A detailed overview of the gambling campaign with a strait to the bourgeoisie and the Double Opt-in (DOI) payment model. Strategy, targeting settings, creative preparation features and optimization - all this is in our case, in which we tested traffic from New Zealand.
Offer: OneCasino;
Traffic source: Popunder (ad networks: Adsterra, Exoclick, Popander);
Partner: Alfaleads;
GEO: New Zealand
Payment model: DOI;
Consumption: $143.2;
Income: $535.5
Profit: $410.3
ROI: 286%
Choosing GEO and traffic source
Gambling is a rather specific niche. On the one hand, it breaks all records in terms of profitability and is one of the three most working verticals for arbitrage. On the other hand, many traffic exchanges, primarily for networks of search and socially targeted advertising, treat it negatively and block advertising from gambling establishments.
[image1]
The choice for this niche is more than obvious and the most working one is popunder. Minimum restrictions, high CR, relatively low advertising bid. But you need to be careful, it's easy to run into bot traffic and drain the budget without getting leads. Ways to deal with this have long been worked out: we choose a reliable advertising network (we focused on Adsterra).
New Zealand was chosen for the drain. This is the most bourgeois country we can find. The audience here is both wealthy, gambling and, unlike the same Germans or Americans, devotes much more time to rest. According to the Health Navigator portal, more than 520,000 New Zealanders, or about 13% of the population, regularly visit gambling establishments. And in 2021, players from New Zealand spent about a billion New Zealand dollars in foreign online casinos (information taken from figure.nz). [image2]
The main surprise is that the market is underestimated - therefore, here you can make a purchase at a low price, sometimes it drops to the Tier 1 - Tier 2 border value.
Offer selection
We work with several affiliate programs and monitor offers. This time, a great offer appeared on the Alfaleads network - the advertiser paid 13.5 dollars for registration with email confirmation (DOI) at One Casino - but one should know, that such offers appear infrequently. [image3] [image4]
It is important that the casino has a pleasant interface, a large selection of slots, and there are exclusive slots adapted specifically for One Casino. Do not underestimate this factor as if the product being promoted sucks, even a couple of hundred dollars per lead won't be enough. No one will take the time to register on a shitty site with an outdated or freezing interface.
Strategy
Before buying and draining traffic, we did a little marketing research. We looked for information on forums and public pages about which devices New Zealanders use more often, where gambling is better.
As we expected, New Zealanders are active, using wearable devices more often. Whereas desktops and laptops are preferred for work and study.
Nevertheless, we tested all types of devices (this helped to personally see the real picture), although, when distributing the advertising budget, we focused on mobile traffic: about 5% for tablets, about 15% for desktops, the rest - mobile users. When choosing a bid, we initially focused on the recommendations of the support, while we contacted the support of both advertising exchanges and the affiliate network. As a result, the bid was set at $2, but during the course of the campaign it was increased to $3.6. Targeting was done on the OS. [image5]
The audience, in comparison with Runet and the CIS countries, in New Zealand is more diverse. First of all, women actively play, both 35-45 years old (among them there are many housewives, although there are also office workers who are bored at work), and over 60 (bored in retirement). [image6]
For residents of developed countries with high incomes, emotions are more often more important, and only then the opportunity to win for themselves, for example, money for a cruise. Strait time: morning weekdays (9:00 - 11:30), and immediately after work, when office plankton moves home (17:00-18:00) and evening (19:00 - 23:00). [image7]
Preparation of pre-landers
Based on personal experience, we immediately decided to introduce pre-landers into the bundle - they work great and, if they are properly oriented to the audience being spilled.
Bourges is a demanding audience and has a bad attitude towards deceit, so we decided not to use pre-landers that mislead the audience. Instead, they focused on the privileges and bonuses that can be obtained at the casino after registration. We used standard pre-landers: simpler ones with bonus notifications provided by the casino, and mini-games with a wheel of fortune with different types of bonuses. To launch, we took slightly edited creatives provided by the affiliate, and the creatives of competitors that we found through the SPY service (we used adheart.me). [image8]
To place landing pages and pre-landers, you should buy a trusted domain. And it should be similar to the original casino URL. Otherwise, part of the target audience will jump off because of doubts.[image9] [image10]
Never use dubious domains with incomprehensible names for pre-landers!
Optimization
As we said, we started with a test run. Tests are “our everything” for an affiliate marketer, and for a marketer too. Although the initial results were not bad, and objectively after the first hours of scrolling, one could say that the campaign would be a plus. And here we go:
- Increased the bid. Initially, we chose a bet within 2 bucks. But the offer with a payout of 13.5 dollars for registration was also noticed by other carts. Therefore, due to the increased excitement and pressure from competitors, there were too few impressions. Therefore, we decided to raise the rate in order to increase turnover. On the advice of the manager, the price per 1000 impressions was increased to $3.6. They tried to raise it even higher, up to $10 at peak times, when competition increased to the limit.
- Working with blacklists is important part of strategy. By the end of the test period, bots began to attack ads. These are robots that collect information for spy services, and no bots, and arbitrage bots that play dishonestly. Trackers help fight bot farms by identifying dubious IPs and blacklisting them. We already had a well-established database, although information on some IPs is available in open sources. For New Zealand, a lot of bot traffic comes from the Amazon and Digital Ocean isp servers.
- Replacing pre-landers. To be honest, we played with pre-landers throughout the campaign. The logic is simple - for several days, the same users could see ads from different devices. If one creative does not work, then we try another until we reach the goal. Naturally, the good must be replaced by the best. Therefore, you should not limit yourself to the creatives offered by the partner program, we actively use spy services. The mini-games worked best. [image11]
- Targeting Optimization. As a result, we all abandoned desktop traffic, although it gave leads, providing a return on investment (ROI) and profit from above. But the CR of mobile traffic was a cut above.
As a result, the targeting settings were as follows:
Geo - New Zealand;
device type - mobile;
OS - Android 5.0 or later, iOS - 7 or later;
English language;
frequency - 1 impression/one unique user.
Advertising was purchased on entertainment sites. [image12]
And - results:
Total spent on advertising - $143.2
Earned - 553.5 (41 conversions);
Income - 410.3
ROI - 286%
Campaign duration - 2 weeks.
What is the end result...
As you can see from the campaign, New Zealand is a GEO with good prospects. The audience here is less spoiled than in the US, Canada, even Australia. And the competition is a little lower. Still, in order to get a decent result, you need to constantly monitor the campaign and periodically change creatives. The final income was limited only by the advertising budget. It felt like it could be increased by an order of magnitude - there is enough traffic here.
Well, a little advice for our readers in the end. Experiment, try new GEOs and new offers, play with creatives. But don't forget about analytics - the numbers don't lie. And we will try to publish more cases with tips and interesting ideas.
