Written by: Stacy Muur
Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News
I recently conducted an in-depth study on KOL marketing, speaking with some of the most renowned Web3 marketing agencies that execute marketing campaigns for major crypto protocols like Mantle, Sonic Labs, Aptos, and Solv Protocol.
What is the goal?
My research aims to unveil how these institutions operate and their core KOL roster.
What are the criteria for selecting KOLs?
How large is their user base?
How do they assess audience quality?
How are tools like Kaito and Cookie DAO reshaping the KOL game in Web3?
Whether you want to become a KOL in a top agency network or are preparing for your next event as a Web3 team, this is a must-read.
First, let's look at some data
KOL network scale
42.9% of institutions have more than 1,000 KOL accounts
35.7% of institutions have 500–1,000 KOL accounts
Nearly 50% of institutions rely on only 50-100 core active KOLs for most activities
Only 10% of institutions actively collaborate with over 250 KOLs
What are the core criteria for selecting KOLs?
Number of fans? Moderately important → 2.93/5
Exposure of each post and 'smart fans'? More valued → 4.1/5
Content quality, research ability, and past experience? Key indicators → 4.7/5
All institutions will check if accounts are inflated; over half use tools like Kaito and Cookie3 to filter and evaluate KOLs.
What should Web3 teams collaborating with KOLs pay attention to?
In fact, Web3 marketing is severely limited in terms of tools.
X ads perform poorly. Many users have Premium memberships (ad-free), and those who are not subscribed are usually not your ideal customers.
Google ads face regulatory obstacles, and many projects cannot legally advertise in core regions.
Media coverage? Good for trust/reputation, but ineffective for actual user acquisition.
So, what remains?
KOLs, and Kaito and Cookie-driven advertising campaigns.
Take Spark's campaign on Cookie as an example: 13,400 X accounts participated, most of which were micro KOLs with fewer than 1,000 fans. This is where the real innovation lies — these accounts are too small for traditional paid promotion campaigns.
So... is this model better than traditional KOL marketing? There is controversy.
Micro KOLs also have some issues:
They often form echo chambers of attention, mutually following and retweeting → severe audience overlap. In smaller verticals, this behavior helps spread quality content. But in high-frequency farming activities (like yaps/snaps), it leads to overexposure, and users start to lose interest.
Nonetheless, Kaito and Cookie have indeed provided entry opportunities for small accounts, making ambassador programs more decentralized and easier to manage.
Is the decentralization of marketing important, or is efficiency more important? This is also a point of contention.
Let's not forget the recent case of Loud!: Chatter ≠ strategy. Mind share ≠ influence.
Traditional KOL marketing also has its flaws
The harsh reality is: if your product lacks selling points, you will need to pay more. KOLs are just channels for expression — some are loud, some are humorous, some are professional, but none are miracle creators.
Now, if your product is indeed attractive, a new problem arises:
There is a severe shortage of KOLs meeting the following criteria:
Having an audience with organic traffic
Understanding the technical principles
Creating resonant content
Accepting sponsorship collaborations
Many top KOLs do not take paid posts. They either invest privately or charge five figures for a single tweet. This is why nearly 50% of institutions only deeply collaborate with 50-100 KOLs among the 1,000+ accounts, and 85% of paid KOLs yield zero effective results.
So, how does KOL marketing actually work?
Long-term repetitive posting → more trust, more recognition, better conversion
KOL cross-interaction → ask them to reference each other's views rather than just forwarding brand announcements
Organic dissemination > hard promotion → the community can sniff out hard ads, give KOLs the freedom to express their thoughts authentically
Don't buy ads, buy comments → genuine comments outweigh banner ads
Get out of platform X → Telegram, Substack = lower noise, higher retention rates
My view on the future of Web3 marketing
Kaito and Cookie are bringing micro KOLs into the mind share game, providing marketers with new experimental mechanisms. Will this become an effective marketing lever, or will it just result in more noise? It's still unknown.
KOL marketing will not disappear, but it needs authentic voices, not accounts that shout paid messages 24/7.
Finally, I want to say: why are people still obsessed with platform X? If you really want to achieve growth, stop ignoring Telegram and Substack.
