Research paper · Economics
First-Time Deposit Economics: Cost per FTD Explained
Cost per first-time depositor is the money you entered divided by the first-time depositors you attribute to organic search. It is a useful ratio and a narrow one: it says nothing about revenue, profit or how long players stay, and it depends on choices you must write down.
The ratio and its parts
The calculation is short: total spend divided by first-time depositors. Every part of it involves a choice.
- Spend. Which costs did you include? Writers, editors, legal review, design, tools and hosting are all part of organic content. Leaving any out lowers the ratio.
- First-time depositors. Counted how, and when? The FTD measurement guide recommends one count per account, from a confirmed payment record.
- Attribution. Which depositors belong to organic search? That depends on the attribution model, as the attribution paper explains.
- Period. Which months of spend match which months of deposits?
An illustrative example from this site's default model: 100,000 organic clicks lead to 12,240 registrations and 4,171 first-time depositors. If a team entered 10,000 US dollars of content spend for the same period, cost per registration would be about $0.82 and cost per FTD about $2.40. Both figures come from invented inputs and describe no real operator. They show the arithmetic, nothing more.
What cost per FTD is not
| Measure | What it usually includes | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Customer acquisition cost | All costs of gaining a customer, often staff, tools, bonuses and overheads | Broader cost base, and "customer" may be defined differently from FTD |
| Cost per acquisition deal | A fixed fee an operator pays a partner under contract | A commercial price, not a measure of your own costs |
| Return on investment | Revenue or profit compared with cost | Needs revenue, refunds, bonuses and player lifetime, none of which cost per FTD contains |
The site's cost calculator shows cost per registration and cost per FTD only. It deliberately leaves out any return figure, because a return built from a deposit amount would ignore withdrawals, bonus costs and the harm-prevention duties that limit how deposits may be encouraged.
The timing problem with organic spend
Paid search costs and results arrive in the same week. Organic content does not work that way: an article written in January may earn most of its clicks in summer. Dividing January's spend by January's depositors therefore overstates the cost early and understates it later. Two fairer approaches:
- Cohort by content. Group spend by the pages it paid for, then add up the depositors those pages produce over a fixed window, such as 12 months from publication.
- Rolling windows. Divide the last 12 months of spend by the last 12 months of attributed depositors, and update monthly.
Whichever you choose, write it next to the number. A cost per FTD without its window cannot be compared with anything.
Key events, conversions and the number in your report
If your first-time deposit is a key event in analytics and also a conversion in an advertising account, the two systems can show different totals for the same period, because they credit channels differently. The attribution paper quotes Google's definitions of both. Pick one system as the source for cost per FTD and say which.
Responsible use of the ratio
A lower cost per FTD is only good if it comes from better content and cleaner measurement. It is not good if it comes from showing offers where they are not allowed, from loosening verification, or from attracting people the rules say must not be targeted. Review the ratio alongside the compliance checks set out in the market comparison paper.
Limits of this paper
All figures here come from the site's illustrative model. The paper gives no market averages or target ratios, and it is not financial advice.
Questions
Should bonus costs be in the spend for organic cost per FTD?
If bonuses are part of how the organic channel converts, include them and say so. If you leave them out, label the ratio as content cost per FTD.
Why does our cost per FTD jump every January?
Often because content budgets reset while the clicks that budget will earn arrive later. Use a rolling 12-month window to smooth the mismatch.
Can cost per FTD be compared across markets?
Only with care. Verification timing, product availability and advertising rules differ, so the same content can produce very different counts in each market.
Sources
Each source was read on October 27, 2026. How we choose sources is set out on the sources and reading list page.
- Google Analytics Help, Conversions vs. key events in Google Analytics, no date shown.
- Google Analytics Help, Key event attribution models report, no date shown.
- Gambling Commission, LCCP social responsibility code provision 3.4.3: remote customer interaction, no date shown.