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We owe this story to a media buyer responsible for driving European traffic to an iGaming platform. With a managed Adsterra account, he frequently runs campaigns to attract new users. His recent goal—and the focus of our discussion — was to increase first-time deposits while staying within budget. He provided us with the necessary data and agreed to share his insights publicly. Thanks to his openness, we can now offer you essential tips on boosting iGaming conversions.
Our partner's goal was to boost the number of initial deposits in Romania while operating within the budget constraints provided by their advertiser. The main hurdle was ensuring that spending did not exceed the $16,000 monthly limit and that the budget was not overly concentrated on this region.
Even though the ideal cost per conversion for Romania was the lowest, at around $70 per deposit, the competition in this region was the most intense during that period.
An additional challenge was our inability to monitor the performance of ad placements on our end, as the advertiser did not implement S2S tracking. Nevertheless, our partner and the Adsterra team embraced these challenges and successfully increased the number of deposits from 42 to 93 while ensuring the quality of these users remained high (they continued to engage and make further deposits).
It's time to share the tactics we used.
Prior to boosting the number of first-time deposits (FTD), we had to evaluate the traffic's performance. Our partner media buyer could only share analytics data from his platform every 28–30 days. The metrics we could analyze included:
In the table section provided, it's evident that registrations stem from 12 primary placements in the Deposits column. In contrast, other sources fail to produce conversions (though they deliver substantial impressions).
On the surface, the data might suggest that we have all the insights needed to make a move. Shouldn't we just cut the poor performers and shift the budget to the best placements? Actually, no. Here's why:
Our partner consented to test a new bidding strategy, provided that the budget would not exceed the set limit.
You shouldn't have to use up 50% of your budget in the first five days. With strategic budget distribution, we controlled ad spending by day or even by hour. This allowed us to evenly allocate funds across the 30–31 days, ensuring we stayed within our budget while capturing maximum ad views in Romania.
This tactic led to an improved conversion rate and a potential rise in player deposits. We diversified our traffic sources, giving another opportunity to those that had previously generated numerous clicks but no conversions. As the saying goes, time is money—and in this scenario, it certainly proved to be true.
Adsterra self-serve account holders can set daily and hourly spending limits in addition to the total campaign budget (refer to the screenshot above).
The Evenly Distributed feature is only accessible on managed accounts. Given our limited visibility into traffic patterns, our managers applied it here to ensure smooth spending without spikes or drops.
Aside from budget distribution, we explored the best times to display ads. Player activity varies by country, with engagement levels peaking at different times.
In Romania, users may click on your ad and browse a website at 3 AM, but they're not likely to register or deposit funds. Although this may look like a subtle factor impacting the conversion rate (CR), we observed a substantial enhancement in campaign performance after excluding nighttime hours from our Popunder campaign.
Our access was limited to by-weekly reports from our media buyer, preventing real-time monitoring of how placements converted into deposits. We secured the media buyer's agreement to keep traffic sources with no registrations but lowered their payout.
With Adsterra Custom Bid, we easily entered all the questionable IDs and set reduced bids. While it required manual input, it was generally a worthwhile endeavor. Custom pricing is an effective tactic for reaching the desired conversion cost without drastically lowering traffic volumes.
Ultimately, aided by the Custom Bid tool, we succeeded in boosting our earnings and channeling more resources to the best-converting placements. By retaining sources that seemed ineffective at first, we maintained a steady flow of traffic. This approach culminated in a significant rise in conversions, with player deposits increasing from 42 to 93.
Eliminating ad placements from the outset risks losing valuable traffic. As such, our strategy involved leaving this step for the final phase. After four weeks, any traffic sources with zero or minimal conversions were disconnected from the campaign.
iGaming conversions are not immediate, unlike app installs or signups. It's difficult to assess quickly whether a traffic source will be successful, even with high click numbers in the stats. The most effective strategy—especially when daily performance tracking is unavailable—is to reduce bids for placements that appear uncertain and keep testing the traffic.
Whether you're an iGaming operator or an agency, you can impose daily or hourly caps on your ad expenditure. This will shield you from exceeding your budget.
In conclusion, FTD (First-Time Deposit) campaigns in Sports and Gaming generally perform best with CPM traffic, whereas leads and installs are more effectively promoted using CPA traffic.
