How do people advertise iGaming site with CPC or CPA?

I’ve been digging into different ways to advertise iGaming site lately, and honestly I’m still figuring out what actually works. Every forum thread or blog I read seems to say something different. Some people swear by CPC traffic, others say CPA is the only way to go, and then there’s CPM which I never really understood properly.So I figured I’d ask here and also share what I’ve noticed while experimenting a bit.The main issue I ran into at the start was pretty simple. Getting traffic is easy. Getting traffic that actually signs up or deposits is the hard part. When I first launched a small campaign, I focused only on clicks. I thought more clicks would naturally mean more users. But what really happened was that the traffic looked good in analytics while conversions stayed almost flat.That’s when I started looking deeper into different models like CPC, CPM, and CPA. At first they all sounded similar to me, but after running a few small tests the differences became more obvious.With CPC campaigns, the good thing is control. You pay per click, so it’s easier to track what traffic source is performing better. But the downside I noticed is that not every click has real intent. Some visitors bounce immediately. It’s decent for testing audiences though.CPM felt a bit different. Since you’re paying for impressions instead of clicks, it seemed more useful for visibility. If the goal is just getting the brand or platform seen by a lot of users, it can make sense. But for smaller budgets, I personally found it harder to measure direct returns.CPA was the one that caught my attention the most. The idea of paying only when a specific action happens sounded safer. In theory it reduces risk because you’re paying for actual results instead of traffic volume. Of course, the catch is that good CPA traffic sources are not always easy to find.While trying to understand this better, I came across a guide that explained how different models are used together rather than separately. It gave a clearer idea of how people actually  Run CPC, CPM & CPA Ads for iGaming Sites  in real campaigns. What stood out to me was the idea of using CPC first for testing, CPM for visibility, and CPA when you already know which audiences convert.After reading that, the strategy made a lot more sense.One thing I also realized is that targeting matters way more than the pricing model. Even the best campaign type won’t work if the traffic isn’t relevant. When I adjusted targeting and placements instead of only changing the bidding model, the results started looking slightly better.I’m still experimenting though. I wouldn’t say I’ve cracked the perfect formula yet. Some campaigns perform well for a few days and then suddenly slow down, which seems to be pretty normal in this niche.If anything, the biggest lesson for me so far is that there isn’t one magic approach to advertise iGaming site traffic. It’s more about testing small, learning what kind of audience interacts with your platform, and then gradually scaling the parts that show real engagement.I’m curious how others here approach this. Do you mostly run CPC first and then shift toward CPA, or do you jump straight into CPA traffic from the beginning?