What are the most effective advertising strategies for digital events and which ones should be avoided? Are eSports your next source of profit, or is it just a passing trend with no significant impact on affiliate businesses? And are traditional sports still profitable? We're here to provide the answers.
As cyber sports continue to gain prominence, affiliates and agencies are continuing to increase their returns on investment in iGaming campaigns with Adsterra. Click here and try new traffic sources exclusive to your marketing strategy.
Expert opinions on eSports vs traditional sports
Mikhail participated in the panel discussion "eSports vs Traditional Sports: A Comparative Analysis of Fan Engagement Strategies" at SIGMA Balkans in 2023.
Among the panelists were:
Oliver de Bono: CEO, Quantum Gaming
Robert Dowling: Product Director, EBET
Vladan Blagojevic: Business Development Manager, Oddin.gg
Mikhail Zhukov: CPM Department Head, Adsterra
They explored the peculiarities of professional gaming, highlighting its demographic and behavioral differences. The experts agreed that this market is transforming traditional fan engagement patterns, offering practical tips for affiliates to capture this audience.
eSports statistics
These statistics show that eSports are here to stay, with their growing popularity and an active and prosperous audience.
eSports in affiliate marketing
While eSports are transforming the established sports landscape, we cannot consider them direct competitors or an alternative to traditional sports, especially regarding affiliate marketing.
Context
Sports is an ancient industry, with conversion flows tested over time and a well-established promotion machine. Many tutorials have already been published on traditional sports and games, which helps minimize errors when starting on a new advertising platform.
With eSports, affiliates are pioneers. The more you get involved in cyber sports activities, the more opportunities you have to develop a solid promotion strategy.
Channels
Promotion channels are also well-known in traditional sports. You can buy traffic from an ad network and direct it to the registration page of an iGaming platform, getting paid when new users sign up and deposit.
However, the eSports vertical is more complex: you need to direct your audience to those interested in a specific game. Thus, in-game promotion becomes one of the best options here.
Audiences
When taking a classic iGaming offer, we know the buyer persona, know which event will certainly not leave them indifferent, and have tons of statistics and analytics to support or refute our hypothesis.
eSports unlock entirely different audiences in terms of age, behavior, and engagement patterns. Many of your potential customers will be under twenty years old. Therefore, you will need an unconventional approach to communicate your advertising message.
So, let's discuss how to approach these new target users.
How to advertise eSports offers
Since engagement patterns are different in eSports compared to traditional sports, affiliates must resort to different techniques to promote offers. This does not mean that the entire advertising concept will be different, but the details make all the difference.
With traditional sports promotions, your winning strategy usually includes appealing to the team spirit of a fan group, arousing interest in potential winnings, and offering a welcome bonus. eSports will require some new tricks.
Fans are more like consumers than reckless players ready to bet now. This does not mean that the eSports community is a group of passive viewers. But to grab their attention, you must create a two-way connection, offering engaging experiences directly in your ad. This can be gamified content, behind-the-scenes videos, or even exclusive merchandise.
When it comes to highly convertible ad formats that catch users' attention, Adsterra offers the best options, such as the proven Popunders and the Social Bar, a unique format with 20-30% higher CTR compared to traditional formats. Learn more about launching a campaign with the Social Bar and increasing your ROI.
There is no established tradition of supporting eSports teams, and fan loyalty is lower than in traditional sports. eSports viewers love watching their favorite athletes play, and their admiration extends to the player's personality, not just their skills.
Game mechanics in eSports are crucial, and people engage primarily with a specific set of rules and the game's philosophy.
In traditional sports, people often have cross-cutting interests. Someone might watch a football match out of curiosity and check the national hockey team's score at the same time. In eSports, this is rarer: FIFA fans usually are not interested in DOTA 2.
As audiences engage with a game, they may be more interested in getting bonuses within the game or even payments. It's a case where virtual money is more attractive than a few dollars in your account.
To advertise, you need to speak your audience's language. But as eSports open up a whole new market, affiliates face many words, meanings, and unknown rules.
If you're not a player, absorbing this myriad of meanings will be challenging. But instead of searching "eSports vocabulary" on Google, it's better to become part of this fantastic multiverse and learn the jargon as you go.
Even so, audiences are less massive in eSports compared to traditional tournaments. Moreover, many viewers are under 20 years old and do not have a stable income.
The number of interested people in cyber tournaments literally skyrocketed during the COVID lockdowns, and since then, the number of viewers has not experienced such impressive increases, growing by 5-10% per year.
All this means that affiliates have time to learn more about the vertical, as this vertical will not take off in the next 12 months.
Live streaming requires broadband speeds. This is one reason why eSports have not yet expanded worldwide, although it is not the main one. Currently, we can observe an increase in traffic from the UK, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, while the US and Asia still lead the game.
Sports are about emotions and team spirit. So far, we are only witnessing eSports fan communities strengthening. Legends are being created now, and new dramas and sensations are just around the corner. What does all this mean? You must be an experienced trend observer to keep up with the new teams and players and not get confused about how to approach your customers.
Set up targeting, choose a bid, buy traffic, count conversions, and get paid. That's what you typically do when running a classic iGaming campaign. With eSports, it's still necessary to determine which traffic source will be a perfect match.
Official platforms like YouTube and Twitch, along with streaming sites, have many restrictions. Our recommendation is to opt for influencer marketing. Influencers - journalists, coaches, players, local celebrities - can form a strong bond with your brand and the eSports community.
When advertising a football match, for example, affiliates usually appeal to the classic FOMO (fear of missing out) effect and offer bonuses or rewards for those who deposit. Your tactics will involve and evoke team spirit and increase engagement using local slang and fan chants.
With eSports, this is a bit different. What works here is in-game promotion. And what's more, money from the game itself.
To conclude
eSports is a growing market driven by technology and growing audiences. Still, it's a small part of the affiliate marketing domain, but all forecasts affirm one thing: the niche will develop much further in the next five years.
Today, trying to successfully communicate a message to the eSports audience through sports channels will not work as well as in-game techniques. However, affiliates will soon find more opportunities to thrive with these offers.
Follow Adsterra’s channel on WhatsApp and Instagram to stay up to date on the latest news for eSports affiliates, traditional sports, and iGaming.
Source: Adsterra
