Gambling is one of the most profitable verticals in affiliate marketing. Most partners promote through Facebook. But it's not as simple as it seems. We'll explain what it is, how to drive traffic through apps, and what difficulties you may encounter during the process.
You may have come across such apps in app stores, and they look like this:
There are 3 types of such apps:
This is the most popular and widely used type of app, and most of our partners work with it. The app is added to the marketplaces and serves as a browser shell. When opened, the user lands on the offer page (casino). The user doesn’t see the address bar, so they don’t realize it's a kind of “trick.”
The work process is simple: you start an ad campaign and set the goal to "install the app." When accessing such an app, Facebook moderators see a placeholder (not a casino), while the target user lands on the offer page.
PWA is a technology that allows you to disguise a website as an app. The idea is simple: it's a real page on the internet that works in a browser. However, on the smartphone's home screen, the user sees an icon, just like any other app. The idea is that the user doesn’t need to open a browser to access a specific page. They click on a familiar casino icon, which opens in the browser, disguised as a real app from Play Market. The only thing that might stop the user is the unfamiliar URL and the Google Chrome interface in which the PWA app opens.
This is an official app provided by brands with white betting shops (e.g., from the 1CUPIS list), and such apps are more commonly used for promotion in In-app networks!
We will review working with WebView apps, as they are the most popular and less complicated source for gambling traffic today.
It’s no coincidence that this is the most popular source of traffic. This method of affiliate marketing has many advantages over other types:
Since Facebook’s policy prohibits advertising gambling, we need to gain the system’s maximum trust. Facebook’s neural networks and moderation are more loyal to app ads than other types. The logic is this: the app has been added to Google Play and passed moderation, so it’s unlikely to violate Facebook's rules.
Moreover, many tools during the app creation process help mask and hide nuances from Facebook moderation, simplifying the workflow.
Another clear advantage is trust, not only from Facebook but also from the end user. You would trust an official app more than a website with a suspicious domain, right? As a result, this traffic source shows better performance compared to others.
Once the user has downloaded the app and started using it, we can send push notifications with various offers, which significantly boosts our conversion rate.
Despite the advantages, this traffic source has many challenges that you will definitely face, and we recommend treating them not as disadvantages but as necessary steps in the process.
Since the apps violate not only Facebook’s policy but also the marketplaces’ policies, they are always destined to be banned. They last about a week, and once banned, they become unusable. Be prepared for your campaign to suddenly stop, requiring you to change the app.
Perhaps the most disliked point among affiliate marketers is the variety of restrictions from Facebook, which arise due to poor-quality supplies or improper actions. You are likely to encounter these issues.
There are several types:
There are other problems as well. We recommend reading our material where we analyze the causes and solutions for bans in detail.
Types of Facebook bans and their causes: RDP, Risks, Policy
The success of your work largely depends on choosing the right supplies. The more reliable and higher quality they are, the fewer issues you’ll face with Facebook. You’ll need to purchase proxies, accounts, and equip yourself with an anti-detect browser and payment cards. Let's take a look at the best options.
There are quite a few anti-detect browsers available, but we recommend Dolphin Anty due to its ease of use and functionality.
In addition to the browser itself, the company constantly releases other useful tools, such as an auto-upload service, and they continually work on improvements.
You can read more about anti-detect browsers here.
Anti-detect browsers for affiliate marketing.
When you use proxies together with an anti-detect browser, this ensures complete stealth of your data. Facebook will have no chance of detecting you—everything done on different accounts will look like typical user behavior.
Using mobile proxies to mask your IP address has the advantage of fewer IP addresses compared to regular proxies. Many people connect to the network with the same IP, making it easier to hide using mobile proxies. It’s recommended to choose proxies from the same country as your account.
You can read more about proxies and where to buy them here.
Proxies for affiliate marketing. Which ones are better?
When it comes to advertising on Facebook, you should consider purchasing reliable accounts to avoid getting blocked. There are various types of accounts you can buy, such as auto-registrations, RDP accounts, farm accounts, BM accounts, and kings. To understand which accounts to buy, we recommend reading this article.
