Popunder Ads Case: $30K in MENA, 1,536 iGaming FTDs
A case study reports 1,536 first deposits from $30,331 of popunder traffic in MENA for a betting and casino offer. The setup, the funnel math and what does not transfer to Tier-1.
An unnamed media-buying team spent $30,331 on popunder ads in MENA from May to July 2025 for 1,875 registrations and 1,536 first deposits (FTDs) on a betting-and-casino offer: $19.75 per FTD. The figures come from a case study in a Russian-language affiliate outlet, which attributes them to the team. We could not verify them independently.
Results at a glance
| Metric | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Media spend | $30,331 | Popunder traffic, May–July 2025; per the published case study, not independently verified |
| Registrations | 1,875 | Confirmed accounts; per the published case study, not independently verified |
| FTDs | 1,536 | First-time deposits; per the published case study, not independently verified |
| Cost per registration / per FTD | $16.17 / $19.75 | Per the published case study; both recompute from spend |
| Reg2Dep | 81.9% | Includes late deposits and the advertiser's follow-up on its registered base; per the published case study |
| FTD2STD | 66% | Share of depositors who made a second deposit, labeled "90-day retention"; per the published case study, not independently verified |
Context
The team wanted a traffic source other than Facebook and had taken on a new betting-plus-casino product from a direct advertiser, which the case study does not name. The first job was to find which landing pages converted in MENA, then scale what held. These are non-Tier-1 markets, with prices and player behavior far from the US (see our guide to Tier 1, 2 and 3 countries).
A popunder opens in a new window or tab behind the page the user is on, so it is seen only when that page is closed or moved aside. All traffic came from one popunder ads network, TrafficStars, which also offers banner, push, native, video and interstitial formats. The case study says its inventory is mostly adult-site traffic, and the two sources the team started with were adult sites. The case study picks popunder for a landing-page test because it brings volume fast with no creative production. The piece is built around this one network's product.
What they did: testing popunder ads on a split of landing pages
The campaign ran in two phases: a 14-day test, then scaling.
| Phase 1 setting | What the case study reports |
|---|---|
| Placements | xHamster and Eporner, two high-volume sites the team had already run other iGaming offers on at a profit |
| Structure | A separate campaign for each country; xHamster always in campaigns of its own |
| Bids | CPM at the mid-range level the platform suggested |
| Frequency cap | One impression per user per 24 hours |
| Landers | The advertiser's five best pages, across three angles: slots, sports betting and crash games |
| Tracking | Keitaro tracker |
Most of this is about clean data: country splits keep one GEO from hiding another, and a separate campaign for the biggest site let the team bid on and read it alone. The mid-range bid, per the case study, aimed to gather data quickly while avoiding the weakest impressions. The case study does not describe the conversion setup. In a tracker, registrations and deposits normally arrive by postback.
The day-14 cut. The first review narrowed the test on two axes at once. Five countries stayed in: Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq and Jordan, the GEOs where the numbers fit the advertiser's KPI. The case study does not list the ones that were dropped. On angle, slots went out; by the case study's account, betting and crash pages did better on both average deposit and traffic quality.
Scaling, in our reading. After the cut, the only variable left open was the placement. Landers and countries were fixed, so each site's own numbers decided whether it kept running and how much it was bid. Volume came from two moves, run in parallel, that carry very different risk. The safe one was a higher bid on xHamster and Eporner, already proven and already in their own campaigns. The risky one was new campaigns in the same five countries on two wider pools of the network: Prime, its top-tier sites, and RON (run of network), all inventory with no site targeting. Those pools bring placements of unknown quality, which explains why only the Phase 1 winners were sent there and why per-site pruning had to follow. The two big sites were kept out of the pools, so the team was not bidding against itself for the same impressions (that motive is our inference).
Results: what the popunder traffic delivered
Over three months, $30,331 bought 1,875 registrations and 1,536 FTDs, or $16.17 per registration and $19.75 per FTD. How we checked: we recomputed every ratio from spend and counts (the inputs are unverified); our $16.18 per registration is a rounding gap. For the general metrics behind these figures, see our guide to EPC and affiliate metrics.
As a popunder ads example, the number that stands out is click-to-registration: 0.01%. Here one "click" is one popunder open, so 0.01% means about one registration per 10,000 opens. By our arithmetic that implies roughly 19 million opens and an effective cost of about $1.60 per thousand. Because the 0.01% is rounded, treat both as orders of magnitude. The case study calls the rate normal for the format.
