The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Key findings
Advertisers who set up conversion tracking before their first ad set reached a first deposit or trade 92% more often.
46% of advertisers who tracked from launch recorded a first deposit, purchase or trade, against 24% of those who added tracking afterwards.
66% saw a result on their very first ad set, against 29%.
Advertisers who ran five or more ad sets in their first month captured a first deposit in that month 87% more often than those who ran one.
Among advertisers with tracking in place from launch, 56% of those who launched five or more ad sets in month one recorded a first deposit or trade inside that month, against 41% of those who ran two to four and 30% of those who ran one.
The advertisers who kept running launched a median of five, about six days each.
Ad sets combining platform segments with first-party data captured first deposits 17% more often than platform segments alone.
62% of those ad sets recorded a first deposit, purchase or trade within 30 days, against 53% for platform segments alone, 28% for first-party data alone and 16% for ad sets targeted by country and device alone.
Introduction
Growing markets, sharper acquisition
Crypto, iGaming and finance keep growing. Cryptocurrency ownership reached 774 million people worldwide in June 2026, up 17% since the end of 2024.1 The online gambling market is estimated at $143 billion in 2026, up 10% on 2025,2 and global fintech revenue reached $504 billion in 2025, up 22%.3
For advertisers in these markets, growth depends on turning that audience into sign-ups, first deposits and trades. That work starts with three questions:
- How do I attribute sign-ups and deposits to each campaign?
- How much should I test at launch?
- Who should I target to reach users who convert?
This report draws on more than two years of Blockchain-Ads campaign data to answer them. It follows advertisers from their first launch, showing which answers went most often with reaching a first deposit or trade.
Together, these findings form the basis of Measured Acquisition, a four-stage practice for moving from first launch to first deposits and trades.
Data sample
In this report, an ad set is a single launch with its own targeting, budget and creatives, and a campaign is a run of ad sets.
Advertisers set their own conversion events, from sign-ups and wallet connections to first deposits and trades.
All results are based on fully anonymous and aggregated data.
Minimum sample thresholds apply, and figures are shown only where they are met.
The first campaign
The advertisers who kept going opened their first campaign with awareness, worked down to conversion, and ran it as a batch of short ad sets, changing something with almost every launch.
That first campaign settles two questions at once: which goal to start with, and what the campaign should look like. This section takes them in turn.
Which goal first
Among advertisers who ran several ad sets, 54% opened their first campaign with awareness and 41% with conversion. Where advertisers changed goal, moves from awareness to conversion outnumbered the reverse by two to one.
Advertisers with two or more ad sets carrying a stated goal, by launch order.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Across all ad sets, conversion was still the most common goal, at 55%. Awareness carried the most delivery, with 45% of impressions.
Ad sets with a stated goal.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Advertisers who started with awareness recorded a conversion on 46% of their later conversion ad sets. Advertisers who ran only conversion ad sets recorded one on 19%, and stayed active a median of 29 days, against 92.
Share of conversion ad sets that recorded a conversion, among the few dozen advertisers with a stated goal who ran conversion ad sets.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
What the campaign looked like
The advertisers who kept going ran their first campaign as a batch of short, overlapping tests: a median of five ad sets of about six days each. The pattern strengthens with every step up in activity.
Medians across all advertisers in the sample. The first campaign is the 30 days from an advertiser's first launch.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Creative changed on almost every launch, and audience segments on just over half.
Consecutive ad sets in the first campaigns of advertisers who went on to run six or more. Rows below audience segments cover pairs whose segments stayed the same, and changes can overlap.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Share of advertisers recording a first deposit, purchase or trade in their own first 30 days, among advertisers with conversion tracking set up before their first ad set.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Measurement
Half of new advertisers now set up tracking before their first campaign. Among new advertisers, 54% set up conversion tracking before their first ad set in the first half of 2026, up from 26% in the second half of 2024.
Over the same period, more ad sets recorded conversions.
The shift shows in delivery
The share of delivered ad sets recording a conversion within 30 days rose from 22% in the third quarter of 2024 to 51% in the second quarter of 2026. Against the same quarter a year earlier, that is a 46% rise.
By launch quarter, Q3 2024 to Q2 2026
Delivered ad sets with at least 30 days of observation.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Adoption jumped after the second half of 2024 and has stayed between 45% and 61% since.
Advertisers grouped by when they first launched.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Advertisers who tracked from launch saw a result on their first ad set
Advertisers with tracking in place before launch saw a conversion on their first delivered ad set 66% of the time, against 29% for those who added it later.
Across the full sample, 44% set up tracking before their first ad set, 43% afterwards and 12% never. Those who set it up before and after ran the same number of ad sets and stayed active for the same number of days.
All advertisers in the sample, grouped by when they set up conversion tracking.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Share recording a conversion, by impressions delivered, where tracking was in place at launch
Delivered ad sets whose advertiser had conversion tracking in place before launch, with at least 30 days of observation.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Audiences
Ad sets built segment by segment rose from 2% of launches in 2024 to 92% in the first half of 2026.
