Betting in Germany: search ads with mandatory certification
Launch paid search in a Tier-1 GEO that requires operator certification.
A bookmaker with a German licence wanted to launch search ads in Germany. Tier-1 market: Google certification is mandatory, click competition is fierce, but player LTV covers the expensive FTD. Budget was $78,000 for eight weeks, with a client expectation of at least 400 FTDs.
Wave by wave
- Weeks 1–2
Certification
Preparing documentation and obtaining Google and Bing certification for betting ads in Germany. In parallel — assembling keyword lists and negatives.
- Weeks 3–5
Test buying
Launch on a limited budget. The Tier-1 market means high bids — cost per click three to four times higher than Brazilian in-app.
- Weeks 6–8
Optimisation
Dropped broad queries, kept brand and long-tail. Conversion improved, but FTD in Tier-1 costs $166.7 per deposit — justified by the average ticket.
What worked
Certification before launch
Spent the first two weeks getting the Google and Bing accounts certified. Without this, betting ads in Germany are impossible. In parallel, we assembled German-language keyword lists and negatives.
Competitor brand queries
The bulk of FTDs came from competitor brand queries. Users already knew they wanted a bookmaker and were comparing terms. FTD conversion on brand queries was 8%, on category queries just 2%.
Bing as a supplement
Bing delivered 18% of total FTD volume at a 12% lower cost than Google. Auction competition is lower but the audience is the same. We added it in week four and did not look back.
Category queries like "online casino Germany" drove lots of clicks, but FTD conversion was four times lower than brand queries. Budget went to visitors who had not yet chosen a bookmaker and clicked three or four ads in a row. In week six we cut category query share to 15% and shifted the remainder to brand terms.
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Launch breakdownWhere this ran
Prime time is local time: creator posts and streams are scheduled against it. The budget is fixed in dollars; the local currency is there for reconciliation with internal reports.All regulators and licences.
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