Right, so yesterday I was chatting with Kyle, a mate of mine who’s knee-deep in launching a new token. He was tearing his hair out, honestly. He’s been throwing money at social media hoping for a boost, but wasn’t seeing the returns. I told him, ‘Kyle, mate, you’re missing the point. It’s not about spending money; it’s about measuring it properly.’
We got onto the topic of attribution, specifically around social influence. He’d heard all the buzzwords – ‘first-touch’, ‘last-touch’, even ‘multi-touch’ – but had no clue how to actually use them in a meaningful way for his token launch. So, I gave him the lowdown – the stuff I’ve been researching for my articles about making token launches successful through clever social influence. And now, I’m sharing it with you.
The Attribution Jungle: A Quick Guide
Think of attribution models as different ways of giving credit to the various touchpoints a potential investor encounters before buying your token. Imagine someone sees a tweet, reads a blog post, and then chats with someone in your Telegram group before finally buying. Which of those actions ‘deserves’ the credit for the conversion?
- First-Touch Attribution: This model gives all the credit to the first interaction. In our example, the tweet would get all the glory. It’s simple but ignores the impact of everything that came after.
- Last-Touch Attribution: This is the opposite – the last touchpoint gets all the credit, in our case, the Telegram conversation. Again, easy to understand but potentially misleading. Did they even join the Telegram group without seeing the tweet first? Probably not. It has a value in some limited circumstances, for example if you can easily create unique tracking links and only measure clicks. But again, it is very unlikely to be the most effective. Especially if you believe that influence is incremental.
- Multi-Touch Attribution: This is where it gets interesting. Multi-touch models try to distribute the credit across all the touchpoints. Think of it as a team effort, everyone gets a share. There are a few ways to do this:
- Linear Attribution: Each touchpoint gets equal credit. Tweet, blog, Telegram – all get 33.3%.
- Time Decay Attribution: More recent touchpoints get more credit. The Telegram conversation gets the most credit, then the blog, then the tweet.
- Position-Based Attribution: Gives a fixed percentage of credit to the first and last touchpoints and distributes the rest amongst the others. E.g., Tweet and Telegram get 40% each, blog gets 20%.
Choosing the Right Model (And Why It Matters)
So, which model should Kyle – and you – use? Honestly, it depends on your campaign and what you’re trying to achieve. No model is perfect but a multi-touch approach is more effective and represents the real world more closely.
If you’re focused on brand awareness, first-touch might be useful. But if you’re trying to drive immediate sales, last-touch could be better. For a token launch where you’re trying to build a community, a multi-touch model is probably the way to go, giving credit to all the steps in the investor journey.
Tracking: The Foundation of ROI Measurement
Okay, models are important, but they’re useless without data. You need to track where your traffic is coming from and what actions those people are taking.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- UTM Parameters: These are tags you add to your URLs that tell Google Analytics (or whatever analytics platform you’re using) where the traffic came from. For example, if you tweet a link to your website, you’d add UTM parameters like
utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=token_launch. - Referral Tracking: This tracks where users are coming from based on the ‘Referer’ header in their browser. It’s less precise than UTM parameters but can still give you valuable insights.
- Event Tracking: This allows you to track specific actions users take on your website, like signing up for your mailing list, downloading your whitepaper, or, crucially, buying your token. For example, using google tag manager to fire events when key activities occur that a user has completed.
- Conversion Tracking: Integrate your token sale platform with your analytics platform to track which traffic sources are leading to actual token purchases. This will be critical to measuring your success.
Analysing the Results and Optimizing
Once you’ve got your tracking set up and the data flowing in, it’s time to analyse the results. Look at which sources are driving the most traffic, which are leading to the most conversions, and which are costing you the most money. This is where you can really see the ROI of your different social influence activities. Do not be afraid to experiment. If something isn’t working, ditch it!
For example, Kyle might find that his paid ads on Twitter are driving a lot of traffic, but that the traffic from his community influencers on Telegram is converting at a much higher rate. That would suggest he should focus more on nurturing his community and less on paid ads.
We also spoke about using A/B testing, this might involve trialling a new phrase or a specific meme and measuring the effect of those new actions.
Turning Loyal Users into Micro-Influencers
The real key, though, is turning those loyal users into micro-influencers. Identify the people who are already passionate about your project and give them the tools and incentives to spread the word. This could be anything from providing them with exclusive content to rewarding them with tokens for their efforts. By measuring the ROI of social influence, you can refine your approach, identify which channels and strategies are most effective, and maximise the impact of your community on your token launch. It is a continuous process of monitoring, analysing and refining. Kyle seemed much more relaxed about it all once we’d talked it through. Hopefully, that helped you too.