Connected TV reaches the mainstream audiences crypto needs for mass adoption – audiences it has never been able to access through digital-only channels. We help crypto and DeFi companies launch CTV campaigns that are compliant, measurable, and built to earn trust from audiences who are skeptical by default.
The Challenge
Ad platform restrictions limiting your paid channels
Google, Meta, and most major ad platforms restrict or outright ban crypto advertising. The policies change frequently, enforcement is inconsistent, and getting approved requires navigating compliance requirements that vary by jurisdiction. Most crypto marketing teams have given up on paid channels entirely, which means they are stuck in an organic-only echo chamber. CTV operates outside these restrictions for most crypto products, but requires a completely different creative and buying approach.
Audiences stuck within the crypto bubble
Your marketing reaches people who already know what DeFi is. The crypto-native audience is finite, heavily competed over, and increasingly expensive to acquire. Every project is fishing in the same pool – Twitter, Discord, Telegram, crypto media. The mainstream audience that would actually drive protocol-scale adoption consumes content on streaming platforms, not in crypto Telegram groups. CTV is one of the few channels that reaches them where they already spend hours every day.
Lack of trust among mainstream consumers
Mainstream audiences have heard about crypto primarily through collapse headlines, scam stories, and enforcement actions. A banner ad on a crypto site does not overcome this trust deficit. Television-quality creative on a premium streaming platform carries implicit trust signals – the viewer associates your brand with the platform's credibility. CTV creates a legitimacy halo that digital display and social ads cannot replicate for a category with crypto's reputation problem.
No measurement model for brand-building channels
Crypto marketing teams are built around performance metrics – cost per acquisition, TVL growth, wallet connections. CTV is a brand-building channel with longer attribution windows and indirect conversion paths. Teams that apply direct-response measurement frameworks to CTV campaigns will always conclude it does not work. The real impact shows up in branded search volume, direct traffic increases, and improved conversion rates on your other channels weeks after CTV exposure.
What We Do
We begin with audience strategy. The power of CTV for crypto companies lies in reaching people beyond the existing crypto audience, so we identify exactly which mainstream segments you want to reach – based on demographics, streaming behavior, content preferences, and financial sophistication. A crypto exchange pursuing retail investors requires a different audience strategy from a DeFi protocol targeting developers or an NFT platform seeking creators.
Developing creative for crypto CTV calls for a specific approach. The creative needs to explain complex products in 15 or 30 seconds without jargon, meet advertising regulations that differ by state and country, and address the trust deficit crypto faces with mainstream viewers. We create concepts that lead with the problem your product solves instead of the technology behind it. Nobody buys crypto infrastructure – they buy the outcome it makes possible.
Buying media for crypto CTV campaigns requires working with partners and platforms prepared to accept crypto advertisers. Not all CTV inventory is open to crypto brands, while premium placements that provide a trust halo require specific compliance documentation. We navigate this buying landscape and secure placements across platforms and content environments that strengthen your credibility rather than weaken it.
Campaign measurement blends traditional CTV metrics – reach, frequency, completion rates – with crypto-specific attribution. We measure increases in branded search volume, direct site visits, wallet connections, and app downloads following CTV flight dates. We also assess the downstream effect on your digital channels – CTV exposure typically raises click-through and conversion rates for paid search, social, and display campaigns running at the same time.
Optimization continues throughout the campaign. We test creative variations, audience segments, dayparting approaches, and frequency caps to identify the combinations that generate the most efficient brand lift and downstream conversions. CTV campaigns improve substantially from the first flight to the third as the data shows which levers have the greatest impact for your particular product and audience.
What we deliver
- Audience strategy and mainstream segment targeting
- Compliant creative development – 15s and 30s spots optimized for streaming
- Media buying across CTV platforms that accept crypto advertisers
- Attribution framework linking CTV exposure to on-chain conversions
- Campaign optimization and flight-over-flight performance improvement
The crypto companies poised to win mass adoption are those that can explain their product in 30 seconds to someone who has never opened a wallet. CTV demands that discipline – and rewards it with access to audiences that no other paid channel can reach.
Our Methodology
Winston Francois manages CTV campaigns for crypto companies through an initial 90-day engagement cycle. The first 30 days focus on audience strategy, creative development, and compliance review. We identify target segments, create concepts, produce the spots, and work through the regulatory requirements for crypto advertising in your chosen markets. This phase calls for close collaboration with your legal and compliance team.
