Top Crypto Ad Networks | Are They Worth It?

Ty Smith0:00

What is up, guys? Today we are discussing everything you need to know about crypto ad networks. We're going to discuss what a crypto ad network is, what the top crypto ad networks are, how they compare against other forms of Web3 display advertising, and if you should use a crypto ad network in your marketing strategy. All right, let's dive right in. So...

Ty Smith0:26

...what is a crypto ad network? A crypto ad network is a platform that lets you programmatically buy display advertising on a Web3-focused website. Basically, think, most people in the marketing world are familiar with Google Ads, Twitter Ads, things like that. Basically, imagine that, except you're now buying and placing ads across a number of websites that are focused on creating crypto-related content, whether they're crypto news sites, blogs, apps, things like that.

Ty Smith0:56

So, very similar to Google Ads, imagine, as far as you typically have a dashboard, you can set your budget, you upload your ad, and then once things are approved and running, they will be blasted out to a couple all the way up to hundreds of different sites that are focused on crypto. This is kind of cool because most companies in the crypto space aren't able to leverage Google Ads or Twitter Ads, especially if there's any kind of investment component to it.

Ty Smith1:23

And also, audiences on Google and Twitter aren't necessarily so easy to hyper-focus on Web3-focused audiences. So, when you're going after a crypto-focused website, obviously the people that are there are at least somewhat interested in Web3, so you're getting in front of them.

Ty Smith1:45

Let's run through the top three crypto ad networks. So, these are the top websites that you should know if you are interested in exploring using a crypto ad network. Number one on the list is Coinzilla. So, Coinzilla is, I believe, the largest and probably the oldest. It's definitely the first one that I was familiar with. I believe the team is based in Estonia. They have a pretty solid selection of sites that you can buy on. You can pay in crypto, low minimums, things like that.

Ty Smith2:14

The downside and the gripe that I have with Coinzilla is the KYC process is super, super frustrating. They need basically everything about you and your company to run ads, so that might turn some people off. But Coinzilla is definitely number one on the list as far as companies that you should at least be aware of if you are running crypto ads via a network.

Ty Smith2:34

Number two, Bitmedia. So, Bitmedia is probably the second most popular, based in the United Kingdom, I believe. A cool thing about them is you can pay with Bitcoin, low minimums. I like the interface with Bitmedia a little bit better than Coinzilla. They have relatively similar distribution as far as the sites that you can reach. So, Bitmedia is another one to check out.

Ty Smith2:56

All right, third. So, probably the third largest, I don't know honestly whether Bitmedia or CoinTraffic is bigger, but CoinTraffic is another one to check out. They accept bank wire, credit card, and crypto. I think it takes like a day or two, though, for any crypto transactions to get approved. They have low minimums as well. I believe the minimums now are $25, so you can run a really inexpensive campaign to test things out, and also a really solid interface and really good selection. So, you honestly can't go wrong with any of these three if you are going to go with that. The one thing I would look out for, though, is the KYC process for Coinzilla. It is a little frustrating.

Ty Smith3:31

All right, so I want to run through the differences between, and the pros and cons, between using a crypto ad network, doing a direct media buy, which I'll explain how that works, or using an agency. And all of these are in the context of running display advertising for a Web3 audience. All right, so crypto ad network. Pros of using an ad network: typically, like those other programmatic advertising platforms, they have a dashboard where you can see everything, you can track your analytics in real-time or close to real-time, you can set your budget on there, you upload everything. It's all typically a pretty easy process.

Ty Smith4:09

So, that's kind of cool. And for people that are really kind of into analytics and numbers and want to see everything and track things like a hundred times a day, which is kind of how I roll, it will scratch that itch to an extent. Another pro of using a crypto ad network is the minimums. So, minimums on crypto ad networks, like I said, can be as low as a couple dollars in many cases, meaning you can get started with doing even a small-scale campaign of Web3 marketing for a really low, affordable price tag. And then the cool thing about programmatic advertising is if it works out and you're getting a good ROI, you can just scale it up. You just increase your budget, and often times there's a whole lot of room to run with that.

