiast. I manage multiple accounts on affiliate CPA platforms, primarily affiliated with globally recognized brands. However, selecting the right offer always involves some research, you know. This time, I delved into the offer selection on 22Bet. My usual approach involves consulting my manager for insights into geographies that are likely to thrive with specific offers. Given my preferred payout of $220 for a deposit, we opted for Portugal. Yet, it wasn't merely a matter of guesswork.
1. Prior to this endeavor, I was well aware of the dynamic nature of the iGaming industry in Portugal. I recall reading that this vertical generated approximately €160 million in revenue last year.
2. To gauge its recognition in Portugal, I turned to SemRUSH for insights—and indeed, the product resonates strongly in the region.
So let's look at the first campaign.
Summary of my first campaign
- Traffic type: CPM mobile Popunder traffic by Adsterra
- CPA network: 22Bet
- Offer payout: $220 per deposit
- GEO: Portugal
- Spent: $1,839
- Revenue: $5,060
- Profit: $3,221
- ROI: 175.15%
I opted to continue with Pop traffic due to my favorable experience with it in conjunction with iGaming offers. As for the landing page, I utilized the website's main page, which already features the registration form.
You might think about using prelanders. However, I opted for a straightforward sales funnel since the product I'm promoting is already well-established in Portugal. Directing traffic to a reliable landing page quickly is key. My advice to you echoes this sentiment: keep your sales funnel simple if you're confident users are familiar with the product.
Adsterra remains a top choice for acquiring significant Popunder iGaming traffic. It consistently delivers ample traffic for bid experimentation, resulting in favorable returns on investment. Additionally, I've identified Adsterra as an excellent platform for mobile traffic, prompting me to focus exclusively on mobile targeting.
Opting for CPM traffic has proven to be the most effective strategy. Given that the target conversion is a deposit, patience is crucial to allow users time to convert. With CPM bidding, testing and optimizing traffic becomes more manageable, as you can afford to wait for users to initiate deposits.
My Strategy for Bidding and Tracking
When formulating my bidding strategy for any campaign, especially for an iGaming offer with payouts linked to deposits, I commence by surveying the surrounding landscape. A crucial step involves consulting my manager for insights. Initially, I examine the Traffic Estimator rates to gauge recommended bids. Subsequently, I collaborate with my manager to validate this bid. After careful consideration, we settled on a $1 CPM payout, deemed the most suitable payout considering the competitiveness of neighboring campaigns.
Given the limitations of tracking clicks on Pop ads with Adsterra, employing a dependable tracker becomes imperative. I rely on Keitaro, which seamlessly integrates with Adsterra. By selecting Adsterra from the list, the tracker furnishes an extensive array of tokens for tracking purposes.
In my case studies, I typically employ clickID or ##SUB_ID_SHORT## to monitor all conversions, alongside ##PLACEMENT_ID## to assess the performance of specific websites or placements.
To avoid excessive micromanagement of my campaign, I instituted a daily spending cap of $150 and promptly launched the campaign.
Testing and Optimization Phase
Utilizing the placement tracking token implemented earlier, I effectively deactivated sites that failed to generate conversions or were overspending. Those with expenditures ranging from $6 to $8 and poor conversion rates were promptly blacklisted using Adsterra's blacklist option (you can read more about Adsterra's whitelists and black lists here).
For sites demonstrating high conversion rates, I opted to enhance the payout to $0.2–0.4 to attract more traffic from these sources. Leveraging the Adsterra Custom Bid feature, I adjusted my campaign by entering placement IDs and specifying preferred bids. This allowed me to maintain the general payout while offering higher rates to selected sources.
As a result of these optimizations, I garnered 97 registrations over a specific period, leading to 23 deposits.
In further optimizing the campaign, I decided to incorporate traffic from tablets, but only after confirming the exceptional performance of mobile devices.
These are the results I was talking about earlier.
Post-Optimization Phase
Following the analysis of results, I meticulously curated a whitelist and created a separate campaign with higher rates.
Additionally, I noted that iOS users hold a higher player value of $600. Upon this realization, I collaborated with my manager at Bet22 to launch a dedicated campaign targeting iOS users exclusively. Employing a similar approach as previously outlined, I evaluated competitive rates on Adsterra, set my bid, and initiated a campaign targeting "iOS Portugal." To prevent self-competition, I excluded iOS traffic from the initial campaign.
Key Insights
In summarizing my initial experience running an iGaming offer in Portugal, I can offer several tips that may proved to be helpful.
- Prioritize products popular in specific geographic regions.
- Cultivate a diverse portfolio of reliable traffic sources.
- Popunder traffic remains effective for iGaming, especially mobile.
- Enhance communication skills for frequent interactions with affiliate and network managers.
- Success leads to scalability; negotiate higher payouts with managers, as demonstrated by my increase from $220 to $320 for a deposit.
Summary of my second campaign
- Traffic type: Popunder CPM traffic by Adsterra
- Targeting specifics: iOS only
- CPA network: 22Bet
- Offer: $320 per deposit
- GEO: Portugal
- Spent: $1,242
- Revenue: $3,150
- Profit: $1,638
- ROI: 153.62%
My Approach
This promotional endeavor was an extension of the earlier outlined campaign. Operating an iGaming offer in Portugal with a $220 payout per deposit, I managed to secure 97 registrations through Adsterra mobile Pop traffic. Notably, during this phase, I recognized the heightened value of iOS players for my advertiser.
Upon receiving confirmation from my 22bet manager regarding the significant player value of Portugal iOS users at $600, I made the strategic decision to launch a distinct advertising campaign exclusively targeting iOS users with elevated rates. Leveraging my track record of delivering high-quality deposits, I negotiated for a payout increase for the offer within this new iOS campaign, successfully securing a bump of over $100.
As a result, I executed a campaign where my advertiser compensated me $320 for each deposit—an affirmation of the efficacy of adept negotiation and communication.
It is pertinent to note that I maintained the utilization of the same landing page as in the previous campaign.
My approach to bidding and tracking
I opted for broad targeting to maximize traffic potential, especially considering the high player value associated with this demographic. With this in mind, I initiated an advertising campaign with increased rates. Previously, the rate stood at $1, so this time, I raised the bid to $1.2. Building on past experiences, I expanded the campaign slightly by including Tablet traffic.
Utilizing my Keitaro account, I identified placements with spending between $7 to $9 and poor conversion rates, subsequently blacklisting them on Adsterra.
The outcome yielded 16 registrations and 9 deposits over a specific period. It's crucial to note that this campaign exclusively targeted iOS users within a single geographic region.
As anticipated, this company's average deposit outperformed other companies within this specific geographic region (IOS_POP_PT).
Key Takeaway
In certain scenarios, creating separate advertising campaigns targeting specific devices or traffic types can be advantageous, provided it doesn't adversely affect your existing campaigns. I successfully implemented this strategy by segregating iOS traffic, which led to an increase in high-value deposits while preventing overpayment for Android users.
The provided screenshot illustrates that the brand I advertised generated over $25k from just 3 deposits!
Affiliates typically guard their strategies closely, hesitant to divulge their tactics to the wider internet. However, the most skilled affiliates manage to share actionable strategies without revealing their proprietary tricks. While directly copying the techniques outlined above may not be suitable for your case study, you can certainly adopt a similar mindset and approach when tackling any offer—whether it's an iGaming campaign, VPN promotion, Sweepstakes offer, or another venture. Your adaptability and proficiency are paramount. Stay profitable with Adsterra!
