spinhireThe media buyer in iGaming has the simplest formulation of the task in the entire industry: the player must cost less than he brings. Everything else is details.
But it is precisely in these details that the profession differs from ordinary performance marketing so much that a media buyer from e-commerce feels like a newbie in the first month: half of the world’s advertising platforms prohibit gambling advertising, the budget is spent not in a week, but in hours, and the result is calculated not in clicks, but in deposits.
Who is a media buyer in iGaming
This is a person who purchases paid traffic for the company’s budget and is responsible for its payback. Unlike affiliate manager, who works with other webmasters for a percentage, the media buyer buys traffic on his own and risks the employer’s money. Hence the different nature of the work: less negotiations, more tables, tests and decisions to “turn off or scale” several times a day.
Formally, the tasks look like this:
- Launch and optimization of campaigns according to GEO and sources: one advertising campaign lasts from several days to a couple of months.
- Creatives and landing pages. Media Buyer does not draw himself, but provides technical specifications to the designer, cuts down the options and understands why the same picture passes moderation in Brazil but does not pass in Germany.
- Unit economics control: CPA, ROMI, cohort payback. A campaign with cheap registrations and zero deposits is a minus, not a plus.
- Search for new sources. A working advertising campaign always stops working, the only question is when.
- Connection with antifraud. Bots and motivated players hit the media buyer bonus just as they hit the company’s P&L.
Traffic sources: where the volume actually comes from in 2026
iGaming lives in constant restriction mode. Facebook and Google prohibit or strictly license casino advertising in most GEOs, so the in-house team’s channel mix looks something like this:
- Facebook Ads — is still the main source of volume on “gray” GEO, with constant account bans and the high cost of a mistake.
- Google UAC and search — where the operator has a local license: more expensive, but better in terms of LTV.
- TikTok Ads — young audience, cheap reach, short creative lifespan.
- Push, in-page and pop networks — cheap traffic for quick tests and low CPA goals.
- ASO and applications — installation of casino applications from stores and alternative platforms, a separate sub-profession.
- Influencers and streamers — a growing share of the budget, especially in Brazil, India and the CIS.
Trackers (Keitaro, Voluum, Binom) - media buyer desktop: clicks, conversions, postbacks from the affiliate platform and money converge there. During an interview, a candidate is almost always asked which tracker he worked in and how he set up the transfer of deposits.
Metrics a media buyer is judged on
| Metric | What does it mean | Typical values |
|---|---|---|
| CPI / CPR | installation or registration price | $0.5–5 |
| CPA / CPD | first deposit price (FTD) | $20–250 |
| ROMI | payback by cohort, usually 30/60/90 days | 100–150% |
| Spend | budget spent per month | $20K–1M+ |
| Retention D7/D30 | how many referred players remain active | traffic quality |
Salary ranges strongly depend on GEO: a deposit from India or Brazil costs tens of dollars, from Germany or Canada - hundreds. Therefore, “expensive CPA” in itself does not mean anything: they look at the ratio “deposit price ↔ average deposit ↔ retention.”
A day in the life
How much a media buyer earns
Salary ranges in the table below are a fixed rate net per month, according to section of professions and salaries SpinHire. Malta and Cyprus - office teams of operators, "EU" - Poland, Romania, Baltics, "remote" - Tbilisi, Yerevan, Kiev and fully distributed teams.
| Grade | Malta / Cyprus | EU | Remote |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | €2–2.8K | €1.4–2K | €1–1.7K |
| Middle | €3.2–4.5K | €2.4–3.5K | €2–3.2K |
| Senior | €5–7.5K | €4–5.8K | €3.5–5.5K |
| Team Lead / Head | €8–13K | €6–9.5K | €5.5–9K |
The main feature of the profession is that the fix is rarely the entire compensation. Three typical schemes:
- Fix + KPI bonus. Classic in-house: 10–30% to the base for fulfilling the FTD and ROMI plan. Calm, predictable, the ceiling is lower.
- Fix + percentage of profit. Typically 5-20% of the net profit from your campaigns. Senior in a good GEO goes for €10K, but in a bad month he only gets the base.
- Only a percentage. Model of media buying teams and affiliate programs: the media buyer receives a budget and a share of the profits. Maximum income and maximum risk - this is almost entrepreneurship.
For comparison: full description of the profession with responsibilities, tools and growth track is in the catalog, and open vacancies in affiliate marketing and media buying - on the board.
How to break into the profession
The formal entry threshold is low: they don’t ask for a diploma; English level B1 is enough for most teams. Actual - high, because during the interview they ask not about knowledge, but about numbers: which GEO purchased traffic, what budgets it spent, what ROI it received and why the advertising campaign stopped working.
- From traffic arbitrage. The most direct route. Personal experience in purchasing traffic, even for small amounts, is converted into an offer faster than any training course - provided that you can show statistics from the tracker.
- From e-commerce performance marketing. The mechanics are the same, the difference is in moderation, GEO and funnel length. Such candidates usually go straight to the middle.
- From the position of a junior in an in-house team. Companies hire media buyer assistants: monitor budget expenditures, collect reports, prepare creatives. After 6–12 months they give you your own budget. This is one of the working ways to get into iGaming without experience.
- From affiliate management. Affiliate manager sees dozens of other people's advertising campaigns and knows what works - the transition inside the company happens often.
What to put in your resume: list of GEOs and sources, monthly budget range, metrics (CPA, ROMI, FTD volume), names of trackers and affiliate platforms. Screenshots of statistics with closed amounts are normal practice in this market.
The downside
It’s worth telling honestly, because this is not written about in vacancies. The work is nervous: banning advertising accounts is a routine, not a force majeure; ROI drawdown directly affects income if you have a percentage scheme; Burnout in the profession is above the industry average.
Plus, the regulatory environment changes across GEO every quarter, and a market that has been feeding for six months can close in a week. Media Buyers who have been in the profession for years usually work on several GEOs at once and are not tied to one advertising campaign.
Where you go next
The track is short and monetary: Junior → Media Buyer → Senior → Team Lead → Head of Acquisition or Head of Affiliates. Next is the salary range: stay employed and manage a budget of millions (€8–13K in Malta), or join your own media buying team and work for a percentage. Horizontal transition - into product, CRM or analytics: understanding the player's unit economics is valuable in any of these roles.
Current vacancies for media buyers and affiliate managers with the specified salary ranges are in the section SpinHire vacancies. Filter by the «Affiliates & Media Buying» family and see which operators are hiring right now.