How to drive traffic to gambling offers and earn money

Gambling is a very promising niche and in anticipation of seeing high ROI, affiliate marketers continue to come back to it. 

To help you have a better understanding of what you will need to be dealing with, we will outline in detail steps on how to with the most optimal results send traffic to gaming offers. 

We will take a closer look at difficulties when working with the vertical and ways to solve them, top GEOs, creatives that convert and life hacks from the industry professionals and experts’ forecasts.

Learn everything about gambling affiliate marketing before breaking into the niche!

Affiliate marketing of gambling offers – what is the main difficulty

Gambling establishments are prohibited in many countries, which means that online casino advertising is prosecuted by law. Therefore, the main problem in gambling offers promotion concerns the choice of GEO and the bypass of government restrictions. Many CPA networks work with dozens of countries, so before you invest in gambling, you need to familiarize yourself with the specifics of the region’s legislation and adapt to them.

For example, Russian law prohibits online casinos which means that advertising for online gambling sites is not allowed. At the same time, advertising of licensed bookmakers and sweepstakes is allowed in Russia.

Georgia also introduced a ban on gambling and betting due to teenagers’ high participation in gambling. Studies have shown that almost 60% of minors have played online casinos at least once. In this regard, the advertising of gambling offers in any online or offline format is prohibited. For violation of the law, the casino site will be blocked.

It is no less difficult to drive traffic to gambling offers in Illinois, USA. However, here the online casino niche was banned not of the desire for the moral health of the nation. The state of Illinois has become the 17th state where the activity of stationary gambling establishments is officially allowed. To not take profits away from offline casino establishments, online casinos have been banned.

In addition to regulating the gambling vertical by the state, it is necessary to take into account the attitude of the local population towards gambling. It is important to know the mentality, cultural traditions, solvency, availability of payment systems in the region, and other parameters.

When working with gambling traffic, it is important to keep track of any fluctuations in the political and economic situation.

What are gambling offers

Gambling is an affiliate marketing traffic vertical that includes the following types of offers:

• Online casino – here the user can win valuable prizes by using certain skills or by simply trying their luck. Slot machines, roulette, and many other gambling games are available in this subcategory of gambling offers.
• Sports and eSports betting is a popular way to make money on the results of sports competitions. Here you can choose the types of bets and sports. The most popular today are football and basketball.
• Card games, in particular poker – the rules here allow the client to play with a different budget, playing against other participants and not a casino. Experienced players are more likely to succeed.
• Bingo – this game is still associated with pensioners, but this “lotto” with small prizes is popular with people of all ages.
• Lotteries – relying solely on luck, you can even hit the jackpot. All types of lotteries fall into this subcategory, including instant, scratch cards, prize draws, etc.

How to promote gambling to generate profit

Before driving traffic to gambling, you need to develop an effective marketing strategy. The niche is highly profitable, but also has high competition, which means that there is no way to tackle it without a plan.

An effective funnel for attracting targeted traffic to the gambling and betting vertical consists of creatives, pre-landers, and landings.

To successfully bypass competitors when promoting gambling offers, we recommend using the following tricks.

1. Attractive landing (pre-landing)

Landing Page is the page that will open once the user clicks on the ad. Working with gambling traffic this is the only opportunity to grab the attention of a potential user. A page with a gambling offer should contain a catchy and compelling title, as well as a call to action. Use interactive widgets that simulate the game (for example, a “wheel of fortune” or a slot machine). As a prize, offer users bonuses or extra spins that they can collect after completing a targeted action – registering, installing an application, or making their first deposit.

1. Persuasive storytelling

People are extremely sensitive to the success of others. After learning about someone’s win, a person thinks “if someone succeeded, then I have a chance.” Warm up your audience with believable stories about big wins, this is a great way to increase conversions.

1. Bonuses

People tend to act impulsively – use it! Announce the possibility of a big win by offering a so-called no-deposit bonus for registering or free spins in slots (free spins).

1. “Working” schemes that will help you win.

Having received a ready-made sequence of actions that will help beat the casino, will surely stroke the potential player’s ego. Post instructions from experienced players who allegedly shared proven schemes for beginners as a gesture of goodwill.

Gambling niche: where to find the target audience

With gambling offers, the target audience is typically men aged 25-50. Of course, this is generalized data. The situation for different GEOs can vary significantly. For example, in Australia, men and women are equally interested in gambling and betting, while in Canada, the main audience starts playing online casinos as soon as they reach the age of majority (19+).

