Crypto Marketing with Ty Smith
How is COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Affecting Cryptocurrencies and Crypto Marketing?
About this episode
Recorded remotely for the first time because of COVID-19, Ty and Kylie cover the sharp crypto market drop in March 2020, when Bitcoin fell from about $8,000 to $5,400 in a single week. They talk through why this crash felt different from typical crypto volatility, how the pandemic disrupted crypto conferences and meetups, and how a community used to remote work was adapting to a suddenly remote world.
The bulk of the episode is about what crypto companies were actually doing with their marketing during the crash, based on conversations Ty had with roughly two dozen crypto CEOs and marketing leads that week. Smaller companies were mostly pausing spend out of budget risk, while bigger companies were increasing spend to grab market share while competitors sat quiet. Ty lays out specific moves: raise PPC and remarketing budgets since ad space is cheaper, keep investing in SEO since it is a long term play regardless of timing, ask publishers and influencers for discounts since demand for their time is down, and use freed up time to audit and fix marketing processes instead of just pushing more campaigns.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin dropped roughly 40 percent in a single week, from about $8,000 to $5,400, a faster and sharper decline than typical crypto volatility.
- Smaller crypto companies tend to pause marketing spend during a crash because a failed campaign hurts more when the budget is small.
- Bigger crypto companies were increasing marketing spend during the crash to take market share while competitors go quiet.
- PPC ads on Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and display networks get cheaper during downturns because fewer companies are bidding for the same space.
- SEO is a good use of marketing time and budget right now since it is a long term investment that does not depend on short term market timing.
- Ask publishers and influencers you already work with for discounts, since demand for their inventory and time drops when other companies pull back.
- Use any extra downtime to audit your marketing process and fix inefficiencies instead of only focusing on active growth campaigns.
Questions this episode answers
How did COVID-19 affect Bitcoin's price in March 2020?
Bitcoin started the week around $8,000 and dropped to about $5,400 by the time of recording, roughly a 40% drop in a single week. Ty says he had never seen this level of concern in crypto because of how significant and fast the drop was, tied directly to a macroeconomic shock.
Should crypto companies pause marketing during a crash?
Ty found that smaller companies were mostly pausing spend because they have limited budgets and less room for a campaign not to work. Bigger companies were actually increasing marketing spend because they have bigger budgets and can treat it as a high-risk, high-reward opportunity to grab market share while competition is quiet.
Is it cheaper to run crypto ads during a market crash?
Yes. Ty says pay-per-click costs on Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and banner ads get more cost-effective because fewer companies are competing for that ad space, so he was actively increasing budgets, including remarketing and display ads, at the time.
What should a crypto marketing team do with downtime during a crisis?
Ty suggests using extra free time to audit your marketing process and fix inefficiencies instead of only focusing on active growth campaigns. It is also a good time to check if publishers or influencers you work with will offer discounts since fewer companies are competing for their time.
Did the coronavirus pandemic affect crypto conferences and events?
Yes, Kylie mentions crypto meetups were being canceled and conferences postponed, including the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris where seven attendees tested positive for COVID-19.
Full transcriptShow
Ty Smith0:04
Welcome to another episode of the Crypto Marketing Show. My name is Ty Daniel Smith. With me is Kylie. We are recording this podcast remotely for the first time, thanks to COVID-19.
Kylie0:12
Woo, social distancing.
Ty Smith0:14
A little social distancing, yeah. COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus. So, we're going to discuss how COVID-19 is affecting both the crypto space in general and, more specifically, crypto marketing. Right now, the markets are pretty chaotic, and this kind of situation, depending on who you ask, is either a really poor or really great marketing opportunity. So, we're going to dive into the overall effect COVID-19 is having on crypto marketing and crypto markets as a whole. So, let's first discuss how it's affecting the market, Kylie.
Kylie1:04
Yes.
Ty Smith1:05
In the past week, let's see, the week started at 8,000 in Bitcoin, talking about the price of Bitcoin, 8,000, and now it's in the low fives. I think it's 5,400 at the time of recording. So, that's about a 40% drop in crypto.
