Demand Generation / GTM Strategies in the Crypto Retirement Industry
Bitcoin IRA is the first financial service platform that allows investors to hold cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts, with over $2B in transactions and 200,000+ users.
| Title | Marketing Director |
| Industry | Fintech, Crypto & Blockchain |
| Total Investments | $90M+ ($22M in Feb 2018) |
| # Users Acquired (Feb 2018) | 423 paid users (investors) |
| Monthly Ad Spend | $880k/month (grew from $30k/month) |
How I Turned Bitcoin IRA into the Largest Crypto Retirement Product in the Space
When I joined Bitcoin IRA, the company had a compelling vision: enabling individuals to invest in Bitcoin through their retirement accounts. But it lacked the marketing engine needed to scale. I was initially brought on as a consultant to develop the go-to-market strategy, focusing on brand positioning, a website redesign, and building out a paid media foundation.
As traction grew, I transitioned in-house and took over all demand generation marketing efforts, leading the growth of our digital advertising program from the ground up. I scaled our monthly ad spend to over $880,000 across Google, Facebook, Quora, Reddit, Bing, and Yahoo, programmatic & native advertising, driving more than $22 million in investments by February 2017. This surge in demand led to the rapid expansion of our sales team to accommodate the surge in MQL’s.
I also launched and built the affiliate marketing department, partnering with financial influencers and crypto thought leaders to extend our reach. These campaigns brought in an additional $12.7 million in 2017 alone. Throughout, I continuously tested and optimized landing pages using heatmaps, click tracking, and A/B testing, ultimately improving lead conversion rates by 29%.
Bitcoin IRA became a market leader in crypto retirement investing and was featured in Forbes for its standout performance. My time there combined aggressive growth execution with strategic brand-building in a highly regulated and emerging asset class.
– Alex Wills
Capital-Raising Success
Fundraised over $90M for cryptocurrency investment product
Crafted an aggressive digital advertising strategy via search, display, and various ad networks that dominated the retirement investment space. Scaled ad spend to over $880K/month within a year, achieving a 2.2x ROAS (25.2 gross ROAS) with over $22M generated from 423 total investments by February 2018.
| Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC’s) | $176.83 per new investor |
| Lifetime Value (LTV) | $2,121.84 per investor |
Paid Media
Saturating the Market in Paid Media
Through an aggressive digital advertising strategy, I leveraged multiple paid media channels, including Google Ads (Search & Display), Facebook Ads, Quora, Reddit, Retargeting, Bing, Quora, AdRoll, and Yahoo Gemini, to drive high-quality leads and significantly boost customer acquisition.
From Forbes:
“First-mover advantage and aggressive Google advertising campaigns have allowed them to build the largest presence in the crypto-asset IRA space, with close to 4,000 customers and $105 million in inflows since they began accepting funds in June 2016.”
Partnership Program Wins
Financial Influencer Affiliate / Partnerships
I launched and managed an affiliate marketing department, partnering with digital influencers in the cryptocurrency and financial services sectors to further increase brand reach and customer acquisition, which generated a total of $12.7 million in investments 2017.
| 2017 Affiliate Revenue | $12.7m generated in 2017 |
| Premier Media Partnerships | BusinessInsider, Forbes, CoinDesk |
Landing Page & Website CRO
Website SEO / Development
Created and optimized high-converting landing pages using data-driven techniques such as heatmaps and click tracking, continually refining page performance to improve lead conversion rates and maximize campaign ROI.