iGaming Agencies We Recommend to Our Advertisers

Casino and sportsbook operators, affiliates, and betting companies need more than core ad campaigns. They also require bolt-on services like SEO, link building, PPC, and more to scale, and this is where digital marketing agencies for iGaming vertical are useful. 

Yet, not every agency can meet all the needs and offer comprehensive solutions for every challenge; that’s why there are so many of them. At Blockchain-Ads, we recommend these services to our advertisers daily. Now, we're sharing our vetted shortlist publicly for iGaming brands seeking reliable partners.

By researching and compiling the rankings of casino and sports betting marketing agencies, it was clear that not only iGaming specialization matters. Different agencies focus on particular sides of marketing (SEO, PPC, influencers, email marketing, etc) and might prioritize expertise operation in certain markets. Eventually, how trusted and well-received the services of an agency also impacted their place in the listing.

Here’s the full list of 12 best iGaming marketing agencies recommended to look for by Blockchain-Ads:

1. CliqBetter
2. NeoReach
3. TAG Media Limited
4. Blueclaw
5. Mustard Digital
6. Digital Fuel
7. Square in the Air
8. Ninja Promo
9. GorillaZap
10. ActiveWin
11. Kairos Media

Their scope of services provided, region coverage, pricing models and strong sides were taken into considered, as the reviews of each 12 are laid out below:

1. CliqBetter

2. NeoReach

3. TAG Media Limited

4. Blueclaw

5. Mustard Digital

6. Digital Fuel

7. Square in the Air

8. Ninja Promo

9. GorillaZap

10. ActiveWin

11. Kairos Media

What services do iGaming agencies provide?

Not every iGaming marketing agency can cover all the possible areas, yet most of them try to expand their expertise across many. Some of them focus on the creative side, others offer marketing solutions with a traditional approach. In general, digital marketing agencies for iGaming sector provide services of:

PPC and programmatic advertising

Pay-Per-Click and programmatic advertising are among the most common services provided by online casino and sports betting marketing agencies. Generally, such agencies offer in-house Gambling-specialized advertising platforms like Blockchain-Ads on which operators and affiliates launch ad campaigns. The targeting parameters there are tailored to outreach gambling audiences with ability to cover particular markets and user behaviour. Advertising runs through a pre-built user base either by partnered publisher websites or subscribers (e.g. push-notifications).

In other cases, iGaming agencies take the campaign management on themselves, whether it’s running through internal traffic sources or external platforms like Facebook Ads. In each scenario, the agency serves as an advertising manager that attracts users within the allocated marketing budget.

Affiliate marketing

The affiliate programme management for sports betting and casino brands by iGaming agencies is another popular service offered quite often. Handling the connection between operators who’d like to get new customers and affiliates who’d appropriately advertise the offers for the performance-based payouts turns out beneficial for each party involved. In a broad sense, sports betting and casino affiliate marketing might even include connecting operators with software providers and game studios.

Some agencies might offer just the management side of it, either by establishing a strategy for affiliate programs or leading them with their executive experience. Others might provide a full-service solution including white-label affiliate management platform. There’s even the possibility to find tutoring services for affiliate managers if an iGaming operator decides to empower their expertise in collaboration with partners.

SEO and link building

In the highly competitive field of search engine marketing the expertise of iGaming agencies sometimes is necessary for brands to just enter it. Casino and sports betting marketing agencies do all the research, evaluate keywords and optimize gambling sites to empower their rankings in search engines. Some offer these services to already existing projects, yet others might offer web design and development tailored for SEO purposes from scratch.

This includes link building as many iGaming marketing agencies might offer their networking capabilities of seeding links in appropriate websites or even internal private blog networks (PBN). Either way, this effectively manipulates the search algorithms and pushes addressed websites up in the query rankings.

Influencer and event marketing

To expand the brand awareness iGaming agencies might offer their network of influencers or accessible events they partner with or curate. The collaboration opportunities are very broad, starting from simple organically integrated branding of sportsbooks or casinos, and ending with active promotion campaigns by renowned people and events in gambling communities. Some agencies might even provide detailed statistics platforms and managing software to track results delivered through massive campaigns.

Content and PR

Building brand presence and generating leads by engaging social media management and content creation is also what many industry marketing agencies can serve to iGaming. This part mostly relies on creativity such an agency offers, along with depths of its expertise in funneling engagement into audience actions. Content production, broad publishing network, media trends coverage — those are services included that let agencies build brand narratives and turn them into consumers for casino and sports betting companies.

CRM and retention strategy

A full-service solution that is dedicated to merge all steps of user acquisition into measurable growth of online gambling ventures. Customer relationship management provided by casino marketing agencies might include everything from attracting potential players from social media campaigns and paid ads to attending their needs all along their journey. Such strategies are long-term utilising well-thought marketing funnels to settle users down and lead them into retention. From first-point touch to user experience research — all of this is CRM.

How to choose the right iGaming marketing agency

Just like the variety of possible services provided by marketing agencies for online casino and sportsbook brands, their level of market coverage and operation capabilities differ. While making the choice of sticking with a particular agency, it’s essential to clarify:

Regional expertise

Some iGaming agencies can offer a more in-depth approach per certain markets as they focus their operation in particular regions. This proves beneficial for compliance marketing, especially if targeting regulated markets, and opens gates to full strategy capability for selected services. Yet the agencies with global reach might offer a broader expertise in marketing services in general, and cover emerging iGaming markets with not so less effective approach.

In short, whether you should consider a region-oriented like UK & Europe only or globally operating agency depends on how wide the desired market coverage is needed. 

