Tap it! Play it! Get it!

The Illinois Lottery has a long history of supporting good causes and education funding, and has contributed over $24 billion to the state’s Common School Fund to assist K-12 public schools, while creating many winning moments for its players along the way.²

As one of the first states in the U.S. to offer lottery tickets for sale online (way back in 2012), the Illinois Lottery’s move toward digitization has been a significant step in modernizing the lottery experience and making it more accessible to a broader audience while maintaining a commitment to responsible gaming.

Going All-in on the App

The Illinois Lottery’s not-so-secret weapon — an app that expands the playing field exponentially for both players and the lottery itself — brings some relief and reward.

Along with giving people in Illinois direct access to play games such as Powerball®, Mega Millions®, and Fast Play™, the app includes many features that allow customers to:

• Play all draw games, check their results, and find the latest jackpot amounts

• Scan draw tickets and Instant Tickets to see if they are winners

• Play Fast Play Scan-N-Play games using the ticket scanner

• Get alerts for favorite games, big jackpots, and winning numbers

• Receive immediate deposits for winnings of $600 or less through their Illinois Lottery account, so long as the winnings don’t cause the total account balance to exceed $2,000

• Manage deposit limits and winnings

• Discover new games and find more favorites

The Illinois Lottery app is convenient, flexible, and a fun way for Illinoisans to play that provides a chance to dream big and support communities across Illinois.

And it’s doing its job getting people to play in a fun and safe manner. Players won a total of over $255M playing online and on the app in 2022,³ while generating $834 million for the Common School Fund in fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022).⁴ That momentum is why the Illinois Lottery decided to go all in on app installs as a key tactic in their 2023 paid social strategy.

The First State Lottery to Run an App Install Campaign on Snapchat

Running successful campaigns on Snapchat is nothing new to the Illinois Lottery. In recent years, they evolved their player acquisition tactics by running campaigns optimized for sign ups, enticing people to play with fun promos and eye-catching creative.

Leveraging that experience, the Illinois Lottery chose to incorporate app-install tactics toward Snapchatters across the second half of 2023. The launch of their app install campaigns corresponded with the launch of their "Get It" campaign, which featured the first work from Dentsu Creative as Illinois Lottery's creative agency of record.

Using Ads Manager, they implemented a strategy driven by the App Install objective, targeting Snapchatters by way of Snapchat Lifestyle Category (SLC) audiences as well as some of their own custom audiences, lookalikes, and Snap Pixel audiences. The campaign launched May 1, 2023, and ran through the rest of the year, banking on the tagline “Download the Illinois Lottery app today. Tap it. Play it. Get it.”

A Jackpot By Any Measure

Lo and behold, the Lottery’s campaign strategy proved to be key to the Illinois Lottery succeeding in its app-install objectives and, on a larger scale, continuing to win its marketing game.

• Impressions: 13,205,900

• Clicks: 111,197

• App Installs: 4,809

• Cost-per-install (CPI):

  • Android: 3,501 installs @ $21.46 CPI

  • iOS: 1,308 installs @ $40.46 CPI

  • Overall: $25.63 CPI (4,809 installs)

The Illinois Lottery took a chance with Snapchat and it paid off in spades. 

Learn more about how Snapchat Ads can help grow your business.