How gambling brands can optimise their marketing efforts

The stakes for gambling brands keep getting higher: last year global market value topped almost $449bn and by 2022, that figure is set to hit nearly $565bn. But winning a share of this sizeable jackpot isn’t a game of chance.

Market growth has seen gambling touchpoints extend beyond betting shops, casinos, TV and sports sponsorships to include digital platforms, mobile apps and social media. Brands have more ways to reach and engage audiences, but also further to spread their budgets and greater competition for attention.

Precisely optimised marketing efforts are now crucial to stand out and stay ahead of competitors. And to achieve that, brands need access to fast, accurate and comprehensive measurement.

Fast brands finish first

Keeping up with ever-changing consumer behaviour is always challenging, but it’s especially tough for gambling brands. Not only is the sector dependent on live events — from the Cheltenham Cup to the World Cup — but it’s also dominated by customer impulses. Plus, the variety of ways to gamble makes it harder to track where bets are made. While 82% of UK gamblers placed in-person bets last year, 40% also played online and 55% used mobile devices.

In this unpredictable environment, agility is key. Brands must quickly respond to shifting gambler trends, and optimise media and messaging based on what is or isn’t working for specific audiences. But this can be difficult when they are guided by outdated and inaccurate insight. Currently, most measurement models base analysis on data that is weeks or months old, and rely on techniques where one touchpoint claims all conversion credit, such as last-touch attribution. If brands want to boost marketing effectiveness and real-time impact, embracing more advanced approaches to measurement will be essential.

Unified isn’t always better

Recognising the limitations of antiquated approaches, some forward-looking brands have already embraced more sophisticated measurement techniques, including multi-touch attribution (MTA) and marketing mix modelling (MMM). But in their quest for simplicity, many have opted to combine these tools into one unified model; and they are consequently struggling with errors and the media waste driven by inaccurate measurement.

The main issue lies in the fact that MMM and MTA are different approaches that leverage distinct data and methodologies. MMM works across all channels and uses historical, summary-level data to evaluate marketing impact on sales and other performance metrics. It’s most effective for optimising marketing budgets and long-term strategic planning. Meanwhile, MTA uses person-level data from addressable channels to provide granular, near real-time insight on an ongoing basis. It’s best used for granular optimisations while campaigns are still in-flight.

Both measurement approaches provide critical insight for gambling brands which need to ensure their marketing efforts hit the mark. For instance, MMM is the best choice when using past data to predict the likely effectiveness of future event-specific marketing, such as Cheltenham Cup campaigns. Brands looking to optimise in-flight activity, however, might find MTA provides the clearest recommendations for optimising digital marketing down to the keyword level to drive desired key performance indicators such as the first bet.

In a world where the best marketing execution is most often a combination of digital and traditional tactics, marketers can realise the highest returns when using both approaches in tandem. By unifying data, not models, gambling brands can get a single view of performance and the right level of analysis to make smarter decisions in every area of marketing investment.

First to data opens opportunities

Historically, marketers aimed to consolidate and integrate all of their marketing performance data into a single repository. But with new channels constantly emerging and legislation upping the ante, media blind spots are a common issue that are only getting worse. Failing to plug these gaps can put brands at risk of falling behind competitors and missing opportunities to engage gambling audiences on new and influential channels.

Marketing success boils down to how comprehensive brands can make their coverage. Finding a measurement partner that has strong relationships with large media platforms and ways to collect data despite cookie limitations are key for closing critical coverage gaps and capitalising on all the factors that affect consumer decisions.

The accuracy of marketing measurement is only as robust as the data and models used for the analysis. By getting the fundamentals right, gambling brands can make sense of the complex path to customer acquisition and retention and identify where their efforts, and budgets, should be focused for optimal engagement and results.

Ben Samuel is the vice president of EMEA at Nielsen Marketing Effectiveness. He is responsible for managing and expanding the company’s operations in the region. He brings over 14 years of sales and digital media experience, ranging from ad-servers and activation, to display, search, video, measurement and attribution.