The breakout success of the Coinbase IPO this week has proven that crypto is here to stay. This got us thinking a lot about the marketing landscape of the crypto exchanges and the players involved.
After some research, we found that there are some interesting search marketing tactics that some crypto players are adopting in search and in the app store. We think these search marketing tactics apply across industries and we wanted to share a few of them here.
First, let’s start with search.
#1: Showcase Customer Benefit in Your Ad Copy
A quick search of “buy bitcoin” shows a competitive landscape with many cryptocurrency exchanges, however, a few stand out. See Gemini and Nexo below.
They are promoting fast, easy sign-ups and the ability to earn interest on your crypto!
Focusing on the customer benefits (not product features) like speed, reliability and quality is a great way to help your ads stand out in a crowded space.
#2: Leverage Google Trends to Find Growing Opportunities with Fewer Competition
Google Trends is a great resource to see which categories are growing in popularity. It can also be used to find growing categories with less demand.
For example, you may be one of the crypto exchanges competing for traffic on the search term “buy bitcoin”. This could be an expensive term with all of the competition fighting for the top spot, which drives up the costs-per-click (CPC’s) in the auction.
If you have a limited ad budget or you want to find more traffic volume at potentially lower CPC’s, then you could use Google Trends to find other categories outside of your main head terms.
Some crypto exchanges offer other cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin like ethereum or litecoin. If there is growing popularity in these more niche currencies, then it may make sense to be more aggressive in terms of bidding on these terms where there is less competition.
Here is an example of the growing demand for the search term “buy ethereum”:
You can use Google Trends to find potentially cheaper traffic with growing demand.
#3: Use Ad Extensions to Increase Your Search Ad Click-Through-Rates (CTR’s)
Google Ad extensions are a great way to increase your ad exposure in the search engine result page. Ad extensions allow your ads to take up more real estate in the SERP.
You want your ads to take up as much real estate as possible because it increases the odds that someone will click on your ad vs the competition.
Wordstream has a great article on the 8 Google Ad Extensions that boost CTR.
There a number of ad extensions that you can add to your ads:
- Location extensions
- Call extensions
- Sitelink extensions
- Callout extensions
- Structured snippet extensions
- Price extensions
- App extensions
One of the most popular ad extensions that advertisers use is the sitelink extension. A quick search for “buy bitcoin” shows Gemini using sitelink extensions to boost their ad real estate in the SERP:
You can see Gemini’s ads showcase much more information than its competitors, which increases the likelihood of someone clicking on their ad. Ad extensions can be a quick, easy search marketing tactic that can boost your ad CTR.
Now, let’s take a look at the app store.
#4: Increase CTR and App Downloads by Testing Different App Screenshot Creatives
One way to help your app get more downloads is to have intriguing app screenshot previews.
Coinbase does a good job with their app previews by showcasing a customer benefit in their first screenshot: “Get $5 in Bitcoin when you join Coinbase”
Testing different app preview screenshots and offers could be a great way to increase your app downloads and CTR.
#5: Increase App Exposure through Apple Search Ads
Apple allows apps to advertise in their app store through their Apple Search Ads platform. Apple Search ads allow apps to reach more customers beyond their rankings, which is similar to how Google Search ads work.
You can see the ads when searching for apps in the app store. A quick search of “bitcoin” shows Crypto.com dominating the top of the app store rankings with their Apple Search ad:
Utilizing Apple Search ads is another great search marketing tactic to get exposure for your app and increase downloads.
Read more about how to set up Google ads conversion tracking with Google Tag Manager.