In a conversation with Finbold, Matvii Diadkov, founder of Bitmedia.IO— a crypto advertising network established in 2014—shares his expert perspective on crypto marketing as we forge into 2024.
Diadkov touches on effective strategies for navigating the world of crypto marketing, the future of Web3, and the critical milestones for success in this rapidly growing sector.
Briefly introduce yourself as the founder of Bitmedia and provide a few words about this company. Which additional projects do you run?
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Bitmedia was one of the few pioneering crypto advertising networks, founded in 2014, long before crypto and Bitcoin became mainstream topics. At that time, Bitcoin was valued at around $100, and it was largely dismissed by the masses. Despite this, we had faith in its potential and in the transformative power of crypto technology to change the world’s financial infrastructure.
My team, consisting of several programmers and other professionals, developed a platform akin to a decentralized version of Google Ads. This platform began by offering advertising services to early crypto startups and the first crypto exchanges, along with some games.
As of now, Bitmedia has over 500 regular clients and a network of 8,000 publishers. These publishers display our clients’ advertising banners on their websites, contributing to a robust advertising ecosystem.
In addition to banner advertising offerings, we provide a range of marketing services tailored to our clients, including crypto influencer marketing, content writing, and PR.
What’s the value your company provides to the crypto-projects? Can you share some unique features of your promotion model?
Bitmedia is a programmatic advertising platform. This means that we utilize automated technology for media buying, as opposed to the traditional (and often manual) methods of digital advertising. Simply put, Bitmedia automates the sale of ad inventory in real time, ensuring that ads are targeted at the most suitable audiences. At the core of Bitmedia’s appeal is its extensive network, which includes over 8,000 industry-specific websites. Bitmedia advertisers have access to a highly specific and precisely targeted crypto audience.
Bitmedia offers multiple Ad Formats for advertisers. We aim to offer our clients exactly what they need and what, when, and where they want. One of the most popular ad formats our advertisers use is HTML5 ads.
Bitmedia extends the flexibility to advertisers by offering a choice between CPC (Cost Per Click) and CPM (Cost Per Mille) pricing strategies. It enables advertisers to fine-tune their campaigns according to their specific objectives and budgetary constraints.
One more important thing – customized targeting. This allows advertisers to precisely target specific crypto audiences. Whether it’s interests, demographics, or other criteria, Bitmedia provides ad campaigns that connect with the ideal customer.
Additionally, Bitmedia is the platform for publisher placement. Advertisers can handpick their ad placements from a wide selection of exclusive sources within Bitmedia’s extensive crypto ad network.
The platform also provides advertisers with a suite of performance-tracking tools. Metrics such as views, interactions, and conversion rates are tracked in real time, providing valuable insights into campaign performance.
It is a fully self-served platform, that is, the client can independently set up campaigns, check results, change/update settings, add sources to the blacklist, etc. We have a strong team of managers who can take on ad campaign management functions as needed. They are constantly in contact with the client and try to satisfy their needs as much as possible. To be honest, the team is our strongest point. Our clients very often return with new requests to the managers with whom they were able to achieve the desired results of their campaigns
Considering the challenges within crypto marketing, particularly due to restrictions on major platforms like Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and Google, how does your platform navigate these obstacles to support market projects effectively?
We work with various types of projects – from crypto exchanges and web3 projects to gambling websites.
Depending on the type of project and its goals, we can offer different strategies. The main focus of our company is a self-serve platform for running banner ads through our own network of relevant websites. We created it precisely because of the prohibitions and strict rules of Google, Facebook, and Instagram. Our publishers allow cryptocurrency advertising on their websites and receive a high commission for it.
In conditions of incredibly high competition, only banner advertising is not enough to attract an audience. We currently offer PR services (not only press releases, but also interviews with founders/CEOs, organic and sponsored articles, project reviews, etc.). Last year, we launched the first in-house media outlet HODL.FM, where we talk about crypto, blockchain, and tech/AI.
Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve goals crypto niche – influencers are very popular in the market, who, by the way, give the brand the most recognition. In 2024, there will definitely be a demand for micro-bloggers, and we also consider this in our marketing strategies.
Are there any limitations in budgets or project types to use your services or can anyone do this easily?
We do not set limits for starting cooperation with a client, which is what makes us different from most of our competitors. But we advise you to test launch a banner advertising campaign with a minimum budget of $1000-$2000 to see the first results. There is no secret: the more budget you have – the better results you get!
What is the future of the crypto ad networks? Are they going to replace traditional digital marketing tools?
I believe that the crypto ad network has long since replaced traditional digital marketing. We are absolutely sure that crypto is the future of the world’s financial system. Crypto projects will not disappear but will develop at an even greater speed. Given that 2024 is the year of the bull run, we expect a rapid increase in the number and quality of new crypto-projects. Let’s not forget about global technological trends – AI tools (ChatGPT as the most well-known example) started their winning way at the end of 2022 and gave a powerful impetus to the emergence of hundreds of new startups and companies, including crypto ones.
In fact, it is difficult to name a sphere of life that is not connected with blockchain technologies today – it’s everywhere: education, medicine, automation of processes, financial systems, the sphere of entertainment, and even the political system of some countries (remember at least El Salvador). Countries’ governments are Bitcoin holders, and politicians manipulate the topic of crypto regulation and adoption to attract votes on the eve of parliamentary or presidential elections.
Therefore, crypto advertising networks will not disappear in the coming years, on the contrary – they will gain popularity, perhaps even displacing long-known classic platforms and networks.
Tell us more about your charity direction. Do you have any specific mission in this direction?
In 2022, we established the Charify Foundation—Bitmedia.Fund. With the commencement of the war in Ukraine, it is vital that we help the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian army. The army was the main focus at first. The team got lists of those things they needed, looked for them around Europe, and then later delivered them to Ukraine.
Several employees from Bitmedia or family members currently serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Unfortunately, one of the developers died in 2022 year during a counterattack in the Kharkiv region.
Bitmedia.Fund’s focus on humanitarian activities in the hottest areas, in particular:
- Providing people with medicines, medical equipment, and vehicles to transport the wounded and injured
- Construction of mobile shelters for the most vulnerable areas
- Providing locals with electricity and internet
The foundation and company employees recently collected funds, clothes, and toys for children from an orphanage in Pavlograd. The company also sent medicine and food to the animal shelter in Kyiv.
In light of the expected growth and evolution in crypto marketing, what top three strategies would you recommend to companies aiming for success?
The crypto marketing future is defined by unprecedented growth, maturation, and integration. According to Allied Market Research, the value of the cryptocurrency market is predicted to treble by 2030, reaching a value of almost US$5bn. It means that the crypto marketing sphere, regardless of the crisis, will grow steadily. What can we advise companies?
- Do not neglect marketing! Currently, it is the only correct key to brand recognition and success
- Try different approaches and services. You can constantly spend budgets on PR and not try banner advertising and vice versa. But only by combining strategies will you be able to see real results
- Marketing is a long game. You should not stop PR and advertising campaigns even during a crisis (use supportive marketing activities) because your competitors will do it for you. Given the meteoric speed of information dissemination and market development, losing time is almost impossible to bypass competitors who constantly pour the budget into marketing.
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