How to Run Sports Betting Advertising Campaigns

Betting campaigns in 2024 are as creative as they can get. 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 affiliate sports betting industry for over a decade and have helped to launch hundreds of campaigns through our affiliate software. 

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 affiliate 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. 

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Design Your Ads: Designing 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.
7. Implement an Affiliate Tracking 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. Scaleo, for example, is designed to track the performance of campaigns across all channels.
8. 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 you with insights to adjust and optimize your campaign, maximizing your return on investment.
9. 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: PPC, Social Media, Influencers

So… How to market sports betting in 2024?

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:

• Creating ads for your top-performing landing pages and betting promotions.
• Optimizing your Facebook gambling ads to make sure they meet all FB’s 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 in 2024?“.

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.

Optimizing 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 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

You 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 turn curious visitors into lifelong customers.

Measuring and Improving 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. With affiliate software like Scaleo, for instance, you have access to detailed reports in our 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 actually 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 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.

Read more: 10 KPIs Every iGaming Company Should Measure & Track

Your sports betting campaigns can dominate with regular optimization of KPIs, allowing to scale up your success.

Why Use Scaleo Marketing Software For Betting Business to Track Your Marketing Campaign?

Scaleo is an affiliate marketing and tracking software that can be particularly beneficial for sports betting businesses and their marketing campaigns for several reasons. 

Here’s why you might consider using it:

1. Tracking and Reporting: Scaleo offers real-time tracking and reporting. It can track clicks, conversions, and sales, providing you with a comprehensive view of your affiliate marketing efforts. The ability to see the effectiveness of your campaigns in real-time allows you to make adjustments quickly, maximizing your return on investment.
2. Fraud Detection: Scaleo provides an advanced anti-fraud logic feature that helps identify and prevent fraudulent activities. Since fraud can be a significant issue in the online betting industry, this can prevent revenue loss and maintain the integrity of your platform.
3. Affiliate Management: Scaleo simplifies the process of managing your affiliates. You can handle all your affiliate marketers, their payouts, and communications through one platform. This can streamline operations and make scaling your affiliate marketing efforts easier.
4. Customizability and Integration: Scaleo offers customizable solutions that can be tailored to fit the unique needs of your sports betting business. Furthermore, Scaleo’s API allows you to integrate the platform with other software tools you might be using, creating a seamless operational flow.
5. Automated Features: The platform allows the automation of numerous tasks, such as commission payouts, reporting, and communications. This can save you significant time and effort, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business.
6. A/B testing: Scaleo’s built-in A/B testing capabilities enable you to experiment with different types of campaigns to see what works best. This helps in refining your approach and enhancing your advertising effectiveness.

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 accross 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

Last Updated on March 19, 2024