Online sports betting campaigns in recent years have been as creative as possible. However, launching a successful sports betting advertising campaign is not an easy task. There are many elements involved, platforms to leverage and messages to develop and distribute to attract new customers.
On top of that, regulations are complex and are constantly evolving.
How do you effectively break through the noise and connect with your target audience?
We’ve been in the marketing sports betting industry for over a decade and have helped launch hundreds of campaigns through our marketing experts.
With this expertise in mind, here are our best tips for running sports betting advertising campaigns that will score big.
Setting Up Your Sports Betting Advertising Campaign
As we just said, we’ve been running many sports betting marketing campaigns for years and have learned a thing or two.
Here are our top tips for setting up a successful campaign:
Setting up an advertising campaign for a sports betting website involves several key steps. These steps aim to target the right audience and market, create the most effective advertisements, and ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards.
Understanding the Legal Landscape: Before starting your campaign, ensure you’re well-versed with the legal regulations regarding advertising for sports betting in your target countries. Some jurisdictions, especially in the EU, have strict rules and regulations surrounding gambling advertising. Do thorough research and, if needed, consult with a legal professional to avoid any complications.
Identify Your Target Audience: Sports betting marketing strategies work only if you know who you are targetting. Understanding your target demographic is vital in any advertising campaign. Are they primarily males in their 20s and 30s? Do they follow specific sports? What channels do they use to consume content? Defining these characteristics will guide the design and messaging of your campaign.
Develop Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Your USP sets you apart. What makes your sports betting site better or different? Maybe you offer better odds, more betting options, or a more user-friendly interface. Highlight these features in your advertising.
Create Your Brand Message: Your brand message should be clear, engaging, and consistent across all advertising mediums. This message should convey your USP and appeal to your target audience’s interests and needs.
Choose the Right Advertising Channels: Certain advertising channels may be more effective depending on your target audience. These could include social media platforms, sports TV channels, radio, print, digital banners on sports news websites, email marketing, and more. Consider also sponsoring events or partnering with influencers who resonate with your audience.
Design Your Ads: Your ads should consider your brand message, USP, and specific channel. TV or YouTube ads might involve engaging visuals and narratives, whereas banner ads might be more about the offer and call to action. Consider working with professionals for high-quality results.
Implement an Affiliate Marketing System: Utilize a tracking system to monitor the performance of your campaign. This can be through unique URLs, promo codes, or digital tracking pixels. This data will provide valuable insights and help you optimize your campaign for better results.
Launch and Monitor Your Campaign: After all the groundwork is laid, launch your campaign. Regularly review the analytics from your tracking system to assess the performance. This will provide insights to adjust and optimize your campaign, maximizing your return on investment.
Test, Refine, and Adjust: Advertising is rarely a set-it-and-forget-it endeavor. Regularly testing different messages, offers, and channels will allow you to refine your approach and improve over time.
Choosing the Right Channels for Sports Betting Marketing
So… How to market sports betting the right way?
When it comes to sports betting marketing, we’ve found the most success using a mix of paid advertising, social media, and influencer marketing. It’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, so diverting your efforts through a variety of channels gives you more flexibility and access to more target audiences across different platforms.
For paid ads, focus on search engines that allow betting advertising and social platforms. On Google, target keywords like “sports betting” using different variations and long-tail keywords.
Facebook and Instagram ads also work great for reaching new audiences.
We suggest:
- Create ads for your top-performing landing pages and betting promotions.
- Optimize your Facebook gambling ads to make sure they meet all Facebook regulations.
- Split testing ad creatives to optimize click-through rates.
- Retargeting visitors who don’t convert the first time.
Social media is key for brand awareness and engagement.
Regularly post updates, share content, run contests, and start discussions on:
- Facebook – Focus on visuals, behind-the-scenes, and community building.
- Twitter – Share tips and news and retweet influencers. Engage with followers.
- Instagram – Post eye-catching sports and lifestyle shots. Build hype.
Influencers, like sports analysts, podcasters, streamers, and journalists, can give your brand credibility and exposure. We’ve seen success with the following most commonly used methods:
- Sponsored posts – Pay influencers to mention your brand on social media, and post their experience.
