Sexual Context in Gambling Creatives: An Analysis of the Approach

Creative quality directly impacts CTR and the user's further progression through the sales funnel. Most approaches in gambling ad creatives are well-known to everyone, and SPY services rarely surface anything new. But occasionally, fresh angles emerge that convert well — that's exactly what happened with "scratch cards" when they first went public.

Today, together with affiliate network Vortex, we're breaking down an approach that involves integrating dating elements into creatives. We'll show plenty of examples and analyze why potential casino players respond so well to them.

What Makes This Creative Approach Work

In gambling creatives, affiliates typically bet on emotional impact — showing users a reaction to a big win, a slot interface with flashy animations, and finishing with a screenshot of money hitting a bank card. This formula clearly demonstrates to the target audience just how easy the money is: put some in and walk away with x2 or more.

The number of media buyers keeps growing while untapped GEOs are becoming scarcer, so affiliates are forced to come up with new creative angles. In some cases, this successfully boosts CTR, and if the funnel is solid, the number of first deposits will grow as well.

Lately, SPY services have been flooded with gambling creatives featuring dating elements. The storyline is roughly the same across all of them, but the level of sexuality varies significantly. The video below is a light example of this creative format.

Users are shown an attractive woman delivering a clear message: "No money? Just swipe your finger a few times and you'll have plenty." The emphasis on her chest most likely does solid work in terms of CTR.

The Facebook Ad Library also has more explicit examples. The over-the-top acting is obvious to anyone, yet there's no doubt these creatives stop users mid-scroll.

It's worth noting that all the examples above, along with other adult-content videos embedded further in this article, are running in the auction without any issues — even though some of them, in theory, should never have passed moderation.

In 99% of the videos there's no nudity, but you can easily come across stream clips featuring two girls kissing. As SPY services show, FB approves these creatives without a problem.

The sexuality-focused angle makes perfect sense. Casino ads and movies have long featured attractive women who are happy to gamble and enjoy a stiff drink. 18+ content in creatives works exceptionally well — the user's attention is drawn to the women while they're simultaneously pulled into the casino gameplay experience. After that, all it takes is a few clicks to register.

Gambling creatives with dating elements come in all flavors. Below are a few more interesting examples you can use as a starting point for building your own promo materials.

Most of the creatives look like professional productions. They are well-shot and polished in post. Creating a single video can cost anywhere from $300–500 and up, depending on the GEO and the caliber of the actors. 

What media buyers think: consulting with Vortex

To back our theories with real data, we reached out to the media buying team at CPA network Vortex for their take.

Would you say that integrating sexual context into creatives is a fresh approach? Roughly when did affiliates start producing this type of creative at scale?

The approach can still be considered fresh — even trending — since it's only been in the last 3–4 months that sexual context has started appearing in creatives. That said, it hasn't really proven itself in practice yet, and there are other angles out there — it all comes down to analysis and understanding the audience you're working with. 

Do you have any practical data on the difference in conversion rates between traditional gambling creatives and 18+ content creatives?

Among our partners, 18+ creatives typically underperform compared to the familiar, tried-and-tested formats for gambling offers.

In your opinion, is it worth crossing the line between soft erotica and full adult content?

From the perspective of finding a new profitable bundle, experimentation is always necessary — any approach eventually burns out, and you need to keep adding new triggers to your creatives (here's an example of a truly unconventional experiment). 

From a moral standpoint — you're already promoting casino gambling. What morality are we even talking about? :)  

How can an affiliate with a limited budget create creatives with dating elements? It seems like you either need highly professional editing or a few hundred dollars for a full turnkey shoot.

The most obvious approach is to order a designer to adapt an existing creative from a spy tool or chat for the target GEO. It won't cost any more than a standard creative. 

Can creatives with sexual context convert across all GEOs, or are there countries where it's better to avoid running them?

Any theory is best validated through testing. It's reasonable to assume that in countries where female players make up a significant share of the casino audience, the CTR of such creatives may be considerably lower than in countries where gambling interest skews predominantly male.

Gambling creatives with integrated dating elements can boost CTR and conversion rate, but it's worth keeping in mind that this approach didn't emerge overnight. The volume of such creatives in spy tools keeps growing, so you'll need to keep experimenting.