Agency Reporting for iGaming Brands: Which Metrics to Track Beyond CPA
CPA tells you what a player cost, not what they brought in. Here are the metrics that reveal traffic quality — and how to agree on a reporting format with your agency.
Contents
Agency reports often stop at CPA: this much spent, this many FTDs, this cost per FTD. It is a necessary number, but it only answers one question — “how much did a player cost?” It tells you nothing about “how much did they bring in?” or “will they come back?”
Below: the metrics worth adding to the report, a cheat sheet of what to look for in each, and how to agree on a format with the agency.
Why CPA alone isn't enough
A low CPA can come from traffic that makes a minimum deposit, grabs the bonus and leaves. A high CPA can come from a source whose players keep coming back for months. Judged on FTD cost alone, the first source looks better than the second.
That is why CPA should be read together with cohort-level quality and revenue metrics. Then the report answers the brand's core question: does this traffic pay back?
The funnel and post-FTD behavior
Reg-to-FTD conversion
The share of registrations that go on to make a first deposit. Low conversion can point to an off-target audience, a gap between what the creative promises and what the player sees on the site, or payment method issues in the GEO. The last one is on the brand, not the agency — and it is worth keeping the two apart.
Average first deposit
Shows the intent players arrive with. If a source's average FTD is noticeably lower than your other channels in the same GEO, check whether it is collecting minimum deposits made just for the bonus.
D7 and D30 redeposits
The share of players in a cohort who made a second and further deposits within 7 and 30 days of their FTD. It is one of the earliest quality signals: you can track it without waiting for the cohort to “mature” financially.
Retention
How many players in a cohort are still active after a week, a month, two months. Define what counts as active — a login, a bet, a deposit — upfront and don't change it between reports, or the periods won't be comparable.
Cohort revenue: ARPU, NGR and ROI
A cohort is a group of players who made their FTD in the same period, usually a week or a month. Revenue is counted by cohort, not by calendar month: that way you see what the traffic bought in September actually brought in, rather than a mix of new and old players.
NGR is net gaming revenue. There is no single formula: typically it is GGR (bets minus wins) minus bonuses and other deductions — taxes, payment fees and so on. Which deductions apply depends on the operator and the contract, so write the NGR definition down once and use it in every report. For any terms we don't unpack here, see our iGaming marketing glossary.
Cohort ARPU is the cohort's NGR divided by the number of players in it. Handy for comparing sources of different sizes.
Cohort ROI is (cohort NGR − cost of acquiring it) / cost. Calculate it over several horizons: 30, 60 and 90 days. At early horizons ROI can be negative — the cost is already sunk, while revenue is still building up. What matters is whether the cohort is moving toward payback, and how fast.
Share of bonus-driven players
These are players whose activity rests mostly on bonus funds: deposit the minimum, wager through the bonus, leave. You can measure them in different ways — bonus share of turnover, or bonus cost relative to cohort GGR. The brand picks the criterion, but the agency needs to see the result: it is the only way the agency can switch off the creatives and audiences that attract bonus hunters. How to agree on this kind of traffic in advance is covered in our article on traffic quality and fraud.
A separate point: abnormally high numbers from a small group of players are a reason for a closer look — not just by marketing, but by the anti-fraud and responsible gambling teams too.
Breakdowns: sources, creatives, influencers
Averages across all traffic hide what matters most. One creative can bring players with strong retention, another a great CPA and empty cohorts. Add them up and the total looks “fine” — with nothing to base a decision on.
Agree on breakdowns before launch — you can't reconstruct them after the fact:
- Facebook: campaign, ad set, creative — via sub-IDs or UTM tags that make it all the way to the back office.
- Influencers: a separate link or promo code for each creator and, if needed, for each integration.
- GEO and platform: if the campaign runs across several countries or device types.
Mind the sample size. If a creative has, say, fifteen or so FTDs, its D30 is more noise than signal. Judge small segments on early signals — conversion and redeposits — and roll them up into larger groups for revenue metrics.
Metrics cheat sheet: what each one shows and what to watch
| Metric | What it shows | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| CPA (FTD) | Cost of a first deposit | Only together with quality metrics |
| Reg → FTD | How well-targeted the registrations are | Sharp drops by creative and GEO |
| Average first deposit | Player intent | A skew toward minimum amounts |
| D7/D30 redeposits | Early quality signal | Comparison with the baseline from other channels |
| Retention | Whether players come back | How fast players churn in the first weeks |
| Cohort ARPU | Revenue per player | Comparing sources of different sizes |
| Cohort NGR | Revenue from the traffic after deductions | The trend across the cohort's months of life |
| Cohort ROI | Payback on acquisition spend | Movement toward zero and above at 30/60/90 days |
| Share of bonus-driven players | How much of the traffic lives on bonuses | Sources and creatives with a skew |
| Breakdowns | Exactly where things work and where they don't | Enough volume to draw conclusions |
How to agree on report format and frequency
The main difficulty is that the data sits with different parties. The agency has spend, impressions and creatives. The brand has deposits, NGR, bonuses and anti-fraud. A good report stitches them together on a shared key: sub-ID, tag or promo code.
What to agree on:
- Glossary. What an FTD, an active player, NGR and a “bonus-driven” player are — one document for both sides.
- Source of truth. For each metric, whose system is primary and how discrepancies get reconciled.
- Cadence. An operational report weekly: spend, FTDs, CPA, conversion, early signals. A cohort review monthly: retention, NGR, ROI, bonus-driven players.
- Template. One sheet with fixed columns, so reports can be compared with each other.
- Feedback loop. The brand shares quality data with the agency, broken down by segment — without it, the agency can't optimize campaigns.
- Aggregates only. The agency needs cohort and segment numbers, not players' personal data.
“CPA alone isn't enough for us. Let's review cohorts by creative once a month: D30 redeposits and NGR. On our side, we'll share that data broken down by your sub-IDs.”
If the agency works on RevShare, NGR transparency matters to the agency itself: its payout depends on it. The sooner both sides agree on definitions, the fewer disputes come up at reconciliation. How the payment models work and what to put in the contract — see our breakdown of CPA vs RevShare vs Hybrid.
Reporting is easiest to agree before launch, at the negotiation stage. Avero shortlists Facebook and influencer agencies for brands based on the campaign task and supports the partnership — more on our page for brands.
FAQ
Why don't the agency's and the brand's numbers match?
There are plenty of reasons: different attribution models, time zones and currencies, postback delays, different FTD definitions, players rejected by anti-fraud. Agree on a source of truth and an acceptable discrepancy — then reconciliation takes minutes, not weeks.
When can you draw conclusions from a cohort?
Once the chosen horizon has passed for most of the players and the cohort is large enough. Early signals — conversion and D7 redeposits — can be read sooner; revenue metrics later.
Should a brand share NGR with its agency?
As aggregates by cohort and segment — yes, otherwise the agency will optimize campaigns for CPA only. Players' personal data isn't needed for this.
What if the agency can't provide breakdowns by creative?
Check before launch whether sub-IDs or tags make it through to your back office. If that link isn't there, it needs to be set up: without breakdowns, both sides are optimizing blind.