Pricing packages

Generally, there are three pricing models by which iGaming marketing agencies charge affiliates and advertisers for their services:

• Performance-based.
  The pricing package by which agency’s services are paid by the actual performance they achieved. Usually this applies to paid advertising with rates per impressions, clicks, visitors or conversions, and fits the strategies targeting raw user actions.
  
  
• Retainer.
  As many iGaming marketing agencies provide their own software with all the features and services included, a subscription-based pricing is a usual option. Depending on the services offered, sometimes it also requires a minimum budget to be spent on maintaining the service operations such as advertising budget.
• Project-based.
  Speaking of massive campaigns performed by agencies, the iGaming brands might come to bespoke project-based pricing. The cost is calculated on the individual marketing needs and scope of services required to achieve the desired results.

When should I switch my current iGaming marketing agency?

In short, changing the iGaming agency for another might be a solution in two most common cases: expanding brand coverage and requiring narrowed expertise in certain services. The former implies addressing services that the current agency doesn’t provide, for example, if apart from influencer marketing networks an active user acquisition by paid advertising is needed. The latter relates to operating within certain iGaming challenges that might not be covered by some agencies, for example, in case of complicated compliance requirements in particular regions or in-depth SEO and web design expertise one might lack.

The overall symptom of the need to switch marketing agencies is when the achieved results don’t suffice. It doesn’t always mean that the agency is to blame, but might be a result of strategy or priority change.

More on iGaming agencies

Agencies with industry-oriented solutions might implement various iGaming marketing strategies depending on the brand's business needs. Here are the most common questions regarding casino and sports betting agencies answered to know better the marketing side:

What should I look for when choosing an iGaming advertising agency?

In order to make a choice of an iGaming agency and not regret it in the future, you can follow this short list of most important points:

• Scope of marketing services
  Whether you’ve settled down with your current marketing strategy or have plans on broadening it in the future, it’s best to consider the extent of an agency’s expertise. Obviously, if you desire to attract leads through multiple marketing funnels, the strongly SEO-specialised agency might not work for you in the long-term. Yet if you need influence marketing services, but also look forward to empowering it with paid ads or social media management in the future, it’s best to look for agencies that offer both.
  
  
• iGaming markets coverage.
  How well the casino and sportsbook marketing agency can adapt their services performance in various markets is crucial, especially with aim for global campaigns. If an advertising agency focuses only on a narrowed region, yet lacks the expertise of working with the rest, it’d be harder to tailor their implementation for the same performance effect.
  
  
• Pricing models.
  The way how iGaming marketing agencies charge for their work might be the most delicate issue of all and depends on the particular side of services provided. Performance-based, retainer or project-based options should be considered on whether they meet the allocated budget and business needs.

How much do iGaming marketing agencies cost?

That depends on the particular pricing model the iGaming agency offers for providing their services — Performance-based, retainer or project-based.

The performance-based model usually charges for particular actions throughout the user acquisition process — clicks, impressions, website visitors, conversions, etc. So the cost of such services lies within the advertising rates of the offered formats. The costs range widely varies depending on the traffic source and targeted markets.

Casino and sports betting marketing agencies with the retainer model offer a subscription-based access to their services, most likely including a pack of features on one platform. Depending on the amount of offered services by selected plans, the subscription fee might vary from $10 to over $1000 monthly. It’s worth mentioning that an additional budget might also be required to maintain some service’s performance, for example, if paid ads are included.

By project-based model all is bespoke and negotiated individually. Most iGaming agencies set a minimum project budget requirements starting from 5000/10000/50000 USD, but some might offer custom payment plans that include both performance-based and retainer options.

Should I hire a full service or specialist agency?

Whether you should address a full-service iGaming agency or one that specialises in a particular marketing niche is a matter of your current strategy goal. Full-service marketing agencies might offer a variety of accessible means to achieve business growth, not only limited to user acquisition but, for example, affiliate programme management. Yet the specialist agency in, for instance, social media and content management might be more useful in delivering effective campaigns than a full-service one.

What's the best full-service iGaming marketing agency?

While overviewing the iGaming advertising agencies with a wide specialization profile, the best of them turn out to be:

• CliqBetter — full-service digital advertising agency
• NeoReach — full-cycle influencer marketing agency
• Square in the Air — full-service creative marketing agency
• GorillaZap — full-service content marketing agency
• ActiveWin — UK-oriented full-service digital marketing agency

Which iGaming agencies work with crypto casino and sportsbook brands?

Though most of these agencies cater their marketing services to crypto powered online casino and sports betting sites, some of them highlight their expertise for this sector. Among the reviewed iGaming agencies, the most known of experience in channelling marketing efforts to crypto gambling projects are:

• Digital Fuel — digital agency that provides marketing and management services
• GorillaZap — iGaming agency specialising on SEO and content marketing

How do iGaming agencies handle SEO differently from regular agencies?

The search engine marketing for iGaming industry sufficiently differs from the regular optimization due to the niche complications. Casino and sportsbook websites demand additional technical and systematic auditions, not every marketing agency might provide. The technical SEO strategies define a lot, so an iGaming agency understands what platforms need to range decently. Apart from that, the user intent consideration is crucial as iGaming agencies might provide better ways to manipulate algorithms to rank certain sites higher for relative search queries.

Can iGaming marketing agencies run campaigns in multiple languages and markets?

Yes, most iGaming agencies might establish campaigns covering several markets and languages at once. Besides, some marketing agencies can offer duplicating currently effective campaign setups to scale effective strategies onto new markets.