AdsNetwork Helps Stake Scale High-Value Player Acquisition Across Tier 1 Markets

Overview

Advertiser: Stake
Industry: iGaming, Sports Betting & Online Casino
Traffic Source: Display & Native Advertising
Campaign Period: 6 Months
Goal: Increase Qualified Player Registrations and First-Time Depositors
Optimization Metric: Cost Per Acquisition CPA

Performance Highlights

5.2x Growth in Qualified Registrations
$128 Average CPA
72M+ Ad Impressions Delivered
$0.96 Average CPC
0.74% CTR
Over $860,000 Media Spend Managed
38% Increase in First-Time Depositors
27% Improvement in Conversion Rate After Optimization

Active Regions

United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Ireland

Client Background

Stake is one of the most recognized global iGaming and crypto-friendly casino brands, offering sportsbook, casino, live dealer games, and a wide range of betting products to players worldwide.

As competition across Tier 1 iGaming markets continued to increase, Stake required a scalable acquisition partner capable of delivering quality traffic, strong registration volume, and consistent player acquisition costs across multiple highly competitive GEOs.

To support its growth strategy, Stake partnered with AdsNetwork to expand display and native advertising campaigns across premium Tier 1 markets while maintaining strict CPA and traffic quality targets.

Business Objective

The main objective was to increase qualified player registrations and first-time depositors while keeping acquisition costs predictable.

The campaign focused on Tier 1 countries, where competition for iGaming users is significantly higher and media buying costs are more expensive compared to emerging markets.

Key challenges included:

High advertising competition from established sportsbook and casino operators.
Limited access to gambling-friendly premium inventory.
Higher CPC and CPA benchmarks in Tier 1 GEOs.
Strict requirements for traffic quality and user intent.
Creative fatigue caused by repetitive bonus-led messaging.
Different player behavior across sportsbook, casino, and crypto-casino audiences.

Stake needed a media partner that could combine premium inventory access, precise targeting, and ongoing optimization to scale performance without sacrificing user quality.

AdsNetwork Approach

AdsNetwork built a dedicated Tier 1 acquisition strategy focused on separating each market, audience type, device, and creative angle into independent performance funnels.

Rather than running one broad international campaign, AdsNetwork structured the campaign around market-specific user behavior and localized acquisition intent.

The strategy focused on:

Dedicated campaigns per GEO.
Separate sportsbook and casino audience segments.
Premium publisher whitelisting.
Device-level bid optimization.
Localized creatives and landing page testing.
Registration and FTD-focused traffic filtering.
Ongoing publisher quality analysis.
Creative refresh cycles every 7–10 days.
Budget reallocation based on CPA, CTR, and conversion quality.

This approach allowed AdsNetwork to quickly identify the highest-performing traffic segments and gradually scale budgets toward placements delivering the strongest acquisition efficiency.

Stage One: Market Validation

During the first stage, AdsNetwork launched test campaigns across multiple Tier 1 markets to collect performance data and identify scalable opportunities.

The initial phase focused on comparing sportsbook-focused creatives against casino and crypto-casino messaging.

More than 40 creative variations were tested, including:

Sports betting promotions.
Live casino creatives.
Crypto-friendly casino messaging.
Event-driven sportsbook campaigns.
Mobile-first display banners.
Native ad variations with localized copy.

Early Results

16.4M Impressions
$1.74 Average CPC
$242 Average CPA
0.52% CTR
Strong engagement from Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia
Highest conversion intent observed on mobile traffic

The testing phase showed that sportsbook-focused creatives performed strongest during live sports periods, while casino and crypto-casino creatives delivered more consistent conversion rates throughout the campaign.

Stage Two: Performance Optimization

After collecting enough conversion and registration data, AdsNetwork shifted the campaign into performance optimization.

The team reduced spend on low-converting placements and focused budget on high-intent publisher inventory across the strongest GEOs.

Key improvements included:

Removing low-performing publisher segments.
Increasing bids on premium-performing placements.
Separating mobile and desktop traffic.
Improving landing page relevance by GEO.
Testing new localized call-to-action messaging.
Optimizing campaigns toward qualified registrations and FTD signals.
Pausing creatives with declining CTR and replacing them with refreshed assets.

Impact

Qualified registrations increased by 184%.
Average CPA decreased by 31%.
CTR improved from 0.52% to 0.68%.
CPC decreased from $1.74 to $1.21.
First-time depositor rate improved by 22%.
Canada and Australia became the strongest-performing acquisition markets.

This optimization phase helped transform the campaign from broad testing into a more predictable performance acquisition channel.

Stage Three: Scaling Profitable Traffic

Once AdsNetwork identified the strongest-performing GEOs, publishers, devices, and creative formats, the campaign entered the scaling phase.

Budgets were gradually increased across the best-performing segments while maintaining CPA targets.

Additional optimizations included:

Advanced publisher whitelisting.
Real-time bid adjustments.
Creative refresh cycles every 7–10 days.
Reactivation of previously paused GEOs with improved creatives.
Higher budget allocation toward mobile sportsbook traffic.
Separate optimization for registrations and first-time depositors.
Continuous monitoring of traffic quality and conversion consistency.

Final Campaign Outcomes

Average CPA reduced to $128.
Qualified registration volume increased by 420% compared to the testing phase.
First-time depositors increased by 38%.
CPC improved from $1.74 to $0.96.
CTR increased from 0.52% to 0.74%.
More than 72 million impressions delivered.
Over $860,000 in media spend managed.
Top-performing Tier 1 markets exceeded acquisition targets by 34%.
Mobile traffic generated 61% of total qualified registrations.

Results Summary

By combining premium Tier 1 inventory, localized campaign structures, publisher-level optimization, and continuous creative testing, AdsNetwork helped Stake scale player acquisition across highly competitive iGaming markets while reducing average CPA to $128.

The campaign successfully turned initial market testing into a scalable acquisition framework, delivering strong registration growth, improved first-time depositor performance, and consistent acquisition efficiency across the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Ireland.

Through disciplined media buying and ongoing performance optimization, AdsNetwork created a sustainable player acquisition channel capable of supporting long-term growth in Tier 1 markets.