Many igaming operators don’t use or are not even aware of the possibilities that paid ads can bring them. They mostly rely on SEO hoping that someone will type the right keywords in the search bar, scroll down the SERP page and find them.

It’s a bit like waiting for a deer to have a heart attack right next to you instead of hunting it.

That’s not the case with Winning Poker Network (WPN) – they decided to actively acquire new visitors. But if they wanted to pay the money for traffic, they needed something that would tell them if they were spending that budget well.

Let’s start from the beginning.

The business of WPN

WPN’s story is, for Internet standards, very long. It was founded in 2001 to run online poker sites for players not just from the US, but from around the world.

The iGaming industry offers access to online services that replicate standard gambling experience in an online world. This includes games such as poker, blackjack or roulette, accessible from the convenience of one’s own home.

Advertising rules for iGaming are complex. In short, the iGaming industry is stretched between the limitations and requirements of each country and the global nature of the Internet. We talk about the industry more in our previous article on iGaming, but the gist of it is that most iGaming operators don’t bother with paid ads and fulfilling many ad networks’ requirements and only hone their SEO.

This usually brings a small but steady stream of visitors. For Winning Poker Networks at some point, steady growth wasn’t enough.

We found that we needed a wider audience, we needed to bring more traffic to the site while enjoying the privilege of a better SEO.

They knew that just paying for ads, without checking their effectiveness would be equal to burning them in a furnace. They needed to know if and where their ad dollars make the biggest difference.

The challenge was to understand how paid ads work and how tracking of such ads works.

We needed a tool that would measure our campaigns performance and optimize our efforts by allowing us to acknowledge where we are doing better. We needed software with live time data.

After using a similar tool that we will not name here, they decided to try Voluum. It was December 2019.

Voluum allowed them to use paid ads efficiently. Winning Poker Network reported that their revenue grew by 50% since moving to Voluum. And that they save approximately 9 hours of work per week –  all thanks to Voluum.

How Voluum Helped WPN

What they needed was a tool that would tell them what is going on with their campaigns. How did Voluum fulfill this role?

Pablo, a media buyer from Winning Poker Network described Voluum in a few words.

Voluum reporting is amazing, rules are fantastic, response time and support assistance is awesome. It gives me visibility of which traffic sources, device types, campaigns or offers are getting more traction, so that I can build marketing efforts around my findings.

The most used feature is reliable conversion reporting. WPN uses postbacks to track their conversions and passes them both to their traffic source and to the company.

Voluum unleashed the potential that WPN always had and allowed the marketing team behind it to precisely send their message to the right people.

Traffic used to be organic, visits to the site were low. Now, not only do we get more traffic to the site but we get 30% of the conversions from paid ads. 

Paid advertising did not replace SEO efforts. It helped to add a new stream of traffic. As Pablo eloquently put it:

Paid ads would work as the fuel and SEO would be like the gas pedal. You can also get better placements by enriching your site with a good SEO.

Which types of ads worked best for WPN?

Pop unders are our favorites for conversion, we have also used banners, native, push and others.

By expanding to new audiences, WPN achieved the following:

  • Increased the amount of incoming traffic
  • Increased the number conversions by 30%
  • Generated 50% more revenue
  • Saved 9 hours of work per week

Paid ads are not that popular in the igaming sector. Let Pablo’s testimony and WPN’s case study serve as an inspiration of what any business can do with talented people and good tools.

If you are interested in how Voluum can benefit your business, check it for yourself or get it now.