Social media is a powerful marketing tool that helps every brand to reach recognition and popularity. According to the research conducted by GlobalWebIndex (GWI), around 58.4% of the total earth’s population use different social media and spend, on average, approximately two and half hours daily. And it is not wondering the fact that some gambling-related companies use the advertising services of different social media to promote their products and increase brand awareness.
In this in-depth article, we will talk about the promotion of gambling at all, and how a variety of gambling businesses use social media advantageously. In addition, we provide you with five strategies with the help of which you will be able to maximize your gambling campaigns and get the maximum from them. So, let us get started with the first aspect of the article – gambling advertising and what you should know about it.
The role of social media for online casinos and gambling
Social media can be an excellent way for online-only companies to reach their target audience. Online casinos, unlike land-based gambling establishments, are only available online. This moment means that they will not make money from people walking down the street or downtown. As a result, it makes sense for these companies to target their websites at people already online.
While billboards, posters, and newspaper ads are still available for online casinos, it can be challenging to ensure that the people who view them are the company’s primary target audience. Digital marketing can provide easy access to the casino, saving new visitors from having to search for it, and social media is the most suitable option for this purpose. And the reason for this is the incredible popularity of social platforms.
Social media is also helpful because it allows for two-way communication. If an online casino announces a new offer, followers can ask questions, leave comments or tag their friends. They can then contact the casino. It’s also less costly than other forms of marketing. While television ads can cost thousands of dollars, social media ads can be modified to fit your marketing budget. There is also more flexibility in terms of audience targeting, money, and duration. For social media audiences, online casinos can create different content formats.
Why is social media better than other forms of advertising for online casinos?
TV and radio advertisements are still actively used to promote the gambling business. Nevertheless, these forms of marketing are limited. For example, in countries where the market is regulated, television gambling advertisements are quite often banned during daytime hours and sometimes forbidden altogether. Restrictions are often aimed at preventing minors from seeing the advertisements and against attempts to show gambling as a guaranteed source of wealth and earnings.
With this knowledge in mind, it is worth indicating that the situation with social media is slightly different, and these platforms can help to overcome all the difficulties and troublesome issues in that regard.
In addition, such social media giants, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, etc., allow you to reach the needed audience and give you a shot to conduct two-way communication. This moment allows you to be closer to your target audience and have a better relationship with the customer. And it cannot be achieved with the help of traditional advertising methods (TV and radio ads).
For every gambling business, the aspects mentioned above are crucial, and that is why social media is better than other forms of advertising for online casinos and all gambling-related businesses.
How to use different social media for advertising your gambling business?
This social media platform is the king because of several reasons. The first reason is the most evident one and lies in the number of active users of Facebook. As data indicates, the total active number of users is going up and up. In the graphic below, you can see the progressive curve that is intended to go up. And by the end of the first quarter of 2022, the total number of active Facebook users had almost reached the point of 2 billion.
On Facebook, you are able to launch multiple advertising campaigns while trying out different promotional approaches. Advertising on Facebook is very popular among businesses. This is not only due to the popularity of the social network but also to the convenient schemes for creating and setting up advertising campaigns. Some companies and entrepreneurs are engaged in advertising on FB on their own, while many save time and entrust this role to professionals from digital agencies. In the second case, the marketing costs will be higher, but you can be sure that the money is not wasted.
On Facebook, you can advertise completely different objects: your page or application in the social network, website, or blog – and the functionality of the settings may differ depending on the object of advertising.
Available ad formats on Facebook:
- Standard image ads. Standard settings include a headline (up to 25 characters), description text (up to 90 characters), and a picture (100×92);
- Video ads;
- Ads with a ring gallery: can include up to 20 images or videos, each with its own link;
- Ads with a compilation allow you to combine a video, slideshow, or individual picture with images from a catalog;
- Advertising with a slideshow;
- Canvas ads: a format for mobile devices.
TikTok
TikTok is a platform for publishing short videos. The app now ranks at the top in downloads and usage (as of 2022, TikTok is ranked 1st in downloads globally).
