Hi, this is Marlerino Group. In this article, we’re sharing a case study on driving traffic to the online casino Mostbet through Google Ads for the Turkey geo. We’ll explain how we drove traffic during the calm periods without bans and how we are currently navigating the storms (spoiler — there’s one method).

Reasons for choosing geo Turkey, Mostbet product and Google Ads as a source

When choosing an offer and geo for contextual traffic, we try to consider several key factors that affect conversion:

• Popularity of the vertical in the geo: To check this, you can assess the statistics of target search queries (e.g., "play casino") using Google Trends.
• "Active database": The product should be relatively new to avoid situations with multi-accounting, and it should not have serious issues with withdrawals to prevent deterring potential clients.
• Presence of display ads in the geo: This indicates brand recognition and trust in the specific country.
• Stability of payment systems: The product should have multiple reliable deposit methods, as this is an important factor influencing conversion to deposit.

PPC has long been one of the main traffic sources in our holding, so there was no real question of choice: we know how → we launch. When it comes to starting traffic flows for a new geo, we recommend paying attention to several preparatory steps that significantly impact the quality of traffic and the money you can earn from it.

How to get quality traffic from Google Ads?

The effectiveness of advertising campaigns depends on selecting the right keywords. To choose relevant keywords, define target groups within the audience. These could be fans of specific slots (e.g., Sweet Bonanza, Aviator), general online casino enthusiasts, or users searching for a product in a specific region (e.g., "Basari bet Turkey" — which translates to "bookmakers in Turkey").

Next, we categorize the keywords:

• Slot-related: keywords related to specific slots, like "Sweet Bonanza play" or "Aviator strategies." From our experience, the quality of traffic from slot-related keywords doesn't show results immediately.
• Cross-brand/Brand: keywords that link our product with other online casinos. For example, in Turkey, Superbahis is a popular casino. Knowing this, we can use cross-branding to attract users who search for Superbahis, but are redirected to our offer with a different brand. Traffic quality will require careful analysis, as user reactions to such a transition can vary.
• Branded: among most advertisers, these keywords are not in demand because they are usually handled by the company's internal buying team. Therefore, external buyers are typically prohibited from using branded keywords. Examples include: "Mostbet registration," "Mostbet login," "Mostbet site mirror," "Mostbet app."
• General: general keywords that describe online casinos and betting, such as "online casino," "real money casino in Istanbul," "best online slots." This type of keyword typically has high quality and generates significant traffic volume.

When it comes to finding keywords, the easiest way is to use tools like Google Trends, Semrush, and Ahrefs. These tools allow us to analyze the popularity of search queries and their frequency at a specific moment.

Case: million dollar profits for the team and x3 ROI for ad in 2 years

At the beginning of 2022, we launched traffic in Google Ads for Turkey on Mostbet. At that time, the source was working extremely steadily, and there were no issues with traffic flow. We were spending $30-50k per month from multiple accounts, and our record account had spent over $300k before being blocked.

The current situation in Google Ads is quite different: one of the main ways to maintain stable volumes now is to significantly increase the number of account launches. Some accounts will get banned, but there will be others that can spend $600-800 before being blocked.

 As for the types of accounts, we primarily use agency MCCs (manager accounts through which billing is handled), and then link individual accounts to them in one of two ways:

1. Accounts from our internal farm — we spend $30-50 on a white vertical, and after that, we launch them fully.
2. Old accounts with white advertising campaigns — these accounts show better conversion for launching and last longer than others, allowing us to run larger volumes of traffic. However, finding good sellers and a sufficient volume of quality accounts is quite challenging.

But let's get back to the case. Below, you can see the overall statistics for traffic to Turkey from Mostbet's data — over 30,000 FD acquired and almost $10 million in total deposits. We'll explain how this happened and how the traffic, which was stopped at the end of 2022, continues to perform until now.

When we started working with the geo, we tested different options for keywords and landing pages. However, while searching for the most balanced option in terms of CPC and query frequency, we settled on slot-type keywords, including Sweet Bonanza, Aviator, and Plinko.

In the screenshot above, you can see the traffic streams, each representing a specific landing page and keyword we used for the campaigns. We can also see the statistics for the first year: the landing page for the Sweet Bonanza keyword became the top performer in terms of registration conversions and the second in terms of average first deposit amount. At the same time, the landing page for the Aviator keyword became the top performer in terms of total deposits.

In total, the sum of deposits from all traffic streams for the Turkey geo amounted to $3,251,567, and Mostbet paid us $1,658,640 for the traffic, thus covering the traffic payouts 2x in the first year alone.

At the end of 2022, competition in the geo significantly increased along with the CPC, making it financially less appealing for us, and the traffic was stopped. Below, you can see the statistics for 2023, when all advertising campaigns were completely stopped.

The conclusions we can draw here:

1. Significant growth in the number of RD (Repeated Deposits): The number of repeated deposits in 2023 was more than 6 times higher than in the previous year.
2. Extremely high average RD: The number of repeated deposits across main streams exceeded the initial deposit by more than 15 times.
3. A significant difference between average FD (First Deposit) and average RD: On average, a player made 61 times more in repeated deposits than their initial deposit. This demonstrates the long-term potential of PPC traffic and highlights the mistakes made when analyzing it based solely on FD in the short term.

In 2024, this traffic continued to show high efficiency, bringing the advertiser $1,888,093 in deposits, two years after the traffic was stopped.

Active users of the product have a higher-than-average spend, which is confirmed by the high average RD in 2024. The high average RD is likely due to the high activity of regular high-roller players who contribute the majority of the repeat deposits and will likely continue to generate revenue for the product in the future.

As for the high-rollers, four out of the top 5 players are still active, and the top two have brought in a total of over $1.2 million in deposits. Additionally, after receiving further statistics, we found that all of the top 5 players are men, with their ages ranging from 21 to 38 years old.

Conclusion 

As a result, today we have the following math: the CPA for each player was $70, while the average FD was around $5. However, despite the low average first deposit, the traffic paid for itself within the first 5 months and began to bring profit to the product. In our case, on average, each player brought in $301 in deposit amounts.

Here is the overall case statistics:

• Spend by the team on advertising campaigns: $1,137,847
• Payments made by the advertiser via CPA: $2,190,704
• Team's profit: $1,052,857
• Total deposits: $9,670,971
• Advertiser ROI: 341%
• Team ROI: 92%

Key takeaways from this case are as follows:

First: PPC is about long-term traffic profitability. While Facebook may show similar or even higher results compared to Google Ads in the short term and have a lower cost per traffic, our case proves that over the long haul, PPC provides higher-quality and more profitable traffic for the advertiser.

Second: We worked on a CPA model, as it was the most priority option at the time. However, given the described features of PPC traffic, it would have been more advantageous for us as media buyers to work on a RevShare or hybrid payment model in this case.

By the way, we will soon release a material comparing CPA and RevShare models across various traffic sources. So, be sure to subscribe to the Marlerino Group Telegram channel to not miss this material and new Google Ads case studies.

If you also work with Google Ads and want to take your income to the next level with our resources, go to the HR bot, tell us about yourself, and join our holding.

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