What is QUALITY in gambling ARBITRAGE? TOP-2 ways to influence traffic

The most popular term you can hear in working with gambling traffic is QUALITY. Deals thrive or collapse on this basis, webmasters become poorer or richer, as do advertisers. Sometimes people obsess over quality and it drives them insane. You’ll encounter this in your work, if you haven't already.

Many brands have a time-tested pool of metrics in their arsenal, which guarantee them the absence of risks when purchasing traffic from a particular partner. This pool of metrics, namely its minimum allowable thresholds, is the notorious quality that will prolong your relationships. In simpler terms, your traffic will be purchased.

What affects traffic quality

The quality of traffic directly affects whether:

• The advertiser will continue working with you after the test cap is spent or not;
• You’ll have conversion restrictions or not;
• Traffic KPIs will be remove/soften (if previously established) or introduced (if not previously established);
• Your CPA/RS rate is likely to increase or decrease;
• You’ll be able to receive payouts more frequently;
• You’ll be able to receive early payouts.

Today we’ll talk about the quality characteristics of traffic from the main gambling sources and come to logical conclusions.

Acceptable quality is a combination of traffic characteristics that meet the minimum acceptable requirements. Each advertiser has their own notion of quality, but globally, everything fluctuates around the same reference values. The list of characteristics can confidently include:

• Click2reg ratio
• Reg2fd ratio
• Presence of DOI
• Profile completion
• Profile verification
• Online chat interactions
• Initiatives to make a deposit (quantity/success)
• Session duration
• Average fd rate
• Average rd rate
• Step indicator in bets
• Total amount of bets 
• Average bet size
• Number of games played
• Number of sessions
• Withdrawals instances
• Amount of withdrawals

And most of these metrics are evaluated after 3 days/a week/two weeks, and so on. Of course, I listed some important ones, there are many more.

In gambling, it's common practice to assess the quality after a test cap has been spent. That is, after a fixed number of deposits have been acquired, the advertiser evaluates the metrics and makes a decision either to stop or continue working.

20 deposits is the norm, the average test cap in the market. It's logical that sometimes 20 deposits may have extremely poor quality, which is why your deal is adjusted and new solutions are offered regarding the rate that is acceptable for the advertiser and for which they are willing to buy such traffic.

Method #1 – advertiser analytics

At first glance, it may seem that influencing, for example, the average deposit size is solely the concern of the product and its internal marketing. Or the email confirmation indicator is also on the advertiser's shoulders. Or, conversely, the size of the average first deposit will depend solely on the webmaster’s advertising creative. But this is only a superficial view according to amateurs.

Unfortunately, a huge number of advertisers and webmasters fail to connect with each other globally because advertisers don't delve into traffic data, don't study its significance, don't clarify useful information about the traffic generation, in other words, they don't move beyond assessing primary indicators. And, as is usually the case, if they see a weak average fd or a weak percentage of repeat deposits, they stop the webmaster.

The question arises: what can the advertiser do to, at the very least, understand the reasons why the traffic was unsatisfactory, and at best, continue to work on mistakes and give the webmaster a second chance?

You can start with analytics on your side as one of the tools:

1. Examine the response within emails: if the metrics are below normal from this source, the question arises again about the interest of the target audience.
2. Study the % DOI: a low percentage indicates weak engagement, which most likely suggests:

1. The webmaster's advertising creative contains empty promises.
2. The advertising creative contains mislead.
3. The advertising creative contains errors.
4. The target audience that arrived didn’t engage, and the source provided poor traffic.

3. Examine profile completion: another metric to understand the interest and engagement of players — empty profiles = not the target audience.
4. Examine the number of deposit attempts: a very high number of abandoned windows at the final stage indicates an audience that is financially incapable and, as a result, poor targeting in the advertising source. This could be the fault of the webmaster or the advertiser because sometimes, for example, Facebook, provides low-quality traffic in the ad auction.
5. Examine the quantity and nature of inquiries in the CRM: for example, if player requests mainly concern bonuses or an expected percentage that simply isn't on the site, the question is about the accuracy of the information on the advertising creative itself.
6. To make a stronger promotion to players: the advertiser can throw a lifeline to the traffic through additional activities, one of which is individual promo codes or bonuses. If players don’t respond even to private terms, then in combination with all the analyzed data, one conclusion suggests itself — the webmaster either missed the target or deliberately tried to lower the cost of acquisition.
7. Study and assist with creatives: if the advertiser is an expert and has a full understanding of the market, they can easily distinguish between good and bad creatives for their product. And provide recommendations: on elements, on text, on calls to action. Of course, the webmaster may not want to share them, and that's their right. But no one charges for asking, especially if the creative didn't convert into deposits, there’s unlikely to be some top-secret combination hidden there.

Method #2 - webmaster analytics

What shapes a player's initial attitude towards the product they are about to engage with? It's the advertising creative. And what helps find the right player? Targeting settings. Let's break down these two pillars separately.

Let's consider the elements of the creative, neglect of which can affect the perception and attraction of the player. At the very least, it’ll result in attracting a weak player, for whom you’ll struggle to receive payment, or a non-targeted and financially weak player, for whom, among the total number of generated deposits, you’ll encounter an additional hold.

Creatives are divided into:

• Static (image)
• Dynamic (video)

Dynamics, in turn, has several approaches:

• News approach
• Scratch-offs
• Stream + win + emotions
• Native advertising (slots or wheel of fortune + win at the end)
• Lifestyle and rich life

About 70-85% of all creatives are dynamic. It is important to distinguish between bad and good creatives by checking the following points for thoroughness and absence of errors:

• Overall quality of the creative
• Font readability
• Music (local/well-known popular)
• Retention in the first three seconds — the first 3 seconds of the creative are crucial, they capture attention and compel viewers to continue watching.
• Accuracy and recognizability of elements (includes text readability or subtitles)
• Accuracy of information (about bonuses, licenses, currency representation, and indication of local payment methods — errors in these aspects has an extremely negative impact on the player’s perception)
• Duration
• Call to action
• Accompanying text in the advertisement

The topic of creatives should be addressed in a separate video, so please like and comment! If we get 40 comments, I'll make a special episode about India.

I've often come across seemingly top teams that simply indicate the wrong bonuses in their creatives. Such basic mistakes happen regardless of the level. So, once again, method #2 to influence quality is to work with the creative, run it through a checklist.

Targeting in the case of attracting players to gambling creatives is not subject to any proverbial settings. 

Typically, when setting up ad campaigns, work is done with:

• GEO (country)
• Cities
• Age
• Gender
• Devices (Android/iOS, and operating system versions)
• Language

In traffic arbitrage, this is commonly referred to as "broad targeting", implying that traffic is being directed without specific interests, without delving into intricate adjustments of the advertising campaign.

This is explained by the fact that most advanced advertising platforms are very intelligent and capable of self-optimization, like Google or Facebook. This means that advertising campaigns are constantly optimized and find the right audience, and similar audiences, based on those who have had successful interactions with your advertising creative.

It's extremely rare to come across webmasters who burden themselves with fine-tuning interests and various intricate techniques to precisely target the most lucrative players. This method is unpopular because the more precise the targeting, the more expensive the traffic becomes. Plus, as mentioned earlier, the source will adjust itself.

How can you influence the target?

1. You need to duplicate the ad campaign and launch several campaigns to observe their engagement and conversion. Choose the best ones, and disable the useless ones. 
2. Request recommendations from the advertiser regarding the target, clarify the percentage of women and men who play, as well as the age and best days of the week.

Globally, these truths lead to the success of many webmasters, as long as they are not neglected and everything is done wisely.

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