Among the most popular advertising approaches on TikTok are:
- Brand takeover;
- In-feed ads;
- Branded hashtag challenge;
- Top View;
- Branded effects.
Targeted advertising on this social network is not very common among gambling-related businesses, although Twitter has its own advantages for advertisers. First, the competition here is low, which means that the cost per click on an ad will also not be very high. At the same time, engagement and CTR (click-through rate or clickability) is not lower than in more popular media. Secondly, ads on Twitter are shown in the feed, which means they don’t annoy the user too much. In addition, this social platform is extremely popular, and the table below shows the truth.
What formats are available for advertising on Twitter:
- Promoted tweet. You promote a single message that appears in a user’s feed or when searching on a hashtag;
- Promoted account. Users will see your account in the “Whom to Read” section. This format is good for increasing the number of followers;
- Promoted trending. A rather expensive type of advertising that is used when mass reach is necessary. Here, a specific hashtag is promoted in the “Current Topics” block;
- Promoted video. Promotion of videos and GIF files.
Last year, the active Instagram audience exceeded the edge of 1.21 billion users. Advertising on Instagram is relatively new – it was launched in 2015. Campaigns are launched through Facebook, and it is necessary to link accounts on these two social networks. The Instagram audience is characterized by a high level of engagement, so with the right setting of the campaign and well-crafted ads, you can get good results. And it is worth also indicating that over one billion active users are using this social media on a daily basis.
Advertising on Instagram is available in several formats:
- Photo;
- Video;
- Cascade of several slides;
- Stories: photos and short videos that only live for 24 hours.
YouTube
This social network offers a wide range of advertising options. Campaigns are set up through Google Ads. You can advertise in YouTube searches as well as in videos. And the graph below will give you a hint in which regions/countries it is better to use the advertising services of YouTube.
Let us understand in more detail what video ad formats you can use:
- TrueView video discovery. Ads are shown in the list of similar videos and on the search results page. The ad consists of text and a video icon. Funds are deducted if the user clicks on the video icon;
- TrueView in-stream. Ads are shown at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of videos posted on YouTube and sites in the Google contextual media network. After 5 seconds after the start, the user can skip the ads. Payment is made if the video ad is played for 30 seconds (or completely, if the video is shorter) or if the user interacts with your ads;
- Video caption. Shows for a maximum of 6 seconds at the beginning, middle, or end of another video. You can’t skip it. Fees are billed on a per-show basis.
Effective promotion is essential in the online casino industry
It is not wondering fact that the gambling business is an extremely profitable industry with a total market cap of 66.7 billion euros (in 2020). And the experts predict its growth to the level of 92.9 billion euros by the end of 2023. And the number of online gambling establishments has constantly been increasing, creating a highly-competitive environment. Thus, it is critically important to come to the question of gambling promotion carefully and seriously and always check the latest trends in the market that will allow you and your business to take a predominant position and meet success in terms of positive total gaming revenue.
And social media platform is exactly this tool that can help you reach this goal. However, you need to use the right approaches and the right kind of content.
What content to consider while promoting your gambling-related product?
It is a challenging task to understand what kind of content you can use to promote your gambling business on social media because of the strict restrictions, which will lead (in most cases) to a ban on your newly-created profile. That is why it is crucial to come to this moment seriously and thoughtfully. However, before doing this, you need to have a clear picture of the real purpose of the advertising content on different social media platforms.
Gambling advertising on social media is not only about temporary events and incentives, like free spins, money rewards, and tournaments. The primary goal of every gambling-related advertising is to show that your online gambling establishment is a safe place for gamblers. And it is critical to avoid any hint that an online casino or sports betting platform has an intention to provide players with dishonest services. This information allows you to turn potential customers into loyal players who will have a desire to visit your gambling website over and over again.
So, let us see what content it is necessary to consider to reach the primary goal and not get banned.
Informational content
The selling process always begins not with selling but with gaining trust. Informational content is used to build trust. When you share helpful or exciting information, subscribers understand the area in which you (or your company) are an expert. They get used to trusting and turning to you when the need arises.
