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Performance Marketing
Pinnacle Gaming wanted to reach the 21-28 age bracket that traditional casino advertising struggled to engage. We developed a TikTok-first paid strategy with UGC-style creative shot by real players, spark ads boosting organic winners, and interest-based targeting that avoided gambling policy triggers. Combined with Snapchat Lens campaigns and Reddit AMAs, we built a Gen-Z acquisition funnel that delivered CPAs 55% below their Google Ads baseline.
Pinnacle Gaming was a modern online casino targeting the 21-30 age demographic, but their paid advertising was stuck in a traditional playbook that failed to resonate with Gen-Z audiences. Google Ads was their primary channel, generating 1,800 FTDs per month at a CPA of $72 — acceptable but not scalable, and the audience skewed 35+ despite the brand's youthful positioning.
The marketing team had tested TikTok twice with disastrous results: campaigns were disapproved for violating gambling ad policies, and the creative — polished, corporate-looking ads repurposed from Google display campaigns — generated CTRs below 0.3%.
Gen-Z users scrolled past these ads instantly because they looked and felt nothing like the organic content they engaged with on the platform. Pinnacle's competitors who had cracked TikTok were acquiring Gen-Z players at significantly lower CPAs and building brand awareness that translated into long-term organic growth.
Without a TikTok strategy that met the platform's unique creative, compliance, and audience expectations, Pinnacle would continue losing the next generation of casino players to more culturally fluent competitors.
We developed and executed a TikTok-native advertising strategy purpose-built for Gen-Z casino audiences, combining UGC-style creative production, Spark Ads amplification, and interest-based targeting. Creative Strategy: we recruited and contracted 12 TikTok creators in the gaming, entertainment, and lifestyle niches to produce authentic, first-person content featuring Pinnacle's games.
The creative guidelines were deliberately anti-corporate: no scripts (just talking points), filmed on personal phones, featuring genuine reactions and commentary, and formatted as native TikTok content types — 'POV' scenarios, storytime formats, reaction videos, and 'things that just hit different' lists.
We produced 40+ unique creative assets per month, enabling aggressive creative testing and combating ad fatigue. Spark Ads: rather than running traditional in-feed ads, we leveraged TikTok's Spark Ads format which boosts organic-looking creator posts from the creators' own accounts.
This approach achieved 3x higher engagement than standard ads because users perceived the content as organic recommendations rather than paid advertising. The Spark Ads format also had significantly higher compliance approval rates because the content felt native rather than promotional.
Interest-Based Targeting: instead of broad demographic targeting, we built audiences around interest signals — users who engaged with gaming content, casino game videos, jackpot celebration clips, entertainment and nightlife content, and competitive gaming.
We layered behavioral signals (app install history, video completion rates on gambling-adjacent content) to refine audiences. We also built custom audiences from Pinnacle's existing young depositor base and created lookalikes that dramatically outperformed interest-only targeting.
Compliance Framework: we worked directly with TikTok's gambling policy team to establish a pre-approval workflow for all creative, ensuring zero disapprovals after initial setup. All content included responsible gambling messaging integrated naturally into the creator's delivery rather than feeling like a legal disclaimer.
Results at 5 months: TikTok delivered 2,400 monthly FTDs at a CPA of $32 — 55% below the Google baseline of $72. Combined with ongoing Google campaigns, total FTDs increased to 4,200/month. The Gen-Z audience (21-30) now represents 64% of new depositors (up from 28%).
TikTok-acquired players showed 22% higher 30-day retention than Google-acquired players, suggesting the authentic creative attracted more genuinely interested users. Brand awareness among 21-30 year olds in the target market increased 340% as measured by post-campaign survey.
Recruited 12 TikTok creators producing 40+ authentic, phone-filmed creative assets per month in native TikTok formats — POVs, storytimes, reactions — with zero corporate polish.
Leveraged TikTok's Spark Ads to boost creator content from their own accounts, achieving 3x higher engagement than standard in-feed ads and higher compliance approval rates.
Built targeting around gaming, entertainment, and nightlife interest signals layered with behavioral data, plus lookalikes from existing young depositors.
Established a pre-approval process with TikTok's gambling policy team and integrated responsible gambling messaging naturally into creator delivery for zero disapprovals.
“Our Google ads were bringing in 35+ year olds at $72 CPA while we positioned ourselves as a Gen-Z brand. TikTok completely flipped the equation — $32 CPA, 55% below Google, with 64% of new depositors now in our target age range. The UGC creative strategy was the unlock. These don't look like ads, and that's exactly why they work.”
Pinnacle Gaming wanted to reach the 21-28 age bracket that traditional casino advertising struggled to engage. We developed a TikTok-first paid strategy with UGC-style creative shot by real players, spark ads boosting organic winners, and interest-based targeting that avoided gambling policy triggers. Combined with Snapchat Lens campaigns and Reddit AMAs, we built a Gen-Z acquisition funnel that delivered CPAs 55% below their Google Ads baseline.
