In-App Creatives in iGaming: How to Lower CPI and Scale Campaigns with Moloco Ads

Traffy, a performance marketing agency specializing in in-app traffic, together with Traffy media buyers, prepared this material to share practical insights, testing experience, and scaling strategies in the iGaming vertical.

iGaming Campaign Overview: Scaling Strategy and CPI Optimization

In the gambling vertical, the Traffy team faced a typical growth challenge: how to scale campaigns without losing control over CPI and without sacrificing traffic quality.
The main goal was to reduce CPI while maintaining conversion rates to registration and deposit. Special attention was given to the scaling phase and subsequent campaign relaunches, where performance most often begins to degrade.

Before implementing the new strategy, single-format, unique gameplay creatives were used. While effective initially, this approach started to limit scaling potential as volumes increased.

How to Scale iGaming Campaigns Without Increasing CPI

As advertiser conditions allowed for active scaling, the task was to reduce CPI in order to improve conversions and lower deposit costs on the offer. CPI is unstable when using single-format creatives — it increases when scaling active ad accounts. If you rely on only one format, there is no real optimization, which leads to faster creative burnout and makes it harder to find new references that perform as well as previous ones.

Intraday dynamics were quite illustrative. In the morning, CPI could increase by up to 100%, then partially stabilize by midday, and rise again in the evening, adding around 20–25% to daily values. At the same time, campaigns continued delivering — they didn’t break, but efficiency gradually declined.

The main reason was not classic audience saturation. This was not a typical scale → saturation → CPI growth scenario. The problem was deeper: the single-format approach itself was limiting the algorithm. Creatives burned out faster, and the optimization system became less effective due to the lack of alternative signals.

Format burnout also occurred because there are limited in-app ad intelligence tools, and only a small number of teams have access to them due to their high cost. As a result, the overall pool of proven working creatives is relatively small. When only one creative format is used, it quickly burns out, forcing the search for new references — but often there is nothing left to scale further.

Why Single Creatives Formats Lead to Higher CPI and Instability

During testing, the team reached an important insight: CPI growth and instability were directly linked to using only one type of creative.

In practice, the algorithm was constrained by a single format — it had no ability to redistribute budget or optimization signals. This increased CPI volatility and accelerated burnout.

This understanding came empirically through a series of tests. It also became clear that some formats, such as news-style creatives and playable formats, were underutilized, which limited scaling potential.

Creatives Testing Strategy to Reduce CPI in iGaming Campaigns

The team shifted focus toward creatives diversification.
They decided to run multiple creatives types simultaneously, giving the algorithm more flexibility. Three key formats were introduced:

• interview
• gameplay
• social gameplay

The main share of traffic was allocated to interview creatives (50%) with a CPI of about $8.58, while gameplay accounted for 25% with a CPI of ~ $6.5, and social gameplay — the remaining 25% with a CPI of ~ $10.23 (Moloco Ads).

Scaling was primarily achieved through relaunching campaigns with increased budgets.
The team tested 4 to 6 creatives per campaign with a $250 budget. If performance was strong, the campaign was relaunched with a higher budget, and its behavior was closely monitored.

How campaigns were launched:
If new campaigns included only new creatives, they were kept and scaled alongside existing active campaigns, or relaunched when needed.

Testing was conducted in parallel: different formats were launched simultaneously, and the decision-making cycle took 2–3 days. The primary evaluation metrics were CPI and cost per registration, followed by CPA.

Results: Lower CPI and More Stable Campaign Scaling

Switching to a multi-format strategy delivered a noticeable impact. Previously, overall CPI ranged between $13–18, but after implementing the new approach, it decreased to approximately $8.4.

The key improvement was scalability: campaigns could be scaled without sharp CPI spikes. Although CPI growth with increased volume remains inevitable, it became much more controlled and predictable.

From a performance perspective, different formats showed varying CPI levels. The best result was achieved by social gameplay, while other formats demonstrated higher CPI. However, this did not reduce their importance in scaling.

For scaling, social-style formats and interview creatives performed best. Interview creatives tend to burn out faster, while social gameplay creatives — being bright, visually engaging, and highly informative — scale more effectively.

No format proved to be universally best for growth. All three formats scaled effectively, and their combination gave the algorithm more opportunities for optimization.

Best Practices for Launching and Scaling iGaming Creatives

In practice, the most effective approach is straightforward: launch 4–6 creatives across 2–3 formats (interviews, social approaches) and run them either sequentially or simultaneously, as done at Traffy.

A specific recommendation from a Traffy buyer: use playable elements in the end card — this can significantly reduce CPI. Creating a unique end card for each creative in the same style also lowers CPI and increases engagement with the creative itself.

At the same time, it is important to understand that there are no “dead” formats: over time, any creatives will burn out regardless of their type.

Conclusion: Multi-Format Creatives Strategy for Predictable iGaming Scaling

Creatives format diversification proved to be the key factor for stable scaling. Instead of trying to control CPI within a single format, the team expanded the optimization space. This allowed for better traffic redistribution, slower creative burnout, and reduced performance volatility.

As a result, scaling became not only more efficient but also more predictable — without the sharp CPI spikes typical of single-format strategies.

If you have any questions or would like to apply these strategies to your campaigns, feel free to submit a request via our website or reach out directly at [email protected].