From Lead to Deposit: Optimizing the iGaming Funnel Through Retargeting
Learn how to turn interested users into paying customers. Find tips on retargeting with push, pop, and personalized campaigns that actually work.
28 Nov 2025
The psychology of retargeting works as follows: the more a person sees a brand name, the more likely they are to trust and invest in it. It’s the practice of re-engaging people who have already shown some interest but did not take any action.
How Retargeting Helps Optimize the Funnel: from Lead to Deposit
Retargeting in iGaming aims to bring the right people in, personalizing the experience and protecting tracking and payouts from fraud. Lead generation is based on selecting the right offer, segmenting, and distributing traffic.
Step 1: Lead generation and initial user engagement
The goal at this stage is to get clicks and collect new leads. You might use push- and pop traffic, advertising networks, and native ads for these purposes. It’s important to consider the following factors:
- User geography
- Demographics
- Behavioral characteristics
- Customer psychographics
It is important to use multiple split-test formats to avoid making ineffective choices.
Step 2: Moving users from click to registration in iGaming
The main traffic loss occurs between the click and registration stage. To prevent this, attention should be paid to landing page optimization and marketing factors, such as loading speed, mobile adaptation, evidence, and statistical data, to build trust.
What retargeting strategies should I use?
When a user has registered but not made a deposit, iGaming retargeting comes into play, such as personalization, considering user interests, and partially addressing user pain points. Precise personalization can convince 30% to 50% of new users to make their first deposit.
How to segment the audience in each funnel stage
In iGaming, a user segmentation consists of 4 funnel stages:
- Awareness
- Interest
- Conversion
- Customer retention
The main goal of Awareness is to attract users to click push ads, pop ads, and native advertising.
At the interest stage, psychological influence, personalized offers, email/push notifications, and bonuses are key.
Player retention strategies aim to bring clients back with increased deposit conversion. VIP offers and personalized promotions work well.
Push and popunder retargeting for deposit activation
Push and pop ads only provide high CR if set up correctly:
- Push retargeting works better for warm leads who are showing interest
- Popunder retargeting is better for hot users who are close to making a deposit
Display scenarios help conversion uplift. Always consider user activity timing, use motivational copy, and offer personalized bonuses.
How to set up the campaign to uplift depositing
CPC, CPL, and CPA bidding can be managed manually or via auto-rules. The main goal is campaign scaling into a zone of growing conversion and positive ROI. A common strategy in iGaming is a minimum entry bid, followed by increased bids for potential customers who are close to depositing funds.
What are CPA bidding and CR control at the deposit stage?
CPA is the main payment model in iGaming. To control it, you can:
- Reduce the click costs through source optimization
- CR and CTR tracking should be monitored from click to registration and registration to deposit, and you can disable combinations with below-average CR.
What is a tracker, and how does it help in funnel optimization?
The tracker serves as the analytics center in the iGaming funnel. Proper setup records the user journey from the first click, links redirect traffic sources to offers, calculates CR, CTR, EPC, ROI, and highlights bottlenecks from the lead-to-deposit funnel.
Auto-rules automatically disable underperforming combinations, increase bids on profitable sources, and adjust campaigns to set metrics.
Split testing and path analytics from lead to deposit funnel
Split testing helps explore different approaches for different segments to find the optimal path and reduce churn. You can:
- Test headlines, landing pages, offers, and pre-lands
- Check push monetization
- Compare pop ad cases across networks
Auto-optimization and player retention rules
After a deposit, the goal is to build an LTV. This is achieved through auto-optimization:
- Regular repeat touches
- Calendar push
- Thematic events
- Personalized offers based on behavior
Creative Approaches to Drive Deposits
A message chain reminding users of the offer’s value is called a push-to-deposit scenario. It uses short motivators, trigger messages, promo codes, and personalized offers.
Explaining in-page push and calendar push scenarios
In-page push works for users who have not granted standard push permissions and have high CTR. Calendar push helps to synchronize notifications with weekdays, holidays, and sporting events.
Why do we re-engage with popunder to find second touch points?
Popunders are used for users who are already close to depositing. They give higher visibility and maximum conversion among all formats.
Scaling the iGaming Funnel
Once bids are stabilized, scaling begins. It is important to expand sources, connect new advertising networks, and experiment with alternative ad formats. Scaling should always rely on data. Tracker setup and auto-rules are not optional.
Advertising networks and deposit growth strategies
The choice of advertising networks impacts CR, CPC, and ROI. Auto-rules automatically enable or pause ads based on metrics (CTR, CR, lead cost, ROI measurement), adjust bids, budgets, and traffic distribution, and redirect traffic to landing pages with the best conversion.
FAQ
Which creatives work best in iGaming retargeting?
Simple creatives with vivid visual accents, emotional images, and clear technical descriptions work best. The psychological and behavioral statistics of each segment should be considered.
Which audience segments are most effective for deposit retargeting?
The choice is campaign-specific. For segmentation, you have two main options: behavior-or-preference-based segments and device-or-channel-specific segments.
How does a tracker improve funnel optimization before the deposit?
A tracker gives absolute control over user behavior at every step. It records user actions, measures campaign performance, optimizes bids and budgets, and automates rules and alerts.