For most of the last decade, targeting in crypto and iGaming meant choosing where an ad appeared: publisher lists, geography, device, and at the top end a set of interest categories. Advertisers in retail, travel and consumer finance had been buying audiences for years.
Delivered ad sets by launch year. Built segment by segment was 2% in 2024. Interest categories and country-and-device fell to 4% each in the first half of 2026.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Own data joins the platform segments
Advertisers who started on platform segments added their own visitor, event and customer data a median of 25 days later. 42% of all advertisers used their own data in at least one ad set, and use rose with activity.
Among advertisers who ran both kinds, 52% started on platform segments, and the rest started with their own data or launched both on the same day. More than three quarters of first-party ad sets also carried platform segments.
Share of advertisers using their own data in at least one ad set, by how many ad sets they ran.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
The combination recorded first deposits most often
Ad sets carrying both platform segments and first-party data recorded a first deposit, purchase or trade 62% of the time, against 53% for segments alone and 28% for first-party data alone.
Both steps up the ladder hold inside individual accounts. Among advertisers who ran both kinds, the combination recorded first deposits more often than platform segments alone, and platform segments more often than country and device alone.
First deposit, purchase or trade recorded within 30 days of launch, by what the ad set targeted
Ad sets delivering at least 100,000 impressions, launched at least 30 days before the end of the sample, whose advertiser had conversion tracking in place beforehand.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Markets
Wide ad sets show where results concentrate, and the advertisers who kept going built there.
In wide ad sets, the top three countries carried 87% of conversions. Advertisers who gave those countries their own ad sets saw delivery in the market rise about six times, and most kept building there.
Results concentrate in a few countries
Across wide ad sets that recorded five or more conversions, the top country carried 39% of conversions and the top three 87%. A third of the countries they delivered to recorded none.
Wide ad sets, targeting two or more countries, that recorded five or more conversions. Medians across ad sets.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
A breakout gives the market scale
When an advertiser moved a country out of a wide ad set into its own, delivery in that country rose about six times per active month. It rose for four in five advertisers, comparing the same country for the same advertiser.
Impressions per active month in the same country for the same advertiser, inside the wide ad set before the breakout and in the country's own ad set after it. Median across advertisers.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
The advertisers kept building in those markets
7 in 10 advertisers went on to run more ad sets in the country they broke out, and that country's share of their delivery doubled, from 4% to 9%.
In three of four cases, the wide ad set stopped delivering once the country had its own.
Share of each advertiser's impressions landing in the broken-out country, before and after the breakout month. Medians across advertisers.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Measured Acquisition
Measured Acquisition names the sequence this report's findings point to: define what to measure before launch, test in short batches, rebuild around what the results show, and carry the evidence into the next campaign.
It connects the findings into four stages: Define, Prospect, Converge and Sustain.
Measurement gives the opening campaign a record of what happened. Awareness brings in the first sign-ups before conversion ad sets ask for deposits. Short tests establish which combinations to investigate. Dedicated country ad sets, first-party audiences and additional formats give the next round more direction.
Decide what each ad set needs to achieve.
Set up conversion tracking before launch and choose the action each ad set will be judged on. Awareness can bring in visits and sign-ups; conversion ad sets ask for deposits or trades.
Give the first campaign enough tests to inform the next move.
Open with awareness and use platform segments to select the audiences you want to reach. Standard display was the most common starting format. Where the market is uncertain, a multi-country launch provides a starting point.
Use the results to make the next tests more specific.
Use what the first tests show. In wide ad sets, the top three countries carried 87% of conversions, so give those countries their own ad sets. Keep platform segments running and add your own visitor and customer data.
Carry the learning into subsequent campaigns.
Keep building inside the markets and audiences that hold up. Add new ad sets there, refresh the creative with each launch, and carry the findings into the next campaign.
Median days after the step each move follows
Medians across the advertisers who made each move. Each interval is measured from its own starting point.
The State of Advertising in Crypto, iGaming and Finance 2026
Key takeaways
Make the first campaign measurable from launch.
Advertisers who added tracking later had no record of what their first ad sets produced. Set it up before spending and check that the intended events are being recorded.
Give awareness a defined role in acquisition.
Four in five awareness-first advertisers had recorded an event before launching their first conversion ad set.
Budget for the next test as well as the first launch.
The most active advertisers developed their first month through several short, overlapping ad sets. Plan for creative changes and follow-up tests.
Give the countries that carry results their own ad sets.
In wide ad sets, the top three countries carried 87% of conversions. Break those countries out, then keep building in the ones that hold up.
Keep platform segments in use as first-party data joins the campaign.
More than three quarters of first-party ad sets also carried platform segments. Assess both sources as campaigns develop.