Below registration, the funnel is what carried the case. Reg2Dep (the share of registrations that deposit) was 81.9%. FTD2STD was 66%: two in three depositors came back for a second deposit, about 1,000 players by our count. The campaign ended in July, and the case study does not say when the 90-day window was measured. Neither rate is really a property of popunder traffic. The case study's own explanation points to the operator side, namely the advertiser's retention work, and to how engaged it found players in the region. The 81.9% also counts delayed deposits and follow-up on the advertiser's own base.
The case study puts ROI above 200%, defined as deposit sum divided by spend. Read literally, players deposited more than about $60,000 against $30,331 of media (our arithmetic). That is money players deposited. It is not operator revenue, and it is not what the buyer earns. The case study also says the traffic paid back fully within three to six months, without saying for whom or on what deal. An affiliate paid a fixed CPA per FTD and one on RevShare would recover the same spend on very different timelines.
What did not work
Registrations were not cheap. The case study puts registration cost on this network at $5–15 in Tier 3, $15–40 in Tier 2 and $40 or more in Tier 1, and says it can run well above Facebook. The reported $16.17 in MENA is just above the Tier 3 range; the source does not say which tier it counts the five countries in. These are the case study's figures, not market rates.
The economics rest on the advertiser. Remove the advertiser's retention work, and the same $16 registrations would likely not have paid back.
Payback was slow. Three to six months to recover spend ties up cash, which matters more than the headline ratio for a small team.
Thin evidence. One offer, one network, one advertiser, no independent audit. The case study centers on one ad network's product and does not show tracker screenshots.
Compliance is not covered. The case study does not say which license the advertiser held or whether the offer was legal to advertise in each country. Gambling and gambling advertising are restricted or prohibited in many MENA markets, so check local law and your advertiser's license terms for each GEO before you buy traffic (see our guide to online gambling licenses). This is not legal advice.
Takeaways for affiliates
Use popunder traffic to read landers, not to judge a source on day one. It gives volume and landing-page data without creative work, so it is a cheap first test before you commit to formats such as native advertising or push.
Split by GEO and isolate big sites. Separate campaigns keep bids and data readable when one placement dominates volume.
Set a review date before launch. A fixed day-14 review, with a mid-market bid and a daily frequency cap, gave enough data here to drop an angle and most countries.
Match the pre-lander to the placement, not the offer alone. A visitor who lands from an adult site did not choose a casino, so the page has to give a reason to stay. In this case that meant something to click on: a prize wheel and playable Aviator and Chicken Road demos, free of adult content but designed to look at home on the source sites.
Widen in steps. Move from proven placements to curated pools to the whole network. For moderate scale, the case study's advice is Prime sources plus whitelists; run of network is worth opening only once landers and GEOs are settled.
Judge by retention, but discount these rates. An 81.9% Reg2Dep and 66% second deposits are far above what most buyers see on any cold paid source, and the 81.9% includes the advertiser working its own base. Your own funnel may look very different. Check FTD approval terms before scaling (KPI dispute case). None of this translates directly to Tier-1 GEOs. Treat this as a test method for a legally cleared market, not as a MENA playbook.
FAQ
What are popunder ads?
A popunder opens a new browser window or tab behind the page the user is viewing. The user sees it when they close or minimize the current window. TrafficStars, the network in this case, supports CPM, sCPM and CPA pricing; the case study reports bids set in CPM, and here one open counted as one click.
Do popunder ads work for iGaming offers?
They can. Here a betting-and-casino offer in MENA reached $19.75 per FTD, but the result leaned on the advertiser's retention. Results depend on GEO, offer and retention, and these figures are reported, not audited.
How much does popunder traffic cost for casino and betting offers?
In this case, $16.17 per registration and $19.75 per FTD in MENA. The case study's ranges for registration cost on this network are $5–15 in Tier 3, $15–40 in Tier 2 and $40 or more in Tier 1. That is one case on one popunder ads network, so treat it as a reference point, not a price list.
What metrics should I track on popunder traffic?
Cost per FTD, Reg2Dep, second-deposit rate and payback time. Click-to-registration looks tiny because every open counts as a click; use it to compare placements within one network.
Sources
Campaign figures: a Russian-language affiliate-media case study naming TrafficStars as the traffic source and attributing the results to an unnamed buying team; the team, the advertiser and the figures are not independently verifiable.
