Part 2: All you need to know to reward users in a Zealy campaign
Part 1:Should you use Zealy to grow your community?
This is the second part of our five part series on everything you need to know about Zealy, from how to set up a campaign to how to lower your CAC cost 12x with optimized tactics. We will release the report every week. However, if you like to get the full research note, raw underlying data of 100 sprint 2024 sprint campaign and bonus content, including this one tactic to be 10x more effective, head to our Dashboard and find all notes under “Exclusive Resource”.
Running Zealy seems like an easy task, but there are many pitfalls, especially if you're new to the platform. There are many factors to consider, from setting up the campaign to deciding on rewards and determining the length of the campaign. However, with the right approach, you can effectively manage your campaign and achieve your objectives.
In this post, you will learn everything you need to know to run your first Zealy campaign. We will delve into the specifics of setting up a campaign, providing rewards, and determining the campaign's duration. We will also provide some insights on Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) to give you a benchmark for running a successful campaign.
Starting Your Zealy Campaign
The first step to running a successful campaign is starting small. Begin with a smaller prize pool and a shorter time frame. When the prize pool and number of participants are small, Zealy would not push your project to the front page. This approach allows you to focus on external marketing and distribution, which are crucial aspects of any campaigns. Regardless of the size of the projects, you should not expect Zealy to feature you unpaid on the headline.
The purpose for a smaller campaign is to help you set up a framework to manage your campaign. This includes stress-testing your discord verification system, how well you mods engage with new members and how many of these new members are converting to real users.
This will also be your first campaign to calculate CAC cost. You can estimate your CAC cost by assuming about 50% of your new members to be bots, or use our analytics to get the actual figure. You should aim somewhere around $0.5 to $1 for CAC cost.
Last thing, just because you are running a small campaign (think total rewards at $300USDT), it doesn’t mean your campaign can’t be effective. Some of the best most consistently projects always deploy smaller and shorter campaigns.
Free Zealy Campaigns
Some clients opt for free Zealy campaigns, where they offer quests with no immediate returns. You can still attract a fair amount of users as they are expecting future returns instead. This strategy works best for large clients with an established following. On average, you can expect about 15 users (with a range of 8 - 60 for the 25% and 75% percentile) to join a free campaign.
If you are curious about the best you can achieve with a free campaign, you can use Zealy itself as an example. It is currently running a sprint with no rewards. On average, 25 new members are joining in the quest every day, or about 320 new members over the course of two weeks.
Total number of participants in all zealy sprint.
Giving Rewards
When it comes to rewards, you have a couple options: (a) Pure tokens, around 75% of the projects in our sample choose to reward users this way. Note that most of these tokens are actually not listed. (b) Pure USDT cash rewards. About 15% of the projects would distribute cash earnings directly to members (c) A combination of token and USDT – 10% of all sprints.
When it comes to CAC cost, a combination of tokens and USDT is often the best option.
Here are some interesting psychology among the degens:
- Users are mostly rational about token price. In the case of pure token vs pure USDT, CAC cost is 1.87/user vs 1.35/user. This means that if you want to pay users in token, you have to pay an extra $0.5/user.
- Rationality has gone out of the window (thank you bull market!) when you are giving out a combination of cash and token. The premium for a Token + USDT reward combo is around 25%. In such cases, the actual USDT CAC cost is around $0.5 per user (vs $0.73 theoretically speaking).
- In terms of how to get people excited, data shows that users value more upside options as a combination of USDT+Token on average attracts about 87 participants per day, vs 64 users with USDT only and 76 users with Token only.
Designing the Reward System
It's important to design a reward system that encourages participation. The general theme is to give as many people rewards as possible. One effective approach is to allocate prizes to the top three participants and then distribute the rest of the rewards among other participants with a bucket. For instance, you might distribute rewards to those who rank 4-10, 10-25, and 25-50. Finally, you should allocate a smaller portion of the rewards to random participants and special participants (merit base). This will motivate the late comers to continue to participate, as they feel they have a chance to win.
Regardless of your reward system, clarity is key. Ensure that the total reward amount is clear. If you're working with tokens, provide their worth in USDT terms. The less confusion, the better. In addition, we notice a slightly higher participation rate if you make a prettier banner.
Does a good headline help? Yes. About $1M dollar will do.
The biggest prize pool/sprint right now is by Unirouter at $1M worth of token. The length of the campaign is 1 year. Unirouter right now has one of the lowest CAC campaigns in our database.
Determining the Campaign Duration
When it comes to the duration of your campaign, there's no need to overthink it. The average Zealy campaign lasts about 35 days. However, the appropriate duration for your campaign will depend on your specific goals and circumstances. Start small, and of course, the bigger the reward, the longer the campaign should run.
Next Steps
Now that you have a basic understanding of how to run a Zealy campaign, it's time to take the next steps. Start by planning your campaign, considering your goals, target audience, and budget. Then, design your reward system and determine your campaign's duration. Remember to start small, monitor your CAC cost, and make adjustments as necessary. With careful planning and execution, you can run a successful Zealy campaign that achieves your objectives.
In our next blog, we are gonna address the question, if you have a big enough reward, would people just show up automatically? We will also show you some tactical tricks and tips by highlighting the best and the worst campaigns, including this ONE TRICK that yields 12 times more participation.