Dynamic creative in sports betting advertising has transformed from an optional feature to a necessity for brands aiming to effectively engage their audience. By utilizing innovative strategies and advanced technologies, businesses can improve their advertising campaigns, resulting in better performance metrics and higher conversion rates.
Below, we will explore the Benefits of Dynamic Ads for Sports Betting, the process for running dynamic sports creatives and how to optimize dynamic creatives.
What Are the Benefits of Dynamic Ads for Sports Betting?
There are two primary reasons sportsbooks implement dynamic ads: they enhance performance and are effective at scaling creatives in terms of both their production and media trafficking.
Performance
Dynamic, data-driven content—such as fixtures, live odds, time of day, in-game data, jackpots, and more—captures attention, increases engagement, and reduces ad fatigue. By triggering timely messages, such as offers, trending bets, and event countdowns, dynamic content drives action and increases conversions.
Genius Sports has been running media campaigns for a wide range of sportsbook and iGaming clients globally for over a decade. During this time, we have accumulated extensive data and insights into optimizing performance for sports betting. We ran an analysis on this data, looking at over 30,000 ads from sportsbook and gaming campaigns, revealing that Genius Dynamic Creatives consistently outperformed static assets, generating more conversions relative to their media budget.
Key findings included:
- 40% improvement in Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for Genius Dynamic Creatives compared to static ads for sportsbooks.
- 50% lower CPA when using countdowns versus static ads.
- 61% lower CPA when using futures compared to static ads.
Additionally, ads featuring multiple market options (such as Head-to-Head, Moneyline, Spread, & Total, or Same Game Parlay) consistently achieved higher Click-Through Rates (CTR) than those targeting a single market, with a 40% higher CTR when using multiple markets compared to static ads.
These results extend beyond sportsbooks to include iGaming, with a 47% lower CPA for live jackpot ads than static ads.
*Based on Genius Sports analysis of over 30,000 ads from sportsbook and casino campaigns.
Scaling Creatives Through Creative Build and Media Trafficking Efficiency
Dynamic ads use templates, automation capabilities, and data. They allow for the creation of thousands of ads from a single creative template, making the process significantly more efficient than manually creating each version.
Using dynamic ads also often increases ad trafficking efficiency. As ad variations are updated and/or distributed to the media buying platforms automatically, creative variations can be highly scalable without increasing the media trafficking workload.
Given these advantages, dynamic creatives are likely to outperform static ads in the sports betting industry. So why are not all sports betting ads dynamic? Well, not all sports betting ads are suitable for dynamic formats. For instance, top-of-funnel branding creatives might not be ideal for dynamic formats or when advertisers need total control of the final creative for their ads.
Furthermore, dynamic creatives depend on real-time data, technology, and creative expertise, making the setup more complex than that of static ads. However, with the correct data, technology and expertise, the benefits of dynamic ads often easily outweigh the initial investment. Let us explore the process for implementing dynamic sports creative, the technology involved, and common dynamic ad formats for sports betting.
The Process for Running Dynamic Creative for Sports Betting
There are several key steps to running sports-based dynamic creatives. The process typically starts with designers building data-driven templates using creative assets and deciding which elements they want to be dynamic. The next step is linking the dynamic elements to data feeds containing raw data or creative assets rendered in the final creative assets. The third step is to configure sports-based creative decisioning which will tell the templates to use which data points and creative assets based on the triggers and logic.
We then need to set up creative distribution to the media buying platforms through Ad Tags or direct API integrations. Finally, we can set up optimization algorithms to optimize our creatives in real time.
- Engaging Betting Templates: Begin with eye-catching creative templates designed to capture fan attention.
- Live Odds & Real-time Sports Data Feeds: Integrate live sports data to deliver up-to-the-minute scores, stats, and highlights in your ads.
- Sports-Based Creative Decisioning: Use creative decisioning to automatically adjust ad elements based on real-time game events and personalize creatives based on audience insights.
- Creative Distribution: Distribute creatives through Ad Tags or direct API integrations for walled garden publishers.
- Real-time Optimizations: Monitor ad performance and adjust dynamically to maximize engagement and conversions based on KPIs.
There are distinct types of technology supporting each step in the process.
Supporting Technologies:
- Creative Management Platforms: Build and manage dynamic creative templates and assets.
- Data Feeds: Store data and content for dynamic ads.
- Ad Buying Platforms: Platforms to run the ad buys and targeting.
- Ad Servers/APIs: Manage and deliver dynamic creative across various channels as well as providing measurement for our creatives.
- Data Management Platforms (DMPs): Collect and analyze audience data to inform ad strategies.
How to Optimize Dynamic Creative for Sports Betting
For sports betting dynamic creative to be as impactful as possible, we must optimize our creatives at each step of the creative workflow. This process starts before creatives are set live and continues after our campaigns have finished.
Creative Optimization can be split into three key phases: before our creatives are set live, while ads are in flight, and after campaigns have finished. Each phase allows advertisers to review and improve their creatives via creative analysis and performance data.
Before our creatives are set live:
- Predictive Performance Models—Advertisers can utilize machine learning and artificial intelligence to forecast the performance of their creative materials by analyzing each creative element. At Genius, we have a sports-based creative intelligence tool that allows us to predict a creative engagement level.
While Ads are in flight:
- Creative Testing – Experiment with various aspects of your creative content, such as headlines, images, and calls to action, to decide what resonates best with your audience.
- Real-time Creative Optimizations – Track the performance of various creative variations and adjust in real-time.
After campaigns have finished:
- Post-Campaign Reviews – Analyze creative data to gain deeper insights into your audience’s preferences and behaviors.
The goal of these dynamic advertising strategies is to improve advertisers’ KPIs. Understanding the customer journey—from initial engagement to the final decision to place a bet—is essential. Brands can effectively drive better performance by employing techniques that encourage user actions, such as time-sensitive offers, trending bets, and outcome-based messaging.
Dynamic creative strategies are critical for brands looking to effectively connect with fans. By embracing innovative advertising methods and refining creatives for enhanced performance and conversion rates, businesses can establish themselves as leaders in the ever-evolving sports betting landscape. The future of advertising in this industry lies in the commitment to engage audiences in meaningful and personalized ways, fostering loyalty and increasing participation.
The Genius Creative suite, part of the FANHub platform, is a market-leading collection of tools that enables advertisers to design, automate, and scale captivating data-driven creative through our Dynamic Creative Optimization technology.
Combined with our exclusive sports data and sports-centric media buying solutions, we are uniquely positioned to elevate sports betting advertising for our customers with sports-based dynamic creatives that deliver personalized and engaging ads in real-time.