The target audience for affiliate programs in the gambling vertical can be divided into two categories of people.

• Some have a stable high income, and they just spend their leisure time in the casino. Such people are moderately reckless, not prone to act irrationally, they play for pleasure.
• Others are not so confident on their feet, earn little, and want to improve their financial situation by participating in gambling. They are impulsive and emotionally unstable.

Of course, one cannot apply the same approaches to attract both groups. For some, the casino must have a license, while others crave bonuses and other “goodies” at the start. The latter category of people, as a rule, quickly lose everything and eventually stop playing.

For the advertiser, the first category is of great value, which consistently generates income for the casino. Therefore, before investing in gambling niche, objectively evaluate the benefit from the lead and its lifespan.

Traffic sources for gambling

Before promoting a gambling offer, you need to choose a platform for advertising. And at this stage of affiliate marketing and gambling niche, it is important to know about all the restrictions that apply to the selected traffic source. Typically, platforms set their own requirements for ads, but also take into account countries’ restrictions on the gambling vertical.

Therefore, we send traffic into gambling carefully, using pre-landing and cloaking.

Free gambling traffic

You can use the following to get free traffic for gambling:

• social networks (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Vk, etc.);
• thematic forums;
• email newsletters;
• Telegram channels;
• native advertising in blogs of large sites;
• crowd marketing;
• Telegram bots;
• specialized advertising portals;
• doorway sites.

Free gambling traffic is more properly referred to as shareware. Firstly, working with such sources requires a lot of time, and secondly, for an effective advertising campaign, there is a need to invest money. For example, free email marketing services will offer more features for a fee. You can create a Telegram bot by yourself for free or use the services of a streamer. Doorways require payment for a domain and hosting, and the purchase of a doorway generator. Given that search engines quickly recognize doorway sites, it is preferable to create “white” doorways and fully engage in their search engine optimization.

Paid traffic sources for gambling

Among the paid traffic sources, we recommend paying attention to:

• contextual advertising;
• push notifications;
• popunders;
• clickunders;
• pop-up ads.

When promoting gambling offers using contextual advertising, first evaluate the feasibility of the method. Moderators will not allow direct advertising of gambling, so it is necessary to advertise not the casino, but the portal on which the referral link is located. It takes a lot of effort to gather an interested audience for a site of this type.

Push notifications are the most effective source of traffic for gambling. They are visible, shown to a wide audience, and inexpensive. In addition to classic push notifications, in 2020 a new format was introduced – In-Page Push, which now covers iOS mobile devices. For an affiliate, this means access to the most solvent audience. Slightly more intrusive, but also effective for gambling, pop-ups, and pop-unders.

Which gambling creatives work most?

Now let’s take a look at a few methods of creating a gambling creative that should be used when working with this vertical.

1. Place in the title names known in the selected region.
2. A new incoming message icon, a slot, and other emoji in push notifications that visually dilute the text and make it attractive.
3. Mention relevant and significant events for the selected GEO (such ads convert even better than with the names of famous people).
4. The image of strong emotions, video creatives for gambling with the participation of happy people who won a large sum of money.
5. Addressing the user with “you” in push notifications.
6. Emphasis on the limited duration of the offer.

Test several gambling creatives at once to segment your audience and apply different approaches. If you decide to divide the target audience by gender, consider the interests of the sexes when creating an advertising campaign. Men respond better to photos of beautiful women next to the winner. Women are more attracted to the believable stories of housewives who were able to drastically change their lives, having once hit a fat jackpot in an online casino.

2022 gambling GEOs that convert:

Given that gambling is a vertical primarily for a solvent audience, tier 1 countries are the most attractive for affiliate marketers. In 2022, the list of the most converting GEOs for gambling included:

• USA;
• Germany;
• Austria;
• Canada.

Beginners might be having a hard time working with these GEOs due to high market competition. If you have just learned what gambling is, we recommend starting with tier 3 countries. Tier 3 also has countries that have a large English-speaking population.

What is the KPI of advertisers in the gambling vertical

Before you begin working with gambling offers, check out the requirements of the affiliate program or direct advertiser for the offer you are planning to select. Payouts and the complexity of working with them will depend on these indicators.