Days 30 to 60 cover the initial campaign flight. We launch on selected CTV platforms, set measurement baselines, and start optimizing. Early results show which audience segments and creative variants perform best, enabling us to shift budget toward the strongest combinations before most of the spend is deployed.
The last 30 days run the optimized campaign and deliver a comprehensive performance analysis. We provide attribution reports linking CTV exposure with your core business metrics, breakdowns of creative performance, and audience insights to guide future flights. The engagement concludes with a clear recommendation to scale, adjust, or pause CTV based on real performance data.
Our Process
CTV engagements for crypto companies begin with a 90-day campaign cycle. The first month covers pre-production – plan for two to three weeks of creative development and compliance review. Crypto advertising compliance requires time that non-crypto CTV campaigns do not, so accounting for it from the outset helps avoid launch delays.
Throughout the campaign flight in months two and three, we deliver weekly performance reports and hold bi-weekly optimization calls. Your team can review reach, frequency, completion rates, and early signals of brand lift and downstream conversion impact. Based on performance signals, we adjust targeting, creative rotation, and budget allocation in real-time.
Minimum campaign budgets for crypto CTV generally begin at $50K per month in media spend to generate statistically meaningful reach and measurement. Under that threshold, the audience sample is too limited for dependable optimization and attribution. We are upfront about minimum spend requirements because underinvesting in CTV leads to inconclusive results that waste the full budget.
After the campaign, we provide a comprehensive analysis connecting CTV performance with business outcomes. The report becomes either the business case for continued CTV investment – or an honest determination that CTV is not the right channel for your particular product and audience.
- Mainstream audience reach beyond crypto-native channels
- Brand awareness and trust building with non-crypto audiences
- Improved conversion rates on concurrent digital campaigns
- Compliant advertising presence on premium streaming platforms
If your crypto / defi company needs connected tv advertising leadership, we should talk.
Expand your marketing team output with our experts
Let us take a custom approach to your growth goals by assembling and leading the best-in-class marketing team to support your next stage.
Frequently asked questions
What does CTV advertising cost for a crypto company?
CTV media costs are higher for crypto companies than for non-crypto brands due to restricted inventory and compliance requirements. Expect CPMs between $25-$45, depending on targeting specificity and platform quality. A meaningful 90-day campaign generally needs a total budget of $150K-$300K, including creative production, media spend, and measurement. Our engagement management fee is separate from media spend and scales according to campaign complexity.
What CTV platforms allow crypto advertising?
Platform acceptance differs and changes frequently. Currently, several major demand-side platforms and direct publisher relationships permit crypto advertising with the proper compliance documentation. We keep active relationships with platforms that accept crypto advertisers and manage the approval process for you. Not all streaming services accept crypto ads – we direct your budget to platforms that offer both acceptance and quality inventory.
How is compliance managed for crypto CTV ads?
Compliance requirements vary based on your product type, target geography, and the specific claims made in your creative. We collaborate with your legal team to ensure ads satisfy federal and state regulations, platform policies, and industry self-regulatory standards. Our creative development process incorporates compliance from the concept stage instead of appending disclaimers after production. This method results in creative that is both compliant and persuasive, rather than constrained by compliance.
How do you assess CTV campaign impact for a crypto product?
We apply a multi-layer attribution model. The first layer measures traditional CTV metrics – reach, frequency, video completion rates. The second evaluates brand lift using increases in branded search volume, growth in direct site traffic, and survey-based awareness studies. The third ties exposure to on-chain activity – wallet connections, first transactions, and TVL contributions – through device-graph matching and comparisons between exposed and control groups.
Does CTV work for DeFi protocols or mostly for consumer crypto products?
CTV performs best for products with a mainstream value proposition that is easy to explain. Consumer crypto products – exchanges, wallets, payment apps – offer the most natural fit. DeFi protocols serving institutional or developer audiences may have more efficient channel options. We assess fit during the strategy phase and recommend against CTV when your target audience and product complexity make other channels more suitable.
How soon can you see results from CTV campaigns?
Brand lift indicators – increases in branded search and growth in direct traffic – usually emerge two to four weeks into the campaign flight. Downstream conversion effects across digital channels become measurable after four to six weeks. A complete attribution view, including correlation with on-chain activity, requires the entire 90-day cycle. CTV is a brand-building channel with a longer attribution window than performance marketing – teams anticipating immediate CPA results will be disappointed.