Kylie1:14
Yeah, it was frightening, honestly.
Ty Smith1:19
Yeah, crypto is always volatile, but I've been in the markets for a long time and nothing really has drawn the level of concern that this has because it's such a short period of time with such a significant drop. And it's actually tied into a clear macroeconomic cause that's concerning a lot of people.
Kylie1:31
And to think even just a couple weeks ago, it was above 10. Like, this is a huge shift in the market. We thought that, I mean, it was going to keep going up. I think the whole sentiment of the market is it was going to keep going up until the halving, and then it was just going to take off. And, obviously, this is a huge change.
Ty Smith2:09
Yeah, and the entire I mean, the entire US economy, if not the entire world economy, is basically in panic mode right now. Everyone's working remotely, including us, obviously. In general, people are spending less on everything.
Kylie2:19
Yeah, I think crypto will be, the market and the people, how they work, I think a lot of people work remotely in crypto. So, who knows how this really will affect the market. I mean, it's certainly affecting the crypto space a lot because, obviously, crypto meetups aren't happening, a lot of conferences are being canceled or postponed.
Kylie2:36
I don't know if you heard about the Ethereum Community Conference in Paris, they had seven people test positive. So, the crypto community is being impacted, obviously, the market's being impacted. Hopefully, a lot of people in crypto can keep their jobs if companies can continue to make money and continue to employ crypto employees because working remotely, I think a lot of people in crypto, especially the sentiment on social media, is, 'Hey, this is what we're used to. This is welcome to our world.'
Ty Smith3:25
Yeah, exactly. I spoke with a lot of companies this week and I said, 'How are you guys working remote and how is that compared to usual?' And, honestly, a lot of people say, 'We've always been remote. It's a pretty routine team.'
Kylie3:32
Yeah, and a lot of it is online. The future is definitely digital. So, I think this will be a realization for a lot of companies of like what what can we do remotely and how can we adjust to a future of being a little bit more remote and a little bit more digital because this can definitely change the way that business is conducted, not just in crypto, but just business in general.
Ty Smith4:14
Yeah, exactly. In terms of crypto marketing, specifically marketing cryptocurrency companies, I spoke to probably about two dozen crypto CEOs or heads of marketing departments, clients, about what their general plan is with what's going on. Unsurprisingly, a lot are putting things on a temporary hold or pausing their marketing spend. But others are actually excited by this, not by what's going on with the markets and stuff like that, obviously, they're terrified of that, but they're excited by, from a marketing standpoint, the opportunity here.
Ty Smith4:36
They see this as just a much more like a cost-effective opportunity to gain some market share, especially take market share from people that are afraid to spend money and afraid for it not to work. So, in general, the trend seems to be, and this is not based off of any data other than me just talking to too many people, that smaller companies are going on pause marketing-wise in the crypto space, while the bigger guys are actually beefing everything up.
Kylie5:17
Yeah, well, and when you are a smaller company, you might just not have the money to just put in marketing period, especially at a point in time like this where the market has taken such a big hit in such a short period of time. A lot of them probably just can't feasibly market. But definitely, if you can spend on marketing, this I think could be a really good opportunity for crypto, especially with the Fed and everything going on with the bailouts.
Kylie5:35
I think a lot of people are going to be a lot more conscious of what's going on, hopefully, a lot more conscious than people were in 2008, of what their government's doing and how it's going to affect them and inflation and all that. But I think it's a good opportunity for crypto to really, people who are passionate about crypto, to get out there and talk about it and get other people into the market, especially with a volatile time in their regular economy.
Kylie6:17
This is exactly what crypto was meant for. And companies, when you have the money, think about content marketing and just answering people's questions and talking about, not just your company in general, but crypto as a whole and why it matters in a time like this and why crypto was born out of a time like this, with the 2008 crash. So, I see it as a good opportunity. I think definitely people should be, if you have the money, put it into marketing.
