From clicks to cash: native ads as a key tool for casino and betting promotion

As 2023 comes to an end, the main trends for next year become clearer. The most obvious conclusion to draw is that the world of online gambling and betting is thriving – the global igaming market is estimated by H2 Gambling Capital to reach a staggering €114.2bn by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.8%. The RichAds team looks at the most obvious trends that are expected to emerge in 2024 and how, via these trends and suggested geos to test, it is possible to capture a slice of the market over the whole year.

So what are the most prevalent casino and betting niches? What can we expect as we head into 2024?

The first and most obvious trend is the seismic boost provided by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies. Starting from the implementation of ChatGPT as a part of the daily routine of any marketer, both in creative and text making, to the tools that can generate landing page samples and analyse potential audience, these technologies take casino and betting advertising to a completely new level. It’s expected that metaverse casinos with VR usage will appear so that users would have as real an experience as possible while gambling.

Furthermore, a lot of casino and betting providers already apply AI mechanisms to detect any atypical behaviour and fraudulent actions of users and mitigate the risks. In the world of betting, AI can also be used to predict the patterns of clients’ actions and their preferred games in order to make specific recommendations.

Another trend that has been around for years is the sharpening focus on responsible and regulated gambling. More and more regulations are coming, even in regions where such activities have historically been prohibited for many years – for instance, the United Arab Emirates recently established the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority in order to impose regulations on casinos in the region. Furthermore, in September, the lower house of the most desired geo in South America – Brazil – passed a new regulation on gambling to allow both sports betting and casino activities in the region. The chamber of deputies gave final approval on 21 December 2023 and it is now awaiting the final signature of the president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva for the market to be regulated from 2024.

Finally, but by no means the least important trend, is the impact of two tendencies combined – the prevalence of mobile gambling is climbing and we are seeing a surge in brand new forms of gaming. According to a Gitnux report, about 58% of bettors use their mobile devices to gamble online and about 85% of all gamblers use their mobile devices for the activity. Furthermore, with the appearance of different apps like puzzles, word searches and other skill-based games, more and more people prefer gambling from their mobile devices – it’s faster and more convenient.

To sum up, casino and betting activities are simply becoming safer and more regulated for users as well as less intrusive and aggressive. It’s one of the main reasons why native ads need to be used for casino and betting promotion in the first place.

Native advertising is one of the most efficient ways to promote both casino and betting niches at the tail-end of 2023 and into 2024.

The main reason behind this is simple yet persuasive – such content doesn’t annoy users. Native advertising is built into site content softly and naturally, so that any given user would consider such ads to be a piece of news or as an informative article. Such ads are also simple to set up and have quite a loyal content policy combined with really high click-through rate (CTR), especially in comparison with display ads.

When analysing RichAds’ statistics, it is clear that there are sufficient volumes for both of the igaming niches on any geo. Nevertheless there are more successful ones, especially when taking into account the trends of the industry. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started with casino and betting or already have extensive expertise, there are three cornerstones in terms of regions – Asia, Latin America and Tier 1 countries  

Despite the fact that Brazilian regulations are very close, LatAm is already a highly hyped market. This means it can only be tested properly if you understand how to overcome competitors in the niche. To gain tangible results you can’t be afraid to raise your bids and your daily budgets. If you’re looking for something stable and profit-guaranteed, the LatAm region is not the best choice, however for risk-takers looking for great profit this GEO certainly provides opportunities.

Asia, on the contrary, despite having been around as a market for a very long time, seems to be less “trendy”, but still very promising. More and more marketers dive headlong into the abyss of LatAm, seemingly forgetting that Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam always have the greatest volumes and most affordable prices. This region is universally accommodating –  when it comes to Asian countries there are always opportunities.

Other time-proven geos to choose are certainly the USA, Canada and Germany. In terms of traffic volumes, regulations and conversion rate, everything’s perfect, although the level of expertise of an affiliate does matter. As might be expected the competition and traffic prices are correspondingly a lot higher, however the percentage likelihood of a good return is also great.

“Non-aggressive, yet intriguing”

Native advertising does differ from other formats due to its adaptability and non-intrusive nature, that’s why the approaches to texts and images should be the same – non-aggressive, yet intriguing.

There are three main ideas that can be applied for a successful igaming campaign. The first of these is the most common and relies on the “breaking news” model. To grab a player’s attention messages such as “casino expert exposes a trick” or “casino engineer reveals a hint to win” instantly pique interest and drive engagement.

An alternate version of the breaking news model is to geo-target the message to strike at the heart of your key audience. An example of this would be along the lines of “Wellington’s casino triumph: unstoppable strategy uncovered”.

The second main model for native advertising is one where you use a slight hint at bonuses to trigger interest. It’s perfect if your text implies the casino or betting operator you are advertising has some big bonuses, but you must ensure you do this non-intrusively. Messages along the lines of “Top 10 casino websites with greatest bonuses found” or “Why is this casino giving away so many bonuses for newbies?” would work smoothly and bring you the highest CTR.

Finally there is the “biting headline” approach. This is not necessarily breaking news, as in the first approach, but can be anything to generate interest from your potential clients and make them explore further. It could be a scandalous post (“If gamblers knew this secret, they would never stop playing…”) or something to catch the attention (“Wellington casino didn’t ban the player after winning millions! Why?”). This approach motivates potential clients to continue reading.

The above are the main converting approaches to ensure you maximise the chances of turning your native ad campaign into a money-making one. Now let’s understand how to set up the other elements of it.

RichAds highlight several main rules to follow when starting a native campaign on any niche to make it as profitable as possible. These tips work for marketers on any level – they are merely the building blocks for getting started with the format and require little to no effort.

At RichAds all the traffic is divided into four groups – “Premium”, “Standard”, “Remnant” and “New”. At the outset it’s better to apply Premium; in this way you’ll have a guaranteed high CR and sources tested in advance that have proven efficiency. The other groups are better used for scaling.

For native ads, creatives play a crucial role for audience segmentation and overall campaign results. If you want to be profitable, it is crucial to test at least 10 different approaches per campaign in order to be able to cross-analyse the results and settle on the ones that will actually convert. Make sure you target both female and male audiences via your creatives as well as users of different ages.

When it comes to choosing the bid per campaign, a marketer needs to find a happy balance – if the spend is too low, then the campaign won’t get enough traffic, while if it’s too high, the daily budget will be exhausted too quickly and the results won’t be objective. For this reason, it is better to consult your manager about the average bids in the specific GEO or use the predictor tool at RichAds that can forecast volumes per bid depending on the region. The predictor tool is free and is built into the campaign creation interface.

There are many AI instruments that can simplify the campaign optimisation process, but it is clear that the native format works best with automated rules. Depending on the desired cost per action, a rule can be set to automatically block sources that generate leads that are too expensive or don’t bring them at all. Conveniently the algorithm does the sorting for you daily, depending on the parameters of the rule you set up.

Summing up

Native campaigns work for igaming across different geos, while the process of running a campaign on the format is easy and effortless. With the igaming industry on the march, it is crucial to find new and working ways to maximise a return, both for affiliates and brands. Launching a native campaign at RichAds is actually a proper solution.