Ty Smith4:48

Another cool thing about crypto ad networks is you can often pay, the payment model is kind of cool, you can often pay in CPM or CPC methods, meaning CPM being cost per thousand impressions, so whatever it costs to hit a thousand people seeing your ad, or cost per click, which is a little more performance-based for people that are more performance-minded, so you're paying a certain amount of money predetermined ahead of time for a certain number of clicks. And there's pros and cons to that, which is a whole other thing regarding performance marketing, but it is an option with crypto ad networks.

Ty Smith5:22

The last pro to using a crypto ad network is that you can target geographically. Again, just like Google Ads and other programmatic places, you can, all the ones I believe at least the top three that I just mentioned, you can set, 'I want to go after these countries, I don't want to go after these countries.' So, if you are a crypto product that has geographic restrictions or you don't have regulatory approval in certain countries, you can block those out from your campaign so you're not wasting marketing dollars.

Ty Smith5:48

All right, so let's discuss some cons to using a crypto ad network. Here's the uncool part. Everything I described about using a crypto ad network sounds pretty awesome, right? Low amount of money, easy to track, performance-based pricing, target geographically, cool stuff like that. In my experience, even using the big guys, the three I mentioned, I believe most of the traffic, if not a decent amount of it, is bot or spoofed. We have seen notoriously low conversion rates from this traffic.

Ty Smith6:19

With some exceptions, the exceptions tend to typically be in the gambling sector, just because they have almost no advertising opportunities ahead of them, so it's the best they can get. But really low conversion rates. I don't totally believe that the dashboards are fully accurate. In my experience, it seemed what I was getting via the dashboard is not what I was getting via analytics on my own searching. So, a little concern there.

Ty Smith6:51

Also, some don't allow you to pick the exact sites that you're advertising on. Some do, and you can say, 'I want to buy an ad in this place and get this many impressions,' or 'I want to buy a certain number of clicks on this site,' and that's great. But many of the platforms will buy, like I said, CPM or CPC basis. The way they can guarantee that is that they're mixing good traffic sources with bad traffic sources. So, you might hit your CPC goals, but half your budget was spent on something that had little to no value to you.

Ty Smith7:31

Along the same lines, like I said, the reported numbers I don't think are totally accurate with nearly any platform that I've used. And then a small con to using an ad network is you have to create the ad visual yourself. So, if you don't have a graphic designer, you better learn Canva or hire a graphic designer because they're not going to create it for you.

Ty Smith7:46

All right, so let's compare that to doing a direct media buy. So, first I'll explain what a direct media buy is. It is basically what it sounds like. You're contacting a media site, so like a website or a blog, and directly speaking to their sales team to get pricing, to find out about their metrics and their audience size, and then place an order with them directly. So, pros to that: you know exactly what you're getting. Typically, you're agreeing to a certain number of impressions or a certain duration that an ad is running in a certain place. You know where it's going to be, the exact site. You know all the traffic is coming from that site. The sales teams typically have a good understanding ahead of time of what kind of traffic you can expect regarding audience breakdown and demographics.

Ty Smith8:29

The cons, though, to doing a direct media buy: often times, if you're not working with an agency, they're not going to respond to you for a number of reasons. The main ones I think are there's a huge amount of just tire kickers in our industry, in every industry, but I think especially the crypto industry, meaning these sales teams get so much inbound interest of people that want to buy ads with them, and then they get ghosted. So, they basically stop responding to anyone they don't think is a serious buyer, and they know agencies are serious buyers. So, you may have to work with an agency to get through that.

Ty Smith9:01

Also, another con to direct media buys is minimums. So, they typically work in allotments of a certain number of impressions or a certain number of days or weeks or months that you're doing a campaign, and those minimums for many companies are too high to afford, thousands of dollars in many cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the cases of the really big guys. So, you don't get the flexibility of an ad network because you are having to commit to a minimum certain number of impressions or days or weeks. So, that's something to at least be aware of.

Ty Smith9:35

Another con of direct media buying display ads is that you have to know how to track things on your own. Most media sites in the crypto world and even beyond aren't necessarily professional marketers. They don't know what to do regarding reporting for your campaigns. So, unless you're setting up tracking on your own, you have no idea how well the campaign is performing. So, that's something that you should have experience doing if you're going to do a direct media buy. Also, just like working with the ad network, you have to create the ad on your own. Very few media companies are going to make an ad for you. So, again, you need a graphic designer in-house or one on tap, or you have to be able to create the ad on your own.