Ty Smith6:39
Yeah, I think part of the reason smaller companies aren't spending and the big guys are is sort of like a risk thing. I think smaller companies say, 'I'll spend this money, but I don't have a whole lot of money to work with anyway, marketing budget-wise. So, if this doesn't work, then I'm kind of screwed.' While the big companies say, 'We have big marketing budgets. If this doesn't work out, it's kind of a high-risk, high-reward type thing.'
Ty Smith7:20
But they also have much bigger marketing departments and they can shift resources into different areas that will make more sense right now. In terms of what I think crypto companies should do right now in this kind of market, if you're doing any kind of pay-per-click, whether it's Google Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, whatever it is, banner ads, I think you should actually increase your budget because it's getting so much more cost-effective because there's so many fewer people that are competing for that ad space. So, you can get search results way cheaper than usual.
Kylie7:40
By the way, sorry, the amount of ads that I get when I'm on my regular YouTube, like, I get so many ShapeShift ads, and I also get a lot of Coinbound ads, too. I mean, that's your marketing works well.
Ty Smith7:49
Going along that, actually, I just, a couple hours ago, beefed up our display ads, our remarketing ads.
Kylie7:53
Yeah, I believe it. I mean, I already got ads, and it's on my regular like Gmail, YouTube. I don't watch any crypto on there, but I do get them, and I get eToro a lot, too. So, I mean...
Ty Smith8:26
Well, they set up remarketing tags and you were on their website, which is why you're getting it.
Kylie8:29
Yeah. Yeah, but everyone's beefing it up, it seems like. I'm getting a lot of that, as well.
Ty Smith8:32
In terms of other places to focus, I think SEO is a good option. It's one of those low-cost, longer-term kind of things, so it doesn't matter if you do it now or if you do it, it doesn't matter.
Kylie8:39
And the market's small, why not?
Ty Smith8:41
Yeah, exactly. If you are a company that has an existing marketing program in place, whether it's through publishers or influencers, whatever it is, it might be a good opportunity to see if there's any kind of discount you can get because there's less people competing for their time and ad space, so prices, in theory, should go down.
Ty Smith8:55
And if you're a leader of a company or marketing department in a crypto company, I think maybe it might be wise to take some of the time that you usually spend on actual marketing and growth and instead focus that on your marketing process and improving some of the inefficiencies in how you market. Just perform some kind of analysis of that because it's really, everyone's got kind of free time right now.
Kylie9:34
Yeah, good idea.
Ty Smith9:35
Right, so true.
Ty Smith9:37
So, I mean, just to recap everything, there's several schools of thought on what to do in this kind of environment in the crypto space. Some people are beefing things up, some people are putting things on hold. If you're going to beef things up or at least keep things staying the course, I definitely recommend checking out the podcast episode we did, I think it was two months ago, how to market in a crypto bear market. That was recorded in a much less significant bear market. This is kind of a whole worldwide bear market, but it still applies.
Kylie9:55
We were like, 'This is such a bad bear market.' We had no idea.
Ty Smith9:58
Yeah, I miss those days.
Kylie9:59
Yeah, and also, if you don't really know what's right for your company, we have a Slack channel that you can join.
Ty Smith10:28
We do. It's coinbound.io/joinslack.
Kylie10:30
Yeah, because, I mean, hey, talk to people who are in marketing and ask what they think you should do if you don't know.
Ty Smith10:35
Yeah, we also have a new cell phone service set up, so you can actually text us or call us. It goes right to us and we can answer questions there if Slack isn't your thing or Telegram's not your thing. The number is 949-229-5650. That will go right to us. And find us on Twitter as usual, @coinbound_io.
Kylie10:49
Yep, also on Twitter.
Ty Smith10:50
Yeah, find us on Twitter. Kylie will be happy to talk to you on Twitter.
Kylie10:53
Yes.
Ty Smith10:54
And remember to rate, review, and recommend this podcast if you found it valuable. The next couple of weeks or months, who knows how long it's going to be, is going to be tough, so it's nice to have a community that supports each other, and we are happy to be part of that. And that will conclude today's episode. Stay safe out there.
Kylie11:05
Bye, guys.