- Ambassador programs – Provide influencers with promo codes to share (such as a bonus for new clients).
- Podcast sponsorships – Sponsor relevant sports betting podcasts and shows.
Using a mix of paid casino ads, social media, and influencer marketing, you can reach new audiences, increase brand awareness, drive more traffic, and ultimately generate more signups and revenue.
The key is testing to find what works, then optimizing and scaling up the winning campaigns.
Now you probably ask “What’s the next sports betting marketing strategy, that will 100% work now?“.
The answer is simple.
One of the best sports betting marketing strategies is to take advantage of social media influencers in the betting industry as well as implement an incentives program, where people will be motivated financially to promote the campaign.
How to Optimize Your Landing Pages and Creatives
You must focus on key areas to optimize your sports betting landing pages and creatives before driving traffic to them. Since CPC across most betting keywords is very high, you can’t afford to send traffic to a page that isn’t 100% tested for the best conversions.
While there is no universal recipe for the “best” landing page design, here is a small checklist to consider.
Clear Call-to-Action
Your landing pages and ads should have a prominent call-to-action, like “Bet Now” or “Place Your First Bet FREE“. This would depend on your online sportsbook marketing strategy, but as a general rule of thumb, the offer should be too good to resist.
Make sure the CTA stands out and is easy to spot. People have short attention spans, so we must clearly show them what to do next.
Eye-Catching Images
Include exciting images of people cheering on their favorite teams or celebrating a win. These could be photos or mascots. You can also feature images of money or chips to represent winnings. Images help bring the page to life and make it more engaging for visitors. Just be sure the images are high quality and relevant to sports betting or the exact offer you are promoting (for example, the NHL league final).
Benefits and Incentives
Highlight the benefits of betting on your site, such as the thrill of victory, a chance to win big, smaller risks compared to competitors, and the opportunity to turn a hobby into a profit.
Also, promote any new member incentives, like:
- free bets
- deposit matches
- odds boosts
- VIP programs
- etc…
People love deals and feel like they’re getting extra value.
Trust and Security
Ensure your landing pages discuss how you operate legally and ethically with responsible gambling practices. Mention any licenses or certifications you hold. Discuss your secure payment methods and privacy policies.
Building trust is critical to converting visitors into customers.
Mobile-Friendly
With so many people accessing the internet through their phones and tablets, your landing pages and ads must be fully optimized for mobile. Use a responsive design, large text, and minimal clutter. The pages should load quickly and be easy to navigate on any device.
If visitors have a bad mobile experience on your site, they likely won’t return.
Optimizing these elements of your sports betting campaign will lead to higher click-through and conversion rates. Creating a great first impression turns curious visitors into lifelong customers.
How to Measure and Improve Your Campaign’s Performance
Assuming you have done all of the above, go ahead and launch your campaign – as we have mentioned earlier, this is not a “set-it-and-forget-it” endeavor. Campaigns should be ceaselessly optimized, tweaked, improved, and optimized time and again.
Launching your initial campaign will give you a rough idea about the performance of your ad, and once you have gathered a little bit of data, you can start analyzing and, consequently, doubling down on the results.
Here are a few elements to consider:
Track Key Performance Indicators
You must monitor key metrics to see how your sports betting ad campaigns perform. If you have tracking software connected, for instance, you have access to detailed reports in your dashboard to analyze things like:
- Impressions: The number of times our ads were shown to potential customers. More impressions mean more visibility.
- Clicks: The number of times people clicked on our ads. A higher click-through rate means our ads are resonating with the target audience.
- Conversions: The number of clicks that resulted in a signup or deposit.
- Revenue: The total amount generated from all signups and deposits attributed to our ads. This bottom-line number ultimately determines the success of our campaigns.
- Registrations – The number of registrations through each campaign.
- Deposits – The number of deposits received through each campaign.
- CR to Reg – Registrations to clicks ratio; this is a metric displayed in percentage that allows you to see the actual conversion rate.
- CR to Dep – Deposits to clicks ratio per betting campaign.
- CR Reg to Dep – Deposits to registration ratio.
Make Optimization and some Changes
You can make changes to improve your results over time by looking at the data.
