As high-profile marketing campaigns turn up the volume in the battle for sports betting market share, at Sportradar, we are seeing more operators than ever before embrace programmatic advertising to cut through the noise.
In the betting and gaming space, our ad:s programmatic solution is uniquely effective. However, before we delve into exactly why this is the case, let’s understand what programmatic advertising is and the broader benefits it presents to marketers across all industries.
What is programmatic advertising?
Programmatic advertising is a method of digital marketing, predominately used for display and video advertising. It automates the purchasing and placing of adverts on websites, apps or any digital space and allows for optimised targeting of your marketing campaign to the audience you want to reach.
Unlike traditional display advertising where you would decide to spend in environments and on webpages where you thought you’d reach your future customers, a DSP (Demand Side Platform) uses highly efficient machine learning algorithms to find your ideal audience and upweight spend towards reaching them. The machine therefore effectively eliminates guesswork and wastage, spending your marketing budget where the target audience can be most efficiently reached i.e. in the most cost-effective manner.
Programmatic benefits
First and foremost, the big benefit of programmatic advertising is the efficiency it offers. With automation and machine learning helping to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time. The cost benefits can be significant.
Additionally, programmatic campaigns can be updated and optimized instantly mid-project under the direct control of the advertiser, rather than relying on the cooperation of the publisher – something that cannot always be guaranteed. A more personal and responsive approach is therefore enabled, ultimately helping to boost customer loyalty.[i]
Programmatic can also take the guesswork out of accurately calculating cost attribution by providing clear, quantifiable touchpoints on the customer’s digital journey. With a better grasp of attribution and the opportunity to optimize campaigns while they are still running, marketing wastage can therefore be minimized.[ii]
With all this in mind, it’s not surprising that spending on programmatic advertising is booming – and what we are witnessing now in sports betting is, to an extent, being reflected in the wider business landscape.
Expenditure on programmatic advertising across all industries more than doubled between 2017 and last year, and is projected to rise year-on-year by 11.62% between 2021 and 2026 to reach nearly $725bn.[iii] In certain developed markets like the US, the share of programmatic in digital display advertising spending was projected to stand at 89.3 percent in 2021.[iv]
ad:s advantage
Our ad:s programmatic solution has four clear advantages, which on their own are hugely beneficial, but combined, offer an unrivalled solution the betting and gaming industry.
1. Industry specific DSP
Our proprietary ad:s DSP has been specifically designed to handle the complex challenges of the betting and gaming industry. This can provide operators a vital advantage.
Compared to generic DSPs that are used by the majority of media agencies, our ad:s DSP is laser-focused on the betting and gaming audience. That means that when we run campaigns for operators, our targeting is already more refined from the outset. Whereas a generic DSP will take time to find and then adapt for a betting and gaming audience. This has a big impact on the campaign’s customer acquisition costs, with ad:s achieving 40% cheaper CPAs on average versus the operator’s target.
In fact, a recent case study with a sportsbook that switched over to the ad:s DSP from generic programmatic platforms revealed a 50% reduction in CPA and a 100% increase in campaign-specific net gaming revenue (NGR). This is obviously game-changing in competitive markets.
2. Proprietary technology
Our platform is built in-house meaning we, and therefore you, benefit from cost efficiencies. There are no intermediaries to be paid.
Being our own platform, it allows for you to switch from a managed service to self-service instantly, giving you greater flexibility, and it also gives you the possibility to have influence on the product roadmap.
3. Betting and gaming features
Our products come with betting and gaming specific features, all of which help improve the performance of your campaigns. For example, Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) lets you deliver personalised ads with minimal effort, reporting based on betting and gaming enables clear understanding of CPA, LTV etc, and sports calendar targeting ensures campaigns are optimised around key events.
4. Industry and marketing experts
Behind our best-in-class tech are the industry’s best people. Our team comes with years of experience, in highly influential positions, from companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Entain and Flutter. Everyone knows exactly what the challenges and regulations are, what success means and how it’s measured within the betting and gaming industry.
It speaks volumes that usage of the ad:s programmatic solution has grown substantially to more than 100 sportsbook operators worldwide.
Programmatic video growth
Furthermore, our bespoke programmatic video offering – also driven by unique programmatic benefits – is satisfying a growing demand.
It is worth noting that this year, for the first time, video will represent more than half of all expenditure on programmatic display advertising spending across all sectors.[v]
Our broader ad:s Marketing Services offering also covers Paid Social, Publisher Products, Sponsorship and more.
This is a powerful, holistic proposition, offering the tools for a combined approach to betting and gaming customer engagement that can include programmatic advertising in a central role.
By providing solutions that are uniquely capable of acquiring and retaining highly relevant and valuable customers, Sportradar is therefore ideally placed to support betting and gaming operators that are seeking to embrace targeted and sustainable growth.
Interested to learn how you could be achieving greater marketing success?
Get in touch with our ad:s team today.
