Create a social media punch list for cryptocurrency marketing

Last December, Facebook officially began allowing crypto advertisers to buy ads on its platform. This quiet but important change meant that a long-closed marketing avenue for crypto products was now open. But what are best practices for crypto marketers in general? And is the platform worth exploring for crypto and NFT projects?

First, let’s understand just what is allowed on Facebook and other platforms. Facebook allows some crypto companies to advertise without submitting proof of financial licenses. These include crypto tax services, events, blockchain news and wallets. What’s interesting, however, is you probably haven’t seen many of these ads popping up on social media at all, a testament to the long-running contention between crypto marketers and platforms like Twitter or Facebook.

Further, if you want to advertise mining hardware, cryptocurrency exchanges or trading platforms, or even a wallet that allows you to buy, sell, or swap crypto, you will need a BitLicense (if you’re in New York) or a FinCEN Money Services Business license (in the rest of the U.S.). For international projects, you can find your requirements on Facebook’s policy site.

But just because you can advertise on Facebook doesn’t mean you should.

‘The real opportunity is SEO/organic’

Many marketers have given up on Facebook entirely.

“What’s Facebook?” asked Itai Elizur of MarketAcross. “I think the crypto ‘watercooler’ is Twitter, but the real opportunity is SEO/organic, as we see search volumes increasing while Google keeps penalizing many crypto news sites. This means there is a place for brands to capture that high-quality user intent traffic.”

Elizur doesn’t believe paid ads on Facebook or Twitter work for crypto projects, which makes things much harder for traditional marketers to take on these kinds of gigs.

Help TechCrunch find the best growth marketers for startups.

Provide a recommendation in this quick survey and we’ll share the results with everybody.

Crypto marketing is a very new field. A few years ago, PR professionals would avoid crypto entirely, but now they’re running to well-heeled clients who may or may not have a real business model. And they’re finding out that it is wildly hard to get the attention they once got for other tech products like gadgets and software.

“Paid social does have a place for driving awareness for blockchain and crypto projects, but there are a lot of challenges in the space right now,” said Rachel Stoll, founder of Persephone Digital. “Specifically, NFT social is filled with pay-to-play opportunities for promotion, giveaways, or pinned posts across various subreddits and Discords without any real transparency. Most of our clients who do these types of paid placements as one-offs don’t see success, and I suspect that is because the people selling these spots are relying on their bot-driven following.”