How Facebook accounts differ and which are better for launching.
No affiliate marketing without cards! Payment cards are necessary to top up advertising accounts on any platform. If certain networks, designed specifically for webmasters, offer multiple ways to top up your account, like cryptocurrency, major sources like Facebook, Google, and TikTok require trusted accounts, which usually involve bank cards.
More about payment cards.
It's unlikely you'll be able to issue 50 cards a month without help, and relying on "drops" carries certain risks. It’s better to use specialized payment services for issuing virtual cards. These services simplify card issuance, account replenishment, and paying for ads on any website.
Anybill
Spendge
4x4
Flexcard
EPN
Apps are a relevant launch format for gambling. The webmaster simply drives traffic to an app that the user must install on their device, through which they will play, top up their account, and generate revenue for you.
Some people develop their own apps, but since many solo affiliate marketers don’t have this option, there are many services that offer apps for rent. We offer our partners many mobile apps for free, and apps are available for various slots - Aviator, Bonanza, Plinko, etc.
An important factor in your success is choosing the right offer. Not all offers will perform equally well, and almost 50% of your success will depend on the casino itself. There are several important points to consider when choosing an offer.
You can read more about how to choose the right offer and analyze its performance here: How to choose the best gambling offer?
Next, we'll discuss a brief manual launch of apps, something any affiliate marketer should know and understand. The example will consist of launching a BM with a native FP.
Select "app promotion," "app advertising," and enter your naming, which is provided individually for each offer and GEO. Be very careful with this.
Then go to the "new ad group" and select the app that we shared through the bot earlier.
If we are launching on deposits, you need to specify In-app events - Purchases (purchases)
Then select the GEO you are targeting. Age and gender should also be adjusted according to your offer, as they may vary. Some believe that setting a radius of 1 km helps avoid Policy issues, but we can't guarantee this will work.
Automatic placements or manual selection? For this, click "Manual placement selection" and check the available placements.
If the offer doesn’t specify which placements to use, you can use all available in the ad account. Facebook and Instagram are recommended as the largest and most reliable placements. Audience ads often bring poor-quality traffic!
Here we select OS versions, with versions 7 and later covering the largest audience, but versions 10+ perform better due to higher purchasing power!
Go to "Ads," the third tab in Ads Manager. We use an account with an already created Fun Page, select it, and sometimes you have to do this twice (a Facebook bug).
Don’t be alarmed by this error. To use a deferred link (deep link), you’ll need to accept an additional Facebook agreement, and the error will disappear.
Yes, this can happen for two reasons: either the bot didn’t load or share properly, or you copied the account number incorrectly.
Yes, it will always appear until you set PURCHASE in the app events as shown in the screenshot.
Check your naming/deep link, the country where you're driving traffic, review Facebook reports, and if this doesn’t help, contact your personal manager.
Don’t use payment data more than 10 times. If you get this error, try linking a "fresh" card.
First, check what the error is in Facebook itself. If you can’t publish due to the absence of an Instagram profile, try refreshing the page, reselecting your FP, adding the username, or removing Instagram from placements.
Check the creative—perhaps the moderation bot has seen your creative many times and flagged it as having impermissible elements. It’s recommended to refresh the creative or use a new one.
Used-up creative. We recommend making each creative unique before every launch.
Apart from this reason, pay attention to the display time in the country of the ad. It might simply be nighttime, and the creative hasn’t started gathering the required number of impressions yet.
Check if the FP or payment method failed. This can happen if the same payment method is used frequently. Another reason could be that the app gets flagged or banned. In this case, leave the campaign and re-share a new app, relaunching it. This is another big advantage of launching with an app, as the bot will immediately inform you.
Driving traffic through Facebook apps is not an old method, and it will last for a while. Thanks to its advantages, this method is one of the most popular and solves multiple problems at once. However, it’s possible that this could stop working at some point, as everyone knows that Facebook constantly tightens its rules. With our manual, everything should go smoothly, and you won’t face any difficulties if you prepare properly!