Here are some of the easiest actions you can take to optimize your campaign on the go:
- Adjusting ad copy to make it more compelling. Adding time-sensitive promotions or bonuses may boost conversions. Rephrase your current ad copy or create multiple variations to do a split test later.
- Targeting different audiences. You may find some demographics, locations, or interest groups that perform better, so you can focus our ads on those groups. You may double down on the top-performing channels and potentially eliminate underperforming ones.
- Testing different ad formats. Try larger ads, video ads, or social media ads in addition to standard display ads. One format may resonate more strongly with your audience or stand out better in their news feed on social media.
- Rotating ads more frequently. New ads tend to get higher click-through rates, so updating our ads every few weeks gives people something fresh to respond to.
- Increasing our ad spend budget. More impressions and a larger reach can drive greater overall numbers if our key metrics remain within target ranges. You have to spend money to make money!
Making small changes and continuing to monitor how our campaigns evolve is key. You know you’re on the right track when we see sustained improvements in our key metrics over time.
Your sports betting campaigns can dominate with regular optimization of KPIs, allowing you to scale up your success.
Conclusion
So, here you have our tips for running successful sports betting advertising campaigns. As with any marketing effort, do thorough research, understand your target customers, craft a compelling message, choose impactful creative, and distribute across the right channels.
If you follow these best practices, set a reasonable budget, and monitor and optimize based on performance, you’ll be well on your way to driving new customer acquisition and boosting your sportsbook’s bottom line. A little strategic advertising can go a long way.
FAQ: Common Questions About Sports Betting Advertising
What types of ads work best for sports betting?
Display ads, social media ads, and search engine marketing have proven the most successful. Display ads on sports and betting websites allow us to reach audiences already interested in the industry. Social media ads, especially on Facebook and Instagram, are useful for targeting specific demographics and interests. Search ads capture people already searching for sports betting keywords.
What keywords should I target in sports betting campaigns?
Focus on generic terms like “sports betting,” “online sportsbook,” and “bet on sports.” Also, target keywords related to popular sports like “bet football” or “NBA betting.” Include misspellings and synonyms as well. The wider you cast your net, the more potential customers you’ll reach.
How much should I bid on keywords?
Start with a low bid of a few cents per click to determine which keywords resonate best with your audience. Once you find keywords that convert, slowly increase bids to improve ad rank and click volume. Monitor your return on investment to make sure revenue outpaces ad spending.
What content works well for sports betting ads?
Compelling images of sports stars, fans, and action shots capture attention. For social media, create shareable content like infographics on sports stats, betting tips, and fun facts. For search ads, focus on clear headlines and ad copy highlighting signup bonuses, easy deposits, and wide market offerings.
How do you Market a Sportsbook?
Affiliate marketing is the most cost-effective and secure way to market a sportsbook business. If you want to get started with affiliate marketing on your sportsbook website, you will need an online gambling affiliate marketing agency, such as CliqBetter, to power your marketing efforts.
Can you Run ads for Gambling?
Yes, I can run ads for gambling through most of our partner advertising networks. We also employ the most effective online betting marketing strategy.
How to Grow Your Online Sportsbook?
The best way to grow your online sportsbook website is through partnering with a sportsbook marketing agency, which would allow you to enjoy a steady flow of clients in the most cost-efficient manner.
How to Promote a Betting Site now?
The best way to promote a betting site is through digital marketing channels, affiliate or referral marketing, referral coupons, and offline advertising channels.
How to Run Gambling Ads on Google?
Gambling-related ads are acceptable as long as they adhere to the following guidelines and the advertiser has obtained the necessary Google Ads accreditation. To be approved, gambling advertisements must be directed towards countries that have been authorized, and must also have a landing page that prominently features details about responsible gambling practices. It is of utmost importance that these ads never target individuals who are considered minors.
How to do online sportsbook marketing like a pro?
Marketing a sportsbook website is similar to marketing any other gambling or iGaming website, where you refer paying customers who pay/deposit real money, in this case, the affiliate who referred the person will receive a share of the deposit (namely – loss) of the customer. Doing online sportsbook marketing is relatively hard due to the fierce competition among the operators, so starting your marketing campaign without an experienced marketing partner is challenging.