Growth Challenges for Bridges

The analysis has been performed by leveraging Tide analytics & performance suite

The Bridge space is harder than other web3 sectors. To avoid competing in a race-to-the-bottom with ever-decreasing fees, bridges need to implement successful marketing strategies. Most Bridges have been running quests, distributing POAPs, awarding Discord roles, and constantly deploying new campaigns to attract and retain users.

But what is the ROI of marketing budgets on protocol growth?

Let’s find out with a couple of cases: 1)Across Quest on Galxe

The chart represents the share of transactions coming from users who participated in the Ape into Arbitrum Campaign on Galxe. It's clear that despite a transaction spike on Across from campaign participants it suddenly drops to the pre-campaign level, indicating a negligible impact on new users and transactions.

2)Polygon Degen (LI.FI) on Galxe

The chart shows the share of daily active users on LI.FI holding at least a Polygon Degens NFT. During the campaign period, this share spiked but quickly dropped just after it to levels that are lower than the pre-campaign average.

Like in other cases analyzed, we see a minimal impact of quests on protocol metrics.

Final Insights

• First, it is imperative to start measuring what matters: protocol activity, revenues, active users, etc. It is very hard to find actionable data on web3 performance marketing. Tide team can help.
• Regarding acquisition strategies, quests have severe limitations. Experimenting with new channels like referrals is a great idea.

• Retention is paramount to reach sustainability long term. Well-designed, data-driven, and personalized quests should be tested for loyalty on a recurrent basis.

You can read the whole analysis here.