Cryptocurrency advertising is severely regulated leading to various concerns in the industry for how to properly market crypto services and platforms. Social media platforms have been flip-flopping on crypto advertisements for a while now. However, the meteoric rise of crypto in 2021 seems to have changed the minds of the social media giants. Most major platforms enacted bans on crypto advertising in all forms in 2018. The policies eased a bit in 2021 with most platforms allowing crypto ads with certain restrictions.
Generating good ROI from social media campaigns is hard work and those who have done some work in the space will vouch for this. For crypto ads, this is even more challenging given the amount of misinformation out there. The constant upheaval in the market doesn’t help either.
However, there are ways to make sure that crypto ads are run ethically and that you generate a good deal of ROI from these campaigns. This blog will discuss some of the top social media platforms to reach your target audience and optimize your campaigns for maximum ROI.
How are Crypto Ads Regulated on Various Social Networks?
Here’s a quick look at the various social platforms and how they regulate crypto ads.
Facebook/Instagram – Meta Crypto Ad Policy
- Generally, Meta allows cryptocurrency advertisements based on certain criteria being met. There are 2 important steps in the process.
- Your product has the regulatory approvals from the governments of the regions you are advertising in. There are also some eligibility criteria listed that need to be met.
- You have to fill out a form for prior approval from Meta for running crypto ads which need to be verified and approved.
Typically any platform selling crypto software or hardware, and crypto exchanges and wallets need prior approval for running ads. Platforms offering blockchain services, not including NFTs and crypto wallets, as well as news and events related to crypto do not need prior approval for advertising.
Beyond this, you would also need the necessary regulatory clearance from the government agencies for the various countries you plan to run your ads in. These vary from country to country and can also change.
Twitter Crypto Ad Policy
Twitter also has strict regulations on what products and services can be advertised on its platform. Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs) are not allowed, nor are crypto mining products, and crypto borrowing.
Some crypto products are restricted and not outright prohibited. These include cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets, ATMs, NFTs, and such. If you are to run a Twitter ad campaign including promoted accounts, and promoted tweets, you would need prior approval from Twitter as well as meet the regulatory requirements for the country in which you are running these ads in.
Twitter’s policy also states that the various risks and benefits of the product or service be made clear to the user and also needs to be identified as a financial service.
Google Crypto Ad Policy
Google allowed crypto ads on Google and YouTube in 2021, but with certain restrictions. Regulatory compliance with local government policies is a must and so is prior approval from Google for running crypto ads of any kind including YouTube Pre-roll ads and Google Search ads.
Google has however prohibited ads for ICOs, crypto loans, and Defi products. It has also placed restrictions on crypto trading advice, broker reviews, and trading signals.
Reddit Crypto Ad Policy
Much like other platforms, Reddit also has placed restrictions on cryptocurrency ads. Reddit is selective about the crypto companies they want on their platform. The policy also states that the companies need to comply with all local laws, licensing requirements, and industry standards.
Reddit policy requires that all crypto ads and decentralized financing ads be pre-approved and that the companies wanting to advertise these products work directly with a Reddit sales representative before running the ads.
Other Social Platforms
There are of course several other platforms out there that play a significant role in crypto advertising. Telegram is one such social network that has potentially a big role to play. Telegram allows for crypto and other ads on its platform, but only for large channels which have more than 1000 members in it.
TikTok has a strict ban on all ads related to cryptocurrency. However, recent reports say that they are beta testing a program that allows cryptocurrency companies registered with the local regulatory body to run paid ads. The current trial is running in the US and Canada and could be rolled out worldwide soon.
Which Platform Offers the Best ROI?
This is a difficult question to answer outright given how little data there is regarding cryptocurrency paid ads on social media platforms. However, we can draw inferences from how the platforms function for other industries.
Hubspot’s 2021 State of Marketing report gives a deep dive into various paid social media channels. According to the report, Facebook generated the best ROI for paid ads across all social media platforms followed by Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.
Facebook is of course the undisputed leader in terms of sheer numbers and hence it would follow that it has a lot to offer for brands looking for paid campaigns. Given the size of the target audience and the spread of the demographic it has, it is easy to find the relevant people to target. Facebook ads are one of the most sophisticated tools in the market as well. Using various campaign objectives, ad formats, and bidding strategies, you can easily control your overall marketing budget on Facebook and also keep a tight watch on the daily budget.
Instagram is second on the list and offers brands with a wide variety of ad options. Instagram’s appeal is also due to the variety of content formats it offers and the younger demographic favors domains such as cryptocurrency.