Ty Smith10:17

All right, so those two options, let's now compare to working with an agency because it's kind of a middle ground. The pros of working with an agency like Coinbound, for example, obviously Coinbound being my agency and we do hundreds of these campaigns a month, the pros of that is you can get a recommendation. So, we see the data in real-time. We're looking at tons of different campaigns across tons of different sites and media properties that we know what's performing well and what's not performing well for different clients. And we can even know to a greater extent what's performing well for certain types of clients because we work with so many different types of products, from DeFi to NFTs to tokens to exchanges. And not every site necessarily has an audience that responds the same. Not all traffic is made equal.

Ty Smith10:59

So, you can have an expert that kind of understands your goals, understands your budget, and then can make a recommendation for you. The other side of that, once you've actually started working with an agency, is they're typically managing the reporting for you. They know how many clicks you're getting. They are in typically good communication with the media company to get any advanced analytics that you might need. So, you basically have an expert running your campaign for you, which is helpful to a lot of people.

Ty Smith11:30

Another side of that is, kind of similar to what I was saying before where media companies don't really respond to non-agencies, they also have no level of accountability to you if you're a small company or even a mid-sized company that's running a campaign with them. They can often just take your money, run your ad, and see ya. With an agency, there's a longer-term relationship. So, I say that because they're much more accountable to actually delivering solid results because they know if they deliver really poor results to a Coinbound client, for example, we're going to stop using them. We're not going to recommend them to other companies, and they're going to run out of business. So, there's a little bit more accountability, and you get a little bit more backing to the success of, you get a little more investment from the media side as far as the success in your campaign.

Ty Smith12:14

And then the last one, kind of a small pro, is almost all marketing agencies in the Web3 space have a graphic designer on staff that can help you create the ad, and also knows best practices to create an ad that will convert well.

Ty Smith12:30

And then con, I mean, working with an agency, typically you're adding a little bit of a middleman to the process. You can kind of debate that on your own whether it's a worthwhile middleman to add, just like a lawyer, for example. You can kind of do a lot of stuff on your own, I guess, if you have to. There's an expense to working with an agency. A lot of the good agencies have agreements with the media companies that allow you to work with the agency at essentially the same price that you would do on your own, but that's not always the case. And then agencies obviously have to make money to conduct business, so there may be a bit of a markup there as well. So, that's everything. That's the comparison of agencies to direct media buys to working with a crypto ad network.

Ty Smith13:10

Now you're probably wondering, what is our official recommendation on should you use them? Should you use a crypto ad network? It depends, like everything in marketing and like everything in Web3 marketing. It depends on your product is probably the biggest thing, and your budget. If you have a really small budget and you really just want to get your feet wet with something, then a crypto ad network might be right for you. You can run these really small, $10, $20, $500 campaigns. If you're a casino or gambling-related, it might be one of your only options. A lot of influencers probably won't work with you. It's hard to run really any kind of display advertising with other networks if you're gambling-related.

Ty Smith13:56

Without those two kind of caveats, though, I don't recommend it. It's not something that we do. We don't buy ads as an agency through these sites, mainly because, again, the traffic is typically pretty poor quality, it doesn't convert. It technically hits the numbers of impressions and CPC and CPM, but the traffic is really not converting. You might see, I don't believe the numbers are totally honest. So, it's not something that we do. So, I mean, that's essentially everything you need to know about the crypto ad networks. It is an option for people, probably something you might want to explore just a little bit just to make yourself a little more well-rounded crypto marketer, to know that it exists. But again, it's not the kind of thing that we're going to ever recommend to a client to really put too much money or effort into because of the poor results that we've seen.

Ty Smith14:49

All right, that's it. That's everything you got to know about crypto ad networks. As always, like, subscribe, recommend this podcast to a friend if you have any friends in the world of crypto marketing that want to kind of level up their knowledge in the space. And as always, reach out to Coinbound if you're looking to run a cool advertising campaign in the Web3 world. We'd love to have you. All right, that's it. Catch you on the next one.