Web