Coming to Crypto paid ads, if you are to extrapolate from the report above, Facebook and Instagram may be typically the best platforms to bet on for the best ROI. Twitter advertising is also quite a viable option for small businesses in crypto given how it fits in with the general demographic despite having a smaller number of active users on the platform.
How to Improve ROI on Social Media Paid Ads?
If you are looking for ways to improve ROI on the various social media paid ad campaigns, there are some specific strategies to follow. We will look at some of them in general and also focus on Facebook and Twitter as platforms and look at how to improve ROI here.
Have a Clear Idea About Who You are Targeting and Why
This is the most important aspect of any paid campaign. The sharper your audience definition is, the better your ROI will be. You should be looking at defining your target audience using as many parameters as possible both demographically and also in terms of likes and dislikes. Since most social platforms work on these, you will be able to find similar audiences pretty easily and also target only those who you want to target.
Why you are running an ad is also important to know. Do you want new followers? Are you looking for re-engagements or website clicks? Are you running a lead generation campaign? Want more video views or blog reads? Is brand awareness your objective? Understanding the objective and choosing the right kind of ads will help you get more out of your advertising budget.
Experiment and Fail Fast
This is one of those things that we live by. It’s hard to get a campaign perfect from the start. The way to go is to experiment with various ad types and targets and to understand how well your ads are doing. Constantly optimizing the campaign and working with smaller daily budgets and tinkering with the maximum bids, and targeting options will help you collect good relevant data and also understand how you want to improve your campaign.
Use the Power of Visuals and Video
Needless to say, there is a great preference for more visual forms of communication today. This holds for social media ads too. You need to focus on the quality of your ad and a compelling visual or a great video is a good way to enhance this. Videos tend to do better on social media and using video ads could be a great way to get a better ROI for your paid social media marketing.
Running Ads on Facebook for Crypto
Facebook is great when it comes to the variety of ad formats, bidding options, and of course the average cost. Facebook gives you an average CPC of $0.72 making it one of the most economically viable paid marketing channels.
Assuming you have the necessary regulatory approvals and pre-approval from Facebook, here are some tips on running ads on Facebook.
The first step in the process is of course defining the target audience. Define the audience using various parameters like age, gender, location, and likes. This will give you a sense of the size of the audience you are targeting and also what bid amounts would be required.
The next step is to choose the kind of ad you want to run on Facebook. You can sponsor the content you have posted or you can run ads specifically for promoting your product or service. There are several ad formats available too including slideshow ads, collection ads, Instant experience ads, and other formats.
Once you have chosen the ad format and the target audience, the next step is to determine what your bid would be. Facebook ads work on a bidding process and you will need to input what your bid amount would be for each ad. You can also specify a total budget and a daily budget to further control your spending.
Once you do this too, take your campaign live and wait for the results! You should be looking at the data and constantly optimizing the campaign based on what’s working and what’s not.
Running Crypto Ads on Twitter
Twitter ads are also evolving. Twitter has been pushing its advertising platform more and more with attractive propositions. Twitter ads also work by using a bidding process and an auction, similar to other social media platforms. Twitter offers different types of Twitter ads. You can promote your regular tweets, Promote your account as a whole, and there are promoted trends that will show up on the trends list for 24 hours.
‘How much do Twitter ads cost‘ is one of the most common questions we get asked. The cost of Twitter ads depends on billable actions. You’re only paying for the audience clicking on your website link or following your account. The cost depends on the type of ad and the competition for the audience in the automatic bidding process. Typically, promoted tweets cost between $0.5 and $2.00 for each billable action. It will end up costing $2 to $4 for every new follower on your Twitter account if you are promoting your account. Promoted trends cost $200,000 per day.
Once you decide the type of ad you want to run and the content of the ad, choose the target audience and include relevant hashtags in the post. You should then be defining the various ad groups and the budgets for each along with daily budgets and overall campaign budgets.
Optimizing the campaign continuously and trying out the different bidding strategies like target bidding, automatic bidding, and maximum bidding will help you get a sense of the best strategy.
Closing Thoughts
Social media paid campaigns are integral parts of digital marketing campaigns these days. Social media is an important platform for cryptocurrency businesses too given how the market is evolving. Running paid campaigns that generate good ROI does not happen by default. There is a good deal of design that goes into it.
Defining your audience accurately and spending wisely on bidding is the best way to improve conversion rates, get a good cost per conversion and ultimately generate a good ROI for your paid social campaigns.
Running a successful cryptocurrency ad campaign on social and other platforms takes work and expertise. Leave the job of getting the best results to the expert campaign managers at FVG! Talk to us today to get started!
0 Comments