"I Run Traffic at a Factory": Interview with a Gambling Affiliate Marketer

Hi. Leo by zodiac sign. Originally from Cherkasy, but lived in Vinnytsia. Studied at a Transport College, trained as a railway track worker. Then got my first degree in economics, and I'm currently working on my second. For the past 2.5 years I've been living in the Czech Republic.

About 3–3.5 years ago. Before that I was doing dropshipping. Facebook ads were already interesting to me, and cloaking (ed. — pre-billing cloaking) was working well back then. 

I started with MFOs (microfinance). That was probably the golden era — you'd just drive people through a link and pocket solid profit. 

All the GEOs from the Yukon affiliate program. For deposit-based offers I was running a bit of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, but mostly Europe. Czech Republic worked really well for me since I knew from the inside how people gambled there. But there aren't many offers for Czech Republic.

There's competition in every niche — people just feel it differently. Some affiliates have never felt any competition at all. I'm not talking about Facebook with all its bans and storms. The entry barrier is low, but only if you know where and what to run. In my opinion, the easiest place to start is e-commerce (товарка). 

I used to run free traffic from YouTube — casino win clips, if I remember correctly. But it takes a lot of work: editing, formatting, uploading. If you have zero budget, you can use it. Though people are much more savvy now, and the conversion rates you'd see 3–4 years ago just aren't there anymore. But of course, I could be wrong. 

No, I only use pre-landers)

I've barely used spy services over the years — downloaded maybe 3–5 videos total. I make all my creatives myself, both video and static. Well, actually my wife makes them — she's a photo and video operator, and she's great with Photoshop and video editors. 

Yeah, Telegram chatbots were boosting Ukraine traffic pretty well for a while. When FB was blocking direct links, Telegram worked fine — no issues, and even whitehat. The last 2 years though, I honestly don't know, haven't seen that. I've got my own funnel: FB → pre-lander → offer, and off we go 😂

Yeah, often. 

My install cost averages $0.50–$2.50. A lot of factors affect costs — the main one is the creative, then ad scheduling: you need to account for time zones and GEO specifics. When you've been working with the same offer for a year, campaigns kind of optimize themselves on autopilot.

Monthly stats would be like burning a bundle 😂 ROI is 150–250%+ — I do analysis every week. I track by week because I can only run ads for two weeks out of the month.

Over 30 days it was 4 installs → 1 reg. 

With PB, ROI hits 400–600+%, but CPM is high too. If the credit is only $10–20, the algorithm may not have enough time to optimize the campaign. But PB is a solid play if you know what you're doing. 

If you're a newbie, you can end up spending more on tests than you'd expect. Better to put that money into a budget run and get actual results. Then you can adapt the funnel for prelanders.

I use my own setups, but the scheme is simple: account + card + candle. I'm not chasing PB right now. If it's there — great, if not — no big deal. 

That happens, since there can be different offers, landing pages, conversion rates, and payout terms. One day I launch with one affiliate network, the next day — with another. But I never run a campaign across different networks in the same go. 

I work at the warehouse of a Schneider power engineering plant. My job is routine — I deliver materials to the workers. I earn around €1,000 a month. Not a lot, but my shifts aren't 12 hours either. 

Probably, because the factory only takes 8 hours, and I need 2–6 hours for affiliate work. Sometimes I even have time to play World of Tanks and FIFA 2024. 

Before the factory shift and after it. 

I have a work visa, so I can't just quit. I don't work 12 hours a day like some other Ukrainians — only 7.5–8 hours. Though I do understand that I still earn more from affiliate marketing than from my shifts. 

They know, but many don't understand how you can work online and actually make money. People have been at the same factory for 4–6 years and aren't particularly curious about anything new.

I've heard there are local teams here, but I haven't really looked into it. I know one affiliate network owner — and that's about it. 

People kept telling me I need to join a team to make real money. But to me it feels like factory work. You're working for someone else, following instructions. Not every team operates that way, but still. 

Maybe I'd consider joining a team for a profit share of around 40–50%, but only if all your own developments stay personal. You'd have a team lead who provides ready-made campaign materials and you just run traffic on top of that setup. But solo arbitrage is alive and well — making $2,000 a month is absolutely realistic.

Yes, but during that time I just take a break. And honestly, I'm a little glad — the market will restructure, Facebook will clear up from ad clutter. But there are still iOS options, and a few Android apps as well. 

There will be other ways to run traffic, direct links will come back to life. You need to have direct advertisers and build funnels around them. 

No, I haven't finished fishing yet. 

If new GEOs open up on the market — definitely. As for traffic sources and approaches, I'll see how things play out.

That really hits home. When my ads stop running for a few days, the withdrawal kicks in. I've long had this habit of constantly refreshing stats and topping up cards. And when you log in for a couple of days and everything's at zero — the mood just tanks. 

At first — it felt like something out of this world, completely incomprehensible. Now, whenever a push notification about a new casino registration comes in on Telegram — I smile automatically. 

Let's start with the fuckup — it happened right at the beginning. I launched a gambling campaign funded by credit money from my own card. At the time I was traveling to the Czech Republic and figured nothing would go wrong in 12 hours with the campaigns running unsupervised. But it turned out I spent 12 hours just at the border, and the whole trip took 30 hours. 

While I was on the road, the pre-lander got flagged on FB and the traffic kept running. Then the account got banned and all the billing charges were pulled from my card. I lost around 30,000 UAH. I had no internet during the trip, but I could have at least turned on roaming. 

As for achievements — I'd highlight starting my Telegram channel, because I'm naturally a shy person. I'd wanted to start an Instagram for a long time but kept holding back for some reason. In terms of income, there was a solid profit period when the PrivatBank 300 UAH offer was working. I had a bundle that ran day in, day out for 2 months straight. Revenue was around $3,000 a month, consistently. Maybe that sounds modest, but add in the factory salary and it was pretty decent.

I used to want to open my own office in Vinnytsia — bring people in from scratch and train them in media buying. But now I'm not even sure… Affiliate marketing is getting more mainstream thanks to all kinds of info-gurus. Their numbers only grow over the years, and so does the number of disillusioned people.  

There's already a myth going around that an affiliate is a scammer. Because of that, some solo webmasters don't publicize their work, their stats, and try to avoid any kind of public exposure altogether.