ZkEra

ZkEra needed to reach experienced DeFi traders who would not only sign up but go on to fund accounts and execute trades. This is a high-intent conversion that interest-based platforms cannot reliably drive.

Three obstacles defined what that required:

• Audience quality: ZkEra needed users with verified DeFi trading behaviour, not general crypto interest. Low-quality sign-ups would not produce deposits or trading volume.
• Competitive landscape: The DEX market is crowded. Creatives needed to lead with ZkEra's specific fee and price impact advantages to differentiate against established platforms.
• Yield-seeking audience: DeFi traders actively compare APR and staking yields across platforms. The campaign needed to surface ZkEra's yield figures to attract committed capital.

Standard display networks could reach crypto audiences but not verified on-chain traders with DeFi transaction history. ZkEra needed users already active on decentralised exchanges who would understand and act on fee and yield comparisons. Interest-based platforms had no reliable signal for token swap frequency or DeFi protocol engagement.

Blockchain-Ads provided that through four capabilities:

• On-chain wallet targeting: Campaigns reached ETH-active wallets with verified DeFi protocol usage and token swap history, not interest proxies.
• DeFi publisher inventory: The network covered decentralised exchange, yield farming, and crypto trading publisher environments where ZkEra's target audience was already active.
• Yield-led creative alignment: Targeting was paired with specific APR and fee creatives designed to convert active DeFi traders already comparing platform returns.
• Global reach: The platform delivered qualified DeFi-active audiences across multiple regions within the 60-day campaign window.

• 479 trader sign-ups delivered across a 60-day global campaign.
• CPA: $62.63 per sign-up.
• First-time deposit volume: $91,500 generated from converting traders.
• ROAS: 3.05x on $30,000 in ad spend.
• Impressions: 700K+ delivered globally across display formats.
• CTR: 3.48% blended across all formats.
• CPC: $1.25 blended across the full campaign.

The campaign launched globally across ETH-active and DeFi wallet segments with display formats across desktop and mobile.

Four creative angles ran simultaneously:

• A specific yield angle leading with ETH 29.91% and esZKE 15.32% APR figures.
• A fee advantage angle promoting the lowest trading fees on ZkSync.
• A yield doubling angle inviting users to double their yields.
• A platform positioning angle announcing a new era with ZkEra.

The objective was to identify which angle drove the lowest cost per sign-up among verified DeFi trader segments.

Data from Phase 1 identified ETH token holders and active token swappers as the strongest converting segments. The specific yield angle and fee advantage angle outperformed the broader positioning creatives on sign-up rate. Budget shifted toward these two creatives.

Two new angles were introduced targeting yield-focused DeFi users:

• An epochal APR angle promoting ZkSync-based epoch rewards with ZkEra.
• A token sale angle.

The epochal APR angle drove the strongest engagement among users already staking on competing platforms.

This campaign ran on display advertising. See how Blockchain-Ads supports crypto advertising. Related case study: Zoomex.

The campaign concentrated spend on the specific yield and epochal APR angles across verified ETH holder and DeFi protocol user segments globally. Retargeting layers re-engaged users who had signed up but not yet funded their accounts. The specific yield creative, leading with ETH 29.91% and esZKE 15.32% figures, scaled strongest among high-value DeFi wallet segments in the final month. The retargeting layer drove the majority of the campaign's first-time deposits in the final two weeks.