First of all, you should know that Hard KPIs are strict requirements, and Soft KPIs are rather desired goals, if they are not met, the payment will still be made. So, when choosing an offer, pay attention to the following indicators:

• minimum deposit – usually ranges from 50 rubles to 20 euros, depending on the GEO;
• baseline – the minimum monetary deposit from the player, for which the advertiser is ready to pay (note: this amount must be a one-time full-amount payment or can be accumulated from several payments);
• traffic sources – The world of gambling may significantly differ for Post Soviet countries and Western countries (the value of traffic from Facebook, for example, was not perceived well in the West);
• device types – payouts for desktop traffic are usually higher than for mobile;
• availability of a license – users will have to perform more actions with a licensed online casino than with an unlicensed one. Not every user will go to a bookies office to present a passport, but this will also result in targeted traffic.

Thus, a high stake in a gambling offer should alert the affiliate marketer. If it is higher than the market average, do not rush to send traffic to the offer, first pay attention to the advertiser’s KPI. You may be able to earn more on a gambling offer with a lower rate, but softer conditions.

How to drive traffic to gambling offers in the Western market

Let’s say you already understand what gambling is and want to master the Western market. We recommend taking a closer look at the following:

• In Western countries, each company presents its own KPIs. But in general, Western gambling conditions can be assessed as mild.
• Fewer traffic sources are accepted here, in particular, Facebook suffered after the presidential elections.
• It is easier to negotiate with international brands, they are more loyal than in the former CIS. This is a must to use.
• Western countries practice using accumulative baseline, that is, the deposit amount necessary for the conversion, which the player can make in several payments.

Use life hacks from our experts to effectively drive traffic to gambling offers in the West.

• Choose a gambling offer with a tough KPI and decent payouts, and start sending high-quality traffic in compliance with all conditions. Then ask for mitigation of requirements while maintaining the rate and then, in fact, work according to Soft KPI, but with a high rate.
• The optimal amount of the minimum deposit in this GEO is approximately equal to the cost of a beer pint, in which case, the players will not have any difficulties with making a minimal deposit.
• It makes no sense to trigger Western audiences with stories about a suddenly rich man, as they come to the casino for fun. In the Western market, creatives are more efficient to use emotional pictures.
• The RevShare payment model is more frequently used in the West. CPA and hybrid models are less common but still exist.
• Be sure to use not only the language but also the slang of the local population.
• On one hand, it is easier to work with an online casino with an international license (excellent support, clear conditions, and support for various payment systems). On the other hand, advertisers with a local license create products for their specific GEO, perfectly understanding the specifics and mentality of the population. The level of competition here is much lower, at the same time, however, the technical side is often not well established. If you negotiate with the advertiser a specific payment amount, eliminate technical problems, and set up a payment mechanism, you can reach the TOP in this region.

Western market gambling — how to solve problems with payments and payment systems

The main issue for the Russian audience is that the cards of Russian banks cannot be linked to payments. Currently, the following payment systems are not operating in Russia:

• Mastercard;
• PayPal;
• ecoPayz;
• Visa;
• Google Pay;
• Apple Pay;
• WebMoney WMZ;
• Skrill
• Samsung Pay;
• Wise;
• Plastrix;
• JSB;
• PaySend;
• Paysera;
• Neteller.

At the time of writing this guide, you can use the virtual card from Capitalist for $2.95. Monthly maintenance costs $2.70, and card replenishment costs $3.3.

Where to send gambling traffic

You can drive traffic to gambling offers in two ways – by partnering with a direct advertiser or through an affiliate network. If it seems to you that working directly is ideal, do not rush to conclusions.

Direct Advertiser	Affiliate Network
You will have to promote offers that the advertiser chooses and provides you with	You can choose a gambling offer of your liking
Payment model, rate, and payment method that are convenient for the advertiser	Affiliate marketers can choose more favorable conditions for themselves
There are no guarantees that the partner will be paid	Guaranteed reward when conditions are met
Requires a team, as it is not sustainable to work on your own	Can work alone
No support team	With a good affiliate program, you can always contact the Support Service/Team
Advertising materials are usually not provided	Provide ready-made creatives for advertising campaigns
Novice affiliate marketers are not welcomed	Newbies are welcome here, they are helped in every possible way by an account manager

In general, we can give the following advice: if you have a team and experience working with gambling nice, you can negotiate directly with the advertiser.

Now that you know how to drive traffic to gambling offers, register with TacoLoco to purchase good traffic and look for a gambling offer that will bring you profit.

Follow trends, test, and spy on already working creatives and bundles using spy tools.

Make sure to share your successful gambling cases with us, we are always glad to see your profit!