Entering a new market is exciting. A new audience, new growth potential, a chance to build something from scratch.
But there is a mistake that operators make repeatedly when launching in Chile, Mexico, or anywhere else in Latin America, and it costs them dearly.
They measure too soon.
They run campaigns for two or three months, look at the CPA numbers, decide the market is not performing, and pull out. Meanwhile, the problem was never the market. The problem was expecting performance before building the foundation that makes performance possible.
Trust is not a given, it has to be earned
When you launch in a new country, nobody knows you. There is no brand recognition, no word of mouth, no reason for a player to choose you over an operator they have seen advertised for the past three years.
That is the starting point. And it is a real disadvantage that no amount of clever ad targeting will fix overnight.
Players in these markets, like anywhere else, need to see a brand multiple times, across multiple channels, before they feel comfortable enough to register and deposit. That process takes time. Trying to shortcut it by optimising purely for immediate conversions is a strategy that consistently underperforms.
The CPA trap
Performance metrics are essential, but context matters. If you launch in January and by March you are drawing conclusions about market viability based on your cost per acquisition, you are not making a fair assessment.
You are comparing a brand new operation with no history, no recognition, and no credibility against competitors who have been investing in their presence for years.
The comparison is not valid, and the decision to exit based on that data can mean walking away from a market that would have paid off handsomely with a bit more patience.
So how long does it actually take?
It depends on the market, but there are clear patterns.
Mexico is one of the most competitive and complex markets in the region. Operators who have built successful brands there typically talk about a minimum of two years of sustained investment before things really start to click. It is not a market for short-term thinking.
Chile is more accessible. The player base is more mature, the market more structured. But even there, you should plan for six to twelve months of consistent multichannel activity before your brand starts working with any real momentum.
And on budget: if you are spending ten or fifteen thousand euros a month, you are not going to move the needle on brand awareness in any meaningful way.
At Itzitip we recommend a minimum of 50.000 euros per month, sustained across that six to twelve month window.
That is the level at which you start to generate genuine visibility and the kind of recognition that actually converts.
What a proper marketing mix looks like
Building a brand in these markets means showing up in the right places, consistently, over time. The channels that tend to work best in combination are:
Local celebrities and influencers. People trust faces they already know. A credible local personality associated with your brand does more for trust-building than almost anything else you can do in the early months.
Television. Reach and credibility at scale. In Latin America, TV remains a powerful medium, and a well-placed campaign gives your brand a legitimacy that digital alone struggles to replicate.
Programmatic advertising and media buys. Consistent presence across the outlets and platforms your target audience uses every day. Familiarity is the precursor to trust.
Sports sponsorships. Football is religion across Latin America. Aligning your brand with a local team, a league, or a sports property puts you in front of a passionate, engaged audience and builds the kind of emotional association that sticks.
Social media partnerships and communities. Not just mass-market influencers, but niche accounts, sports podcasts, entertainment communities, the places where your audience actually spends time and trusts the voices they hear.
Editorial and media presence. Coverage in local reference publications, interviews, contributions to specialist content. This builds authority alongside visibility, and authority matters when you are asking someone to trust you with their money.
The mindset shift that changes everything
The operators who build lasting businesses in Latin America are the ones who treat the first twelve months as brand investment, not as a performance campaign.
The budget you spend in that period is not an expense to be minimised. It is the foundation on which everything else is built.
Get it right, and performance marketing starts to deliver the returns it should.
Cut corners, pull back too early, or try to do it on a shoestring, and you will almost certainly join the list of operators who concluded the market did not work, when the real issue was that they never gave themselves a fair chance.
Thinking about entering the Latin American market?
At Itzitip we work with online casinos and sportsbooks looking to launch or scale in Chile, Spain, and across Latin America.
We design the strategy, coordinate the full marketing mix, and manage execution through trusted local partners in each market.
If you are serious about building a brand that lasts, get in touch. We would love to hear about your plans.