Informational content is good when the posts are descriptive, without apparent personal evaluations, so readers can draw their conclusions and form their own opinions about the information they receive. Informational content includes:
- News;
- Reviews;
- Interviews.
Reputation content
Also, one of the main types of content that shows you and your company are at your best is building a positive reputation. The reputational content format includes tops and rankings, real cases, and stories of success.
Entertainment content
You need entertaining content to keep your audience entertained. With it, you get closer to your readers and therefore increase their loyalty.
Engaging content
A more interactive type of content than just entertaining content – it always involves interaction with the audience, not just that subscribers will see the post.
User-oriented content
This is a type of content that is created by customers or your subscribers in social networks – as a rule, no editing of such content does not pass, for which he is very fond of SMM specialists.
Selling content
All the same, the strategic task of all types of content in social networks is to lead the audience to the purchase. And selling posts are designed to convert an already warmed-up audience. It is considered optimal when the selling format of the content makes up 20%-30% of all publications.
There are many options and types of content for social networks. All you have to do is choose the right ones and sharpen them for your target audience.
Do not forget that content is the only way to convince your audience to buy from you. Every good post increases the likelihood of a purchase, and every bad post decreases it; take the preparation of posts and posts for social media as seriously as possible.
Five proven strategies to maximize your gambling campaigns
The success and profitability of the casino depend not only on the range of games and the quality of service. Of great importance for the development of business is competent marketing. With the help of high-quality advertising, you can not only increase the number of customers but also increase brand awareness. And in this part of the article, we will talk about five proven strategies that will allow you to maximize the results of your gambling-related advertising campaigns on different social media platforms.
Discoverability
It is not surprising that there are hundreds or even thousands of online gambling establishments around the globe, and to become discoverable is one of the first things that should be approached.
To make your gambling website discoverable, it is necessary to use marketing and SEO tools that help you understand how to better your chances of being on the first page of a Google search.
Positive feedback loops
Most successive online gambling platforms know that positive emotions play a crucial role. It is worth approaching the creation of positive feedback loops around the promoted online gambling website. With the help of these loops, you will increase the probability that customers will come back to your website again, having great hopes that something wonderful may happen to them one more time.
To create a positive feedback loop, you can use one of the following ideas:
- Encourage people to leave their feedback or thoughts after they experience something positive (like an insane and unexpected win);
- Provide your customers with discounts or additional incentives;
- Always respond to customer’s feedback and reviews;
- Make sure that your loyal customers are regularly rewarded (special rewards, exclusive deals, etc.);
- Try to turn negative feedback loops into positive ones while communicating with angry customers.
Social proof
Players get used to trusting other players who have experience in this or that online casino or sports betting platform. Thus, it is obvious that the online reputation of your gambling website should be good, but it is better to have an excellent reputation on the Internet. And to do so, you can use the following tips:
- Show players positive feedback and reviews;
- Video testimonials of happy customers are always great;
- Motivate players to share their positive experiences on social media while tagging your gambling website;
- Constantly update the list of lucky players.
The latest gambling trends
To stay on top of the gambling market, every online gambling site needs to follow the latest gambling trends. If you allow your gambling website becomes outdated, you will definitely lose many customers (potential and loyal ones).
Thus, you need to make sure that your online gambling platform applies the latest technologies that will not allow your players to get bored.
Pros and cons of using social media for gambling promotion
Before we are going to step to the conclusion, it is worth concluding a table with all pros and cons of the usage of social media for the purpose of gambling promotion.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Huge audience reach; | Can be extremely expensive; |
| Target traffic; | Finding a target audience is challenging; |
| Different promotional advertising approaches; | The necessity of social optimization. |
| Two-way communication; | |
| Good perspectives for the future. |
Conclusion
In our contemporary time, social media is one of the greatest and most powerful tools for promoting any kind of gambling business, whether it is an online casino or sports betting platform. Even though traditional advertising approaches work well, social media platforms do the same thing but in a more efficient way. And to make your gambling business prosperous, it will be enough to develop a great development strategy while using the social platforms mentioned above and pick for them the right strategy to maximize the profit.
Read more: Top CPA networks
