Campaign Goal / KPI
The primary objective of the campaign was to drive completed registrations, the key lower-funnel KPI for Fortuna’s acquisition activity.
Campaign Challenge
Gambling advertisers operate in a highly regulated environment, where audience targeting decisions must align with strict legal and compliance requirements. These constraints often shape how media strategies are designed and evaluated.
In this context, publisher 1st-party data is frequently used due to its perceived reliability and regulatory comfort. However, while publisher-based audiences can offer accuracy, they often come with limitations in scale and may struggle to deliver efficient acquisition performance at volume.
Working with Fortuna, dentsu identified an additional industry-wide challenge: performance in iGaming is often judged using proxy metrics, such as CTR, particularly when lower-funnel signals are harder to access or slower to materialise. While these metrics can indicate engagement, they do not necessarily correlate with registrations or long-term value.
The challenge was therefore twofold:
- Identify a scalable, privacy-safe audience strategy aligned with regulatory requirements
- Evaluate performance based on business outcomes rather than proxy indicators
The Solution
To address this challenge, dentsu designed an outcome-focused audience test within Fortuna’s RTB setup, selecting tools that enabled a fair and meaningful comparison.
Digiseg created a custom audience using its probabilistic, household-based model. This approach enabled scalable targeting across open web environments without reliance on user-level identifiers or publisher-bound data.
To ensure objectivity, dentsu activated Digiseg’s audience in a dedicated line item, separate from the alternative approach based on publisher 1st-party data. This structure prevented optimisation bias and allowed each strategy to be assessed independently against the same core KPI: completed registrations.
The test compared:
- Digiseg’s probabilistic, household-based socio-demographic targeting, selected for scale and compliance
- Publisher 1st-party data, typically precise but often constrained in reach
By prioritising lower-funnel measurement, dentsu ensured that performance decisions were grounded in outcomes rather than engagement signals.
“Working with dentsu, we were able to look beyond surface-level engagement metrics and focus on what really matters—registrations. Digiseg proved to be a strong performer when evaluated on outcomes, delivering more conversions at a significantly lower CPA.”
— Ladislav Dolezal, Digital Marketing & Media Team Leader, Fortuna
Results
When evaluated under comparable delivery conditions, Digiseg’s socio-demographic targeting delivered a clear performance advantage:
- CPA decreased by 40.9%
- Completed registrations increased by 35%
- CPM was lower, reinforcing overall efficiency
Notably, while the publisher 1st-party audience achieved a higher CTR, this did not translate into stronger acquisition outcomes. Digiseg’s audience converted users more effectively post-click, delivering significantly better results on the metrics that mattered most.
Earlier campaign performance also reinforced these findings. During the September–November period, Digiseg delivered conversions at a lower CPA even while operating with significantly lower delivery volume. Although total conversions were approximately 20% lower, this occurred with a substantially smaller share of impressions, indicating stronger acquisition efficiency and validating the performance advantage observed in the November comparison.
Key Insight: Beware of Proxy Metrics
This campaign illustrates a critical lesson for iGaming advertisers: optimising toward proxy metrics such as CTR can be shortsighted. High engagement does not automatically translate into registrations or efficient acquisition.
By shifting focus to completed registrations and CPA, dentsu and Fortuna uncovered a more accurate view of performance—one in which Digiseg’s probabilistic household approach consistently outperformed publisher-based targeting on true business outcomes.