The Forex and Crypto Marketing Playbook: 5 Strategies for Growth.
Forex trading (FX) just might be one of the biggest industries ever to exist. In 2022, the global forex market was said to be worth $1.94 quadrillion , with daily trading volume 53x that of the NYSE. It’s also a fairly young market, with 43% of traders made up of millennials, and just 15% over age 45.
It’s no surprise then that marketing in the young, fast-growing world of forex and crypto is tough. Given the massive competition among trading platforms, the work that needs to be done in order to gain mindshare, acquire customers, and retain them in the long term is anything but child’s play.
Let’s start by checking in on the kinds of issues that commonly arise for FX/crypto marketers, followed by strategies and tactics to overcome them and pave the way to growth.
What Forex and Crypto Marketers Are Up Against.
There are hundreds if not thousands of crypto and forex trading platforms out there, and marketers need to work hard to achieve visibility and attract active traders. It’s not just about having a smart product, fair commissions, and a watertight reputation. It’s also about understanding the obstacles that drive down conversions. Here are several challenges that forex and crypto marketers face every day:
Driving new traffic.
Apart from the stiff market competition, there’s another reason why attracting quality web traffic is such a challenge in FX/crypto, and it actually comes down to the customers themselves. 95% of forex traders don’t succeed and 80% quit within the first couple of years. This means that forex brands must be working nonstop at full speed to get their name in lights, build brand awareness, and get traffic flowing to their site, despite a high turnover among target audiences.
For more on how to build brand awareness:
3 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness.
Brand awareness is critical to your brand's success. Find out the three things you can do to increase brand awareness.
Developing effective conversion funnels.
The customer funnel is a critical component of any digital marketing strategy, and not just for online trading. According to a study by Salesforce, 79% of marketing leads never actually turn into sales. Building an effective and compelling marketing funnel in forex and crypto is all about focusing on the coveted final conversion — the First Time Deposit (FTD) — which is the most common KPI used by forex marketers to evaluate the success of their campaigns.
Inventory restrictions on ad networks.
Reaching customers is more difficult for crypto and forex marketers due to advertising restrictions of many ad networks and social platforms. When Facebook, Twitter, and Google banned crypto ads in 2022, this led to an uproar and pushback in the form of lawsuits brought by industry associations in several countries. These restrictive policies have since softened, but there are still many ad networks that do not allow the delivery of forex and crypto campaigns.
Strict ad requirements.
Another challenge for marketers is the strict requirements set by ad networks for crypto and forex-focused ads. All ads must include specific disclaimers and clear terms and conditions. This not only makes it harder to create appealing, uncluttered ads, but also dampens their effectiveness with scary “warnings” that can turn off potential customers.
Five FX/Crypto Strategies to Drive Traffic and Win Conversions.
The global community of forex and crypto traders is enormous, numbering close to 10 million. Finding potential customers are like needles in a haystack, but there are ways to successfully navigate the morass. Here are several strategies used by forex marketers to drive traffic, target qualified audiences, and boost conversions:
Localize campaigns according to country.
The FX community is fairly spread out worldwide, with the highest number of traders located in Asia, similar numbers in North America and Europe, followed by substantial numbers in the Middle East and Africa. A breakdown by country only demonstrates further how diverse and complex the target audience is.
It pays for FX marketers to focus campaigns on individual countries, in order to achieve maximum relevance for each market situation. This means localizing ad content with creatives aligned to the specific target audience — not just in the language used, but also cultural norms and values.
Drive leads with valuable, educational content.
Successful FX traders are educated ones. When a trader feels confident, they are more likely to spend on trading platforms. That’s why lead generation campaigns in the FX industry are usually educational in nature, based on market reports and up-to-date financial data that can help traders succeed. Forex marketers must focus on providing target audiences with value-added content that will support smart trading decisions.
For more on how to create helpful content:
Types of Content in Content Marketing.
Let’s go over the popular types of content in content marketing, the common mistakes marketers make with them, and how to avoid the pitfalls.
Create targeted campaigns for specific audience segments.
There are two key goals that FX marketers are most focused on: traffic acquisition and direct conversions.
Traffic acquisition is all about driving relevant audiences to a website or landing page. An effective way to do this is with “lookalike” campaigns — that is, targeting new audiences based on similar behavioral patterns as customers who’ve completed FTD conversions before. This way, it’s possible to tap into broader audiences with a higher chance of converting.
Direct conversions mean capitalizing on audiences that are already somewhat engaged. Depending on which stage of the funnel they’re at, these audiences can be retargeted with focused campaigns designed to drive them even further towards conversion and retention:
Target previous site visitors: People who’ve already visited a site have shown some level of interest, and therefore have the potential to become actionable leads. Target them with ads and content such as whitepaper downloads, newsletter registrations, and other tactics that can draw them into the funnel. Target leads to register: Warmer leads who’ve taken certain actions, such as downloading a whitepaper, can be targeted with campaigns encouraging registration, such as creating a demo account or attending a webinar. Target registrants who have not yet converted with FTD: Customers who’ve signed up for the platform, but who’ve not yet converted with an FTD can be targeted with campaigns designed to entice them to start spending. This could be in the form of incentive offers or monetary bonuses. Target converted customers with loyalty campaigns: Customers who’ve already deposited can be encouraged to spend more with loyalty messaging campaigns, such as exclusive discounts or members-only promotions.
Optimize accounts.
Once campaigns are up and running, they should be optimized and adjusted continually, based on their main goal — either audience building (driving traffic) or audience capitalization (direct conversions). This can be achieved with A/B testing of campaigns, relocating budgets between targeted countries as necessary, and adjusting the sequential messaging strategy according to KPI results of the various ads and devices.
For additional reading on A/B testing:
A/B Testing in Marketing: An Introduction.
There’s nothing more important than analyzing marketing data properly. Fortunately, there’s a way to measure data without any room for guesswork: A/B testing.
Don’t stop reporting.
Marketers who have their finger on the pulse of the full-cycle customer journey are much better equipped to achieve good conversion and retention rates. The only way to understand and optimize the performance of the customer journey is through continual reporting and analysis of every stage, particularly the dynamics of two key conversions: click-through conversions (CTC) and view-through conversions VTC). CTC is when a user clicks on an ad and converts directly, while VTC is a user who does not click on an ad but converts sometime later. Accurately grasping these two metrics and the behaviors behind them goes a long way to optimizing the customer journey in action.
Open the Playbook Today.
The forex and crypto industries are massive and complex, and even the toughest marketers can get overwhelmed at times. Faced with incredible competition, global audiences in dozens of countries, painful advertising regulations, and seemingly endless tools to choose from, it’s wise to drill down to the practical, doable tactics, like those in this playbook, that can drive traffic, boost conversions, and bring in the cash.
Last updated on September 16th, 2022.