Web3 Marketing Insider: Is Kaito More Effective Than Traditional KOLs?

Question

> KOL marketing will not disappear, but it needs authentic voices, not accounts that shout for pay 24/7.  **Written by: Stacy Muur****Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News**  I recently conducted an in-depth study on KOL marketing and spoke with some of the most renowned Web3 marketing agencies that run marketing campaigns for major crypto protocols such as Mantle, Sonic Labs, Aptos, and Solv Protocol.  ## What is the goal?  My research aims to uncover how these institutions operate and their core list of KOLs.  * 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 are a KOL looking to join the top institutional network or a Web3 team preparing for the next event, this is a must-read.  ## 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 when selecting a KOL?**  * Number of fans? Importance is average → 2.93/5* The exposure of each post and "smart fans"? More valued → 4.1/5* Content quality, research capability, and past experience? Key indicators → 4.7/5  All institutions will check whether the account has inflated numbers, and more than half use tools like Kaito and Cookie3 to filter and evaluate KOLs.  ## What Web3 Teams Need to Pay Attention to When Collaborating with KOLs  In fact, Web3 marketing is severely limited in terms of tools.  * X advertising performance is poor. Many users have Premium membership (ad-free), while those who do not subscribe are usually not your ideal customers.* Google Ads faces regulatory hurdles, with many projects unable to be legally launched in core regions.* Media coverage? It benefits trust/reputation, but has no effect on actual user acquisition.  So, what is left?  KOL, as well as Kaito and Cookie driven advertising campaigns.  Taking the activity initiated by Spark on Cookie as an example: 13,400 X accounts participated, most of which are micro KOLs with less than 1,000 fans. This is the real innovation – these accounts are too small to be suitable for traditional paid promotion activities.  So... is this model better than traditional KOL marketing? There is controversy here.  There are also some issues with micro KOLs:  They often form echo chambers of attention, mutually following and forwarding → serious audience overlap. In smaller verticals, this behavior helps the dissemination of quality content. However, in high-frequency farming activities (such as yaps/snaps), it leads to overexposure, and users begin to lose interest.  Nevertheless, Kaito and Cookie have indeed provided entry opportunities for small accounts, making the ambassador program more decentralized and easier to manage.  Is the decentralization of marketing important, or is efficiency more important? This is also a matter of controversy. We must not forget the recent case of Loud!: Chattering ≠ 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 of voice - some are loud, some are humorous, and some are professional, but they are certainly not miracle creators.  Now, if your product is indeed attractive, a new problem will arise:  There is a serious shortage of KOLs that meet the following criteria:  * Have a natural traffic audience* Understand the technical principles* Can create resonant content* Accept sponsorship cooperation  Many top KOLs do not accept paid posts. They either invest privately or charge five-figure fees for a single tweet. This is why nearly 50% of institutions only deeply collaborate with 50-100 KOLs among 1000+ accounts, and 85% of paid KOLs produce zero effective results.  ## So, how does KOL marketing actually work?  * Long-term repeated posting of posts → more trust, more recognition, better conversion* KOL cross-interaction → Require them to reference each other's viewpoints rather than just forwarding brand announcements.* Organic Spread > Hard Promotion → The community can sniff out hard ads, giving KOLs the freedom to express their true thoughts.* Don't buy ads, buy reviews → Genuine reviews are better than banner ads.* Jump out of X platform → Telegram, Substack = lower noise, higher retention rate  ## My Views on the Future of Web3 Marketing  Kaito and Cookie have introduced micro KOLs into the mind share game, providing marketers with a new experimental mechanism. Will this become an effective marketing lever, or will it devolve into more noise? It remains to be seen.  KOL marketing will not disappear, but it needs genuine voices, not accounts that shout for pay 24/7.  Finally, I want to say: why are people still obsessed with the X platform? If you really want to achieve growth, stop ignoring Telegram and Substack.