In any hyper-competitive sector survival can only be assured by combining a great product with faultless marketing. This is a question of hitting the right audience with the right message at the right time. Thanks to the sheer glut of online casinos operating today any that want to thrive need to be 100% on their game, 365 days a year.
Fortunately, they have many arrows in their armoury that can be used to hit that message home and, perhaps more importantly, to build their brand along the way. So here are the seven key elements that combine to make for successful advertising in the online casino sector.
1. Social Media
This may seem like a broad area to describe but that’s exactly what makes it so effective. By establishing a wide number of followers on platforms like Instagram, Tik Tok and even Facebook it gives an online casino a direct route to their customers. It could be to publicise a promotion or even to lead them to some content marketing (although this can also be a
standalone form of player engagement by itself). Social also has an all-important viral aspect that can quickly help their number of followers to grow.
2. Search Engine Marketing
Think of the last time you went onto the second page of a Google search. The answer is very probably never. That’s because we tend to click through to the first two or three suggestions on the first page. So casinos want to get themselves up there with the top listings if their SEM is going to be effective. Google is always changing the criteria that will get them there so it pays to keep abreast of the search engine’s requirements to give a good ranking. Or, for a quicker route to the top, many online casinos pay for sponsored listings which automatically boost them.
3. Affiliate Marketing
Many sectors, from insurance to travel, use affiliate marketing and so do online casinos. The way it works is simple. The affiliate marketing site like Casino.org carries a listing of many of the best online casinos in the US along with a review of each one as well as details of any offers that may be available for new players. For each person that clicks through from the affiliate site and starts to play a fixed amount of commission is paid to the introducer. It’s a highly effective method that combines both an element of advertising – the review – with an easy way to sign up and play.
4. Online advertising
Although many people today try to use ad blockers to avoid ads popping up unexpectedly communicating in this way remains a much-used technique by online casinos. Like affiliate marketing this has the added advantage of allowing would-be players to click though directly to a site at the moment that they have received the marketing message.
5. TV Advertising
Some say that the golden age of TV advertising has gone. Where ads used to entertain and amuse today most are far more factual. But online casinos often stand out from the crowd by producing fun ads that also help to build their brand in the mind of consumers. However, like the next form of advertising in our list, increasingly tight restrictions are being imposed on
what online casinos can say in their ads, and even when the ads can be run. So while it remains a powerful medium right now the advertisers are increasingly having to rein in their messages.
6.Sponsorship
As just mentioned, this is one area that has been heavily used in the past but is becoming increasingly tightly regulated. For example, in the UK many football teams have had online casinos as their shirt sponsors in the past with Premier League clubs believed to earn around £60million from it each season. However the league has agreed to ban gambling sports sponsors starting in the 2026/27 season, something that may well disproportionately affect the less well-off clubs that rely more on sponsorship money for their survival.
7. Email Marketing
Last, but not least, there’s email marketing. The personal nature of this communication makes it a very effective medium. It means that personalised and targeted messages can be directed towards known email addresses for current or lapsed players. These can offer incentives to either start or come back to playing in a very compelling and convincing way
8. The Future
Looking ahead, AI is undoubtedly going to have a big effect on the way that online casinos advertise themselves. It will make messages far more precisely targeted, and therefore more effective. So potential players who have been identified as fans of slots will receive slots-focussed advertising. And those who have responded particularly well to a certain kind of bonus offer may well find themselves inundated with other similar ones.
But that’s all in the future – and online casinos are still doing very well without these techniques right now.
