As the World Cup in Qatar begins, sportsbook marketing teams deploy formula that will deliver impressive levels of player acquisition and retention, and a return on their substantial investments in promotional campaigns, writes John Bamidele
Traditional tactics such as bonuses, free bets and newspaper advertising still has a role, while a combination of free-to-play games, programmatic re-targeting and a holistic social media strategy could help operators to achieve more of their goals during the tournament. Operators have started to approach their acquisition campaigns differently by launching prediction-style, free-to-play games that drive meaningful, daily engagement. This tactic converts new players and lowers CPAs but with the added benefit of greater loyalty and higher player value throughout the tournament.
For Sportsbooks to make the best of World Cup in Qatar these strategies spring to mind:
FREE-TO-PLAY COMPETITIONS
Free-to-play competitions have proven to build daily engagement. They keep players returning to your site where, via free bet incentives and odds promotions, you can convert them to real-money betting markets with high conversion rates.
PROGRAMMATIC TARGETING
We have seen great results with programmatic re-targeting. Using personalized creative based on individual user profiling, marketers can re-engage dormant players, for example those who abandoned their bet slip, have not logged in within the last 48 hours or not deposited in the past week.
GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
A holistic paid and owned social media strategy is highly effective. World Cup engagement on Twitter and Facebook will be 24/7 and to convert, operators need to be top of people’s feed with relevant, live data and odds-driven content as big moments occur – be that team news or a goal being scored.
PREDICTOR GAME STRATEGY
At tournaments like the World Cup, predictor games tend to perform extremely well because they attract new and casual audiences that can be successfully cross sold into the betting markets. This tried-and-tested approach has proven to be highly effective in increasing operators’ new customer conversion rates. These games can range from contests that allow players to predict the first goal scorer across the next six matches, to more daily, frequent predictors that combine outcomes like who will win the match, which player will score first and the total goals in a single fixture.
ADVERTISING
The world Cup advertising space can be very noisy. Both in the run up and throughout the tournament, it is essential that any creative executions are contextual and relevant to your customers. The key lies in dynamic data like live scores, odds, match stats and kick-off countdown clocks. Whether through display advertising, social media or connected TV, embedding this data into your creative will immediately capture fan attention and ensure meaningful connections.
EDUCATION
It is worth noting that a lot of new players will be wagering for the first time so are more likely to be betting pre-game to begin with. This provides operators with a big opportunity to then educate these players as to the other exciting betting options available to them and incentivize customers to, perhaps try in-play for the first time. They may also want to highlight cash out, live markets and other fast-paced betting products. This is the sort of ‘beneficial’ behavior operators will then want to reward through other bonuses and offers, however, it must be done responsibly and with safe gaming in mind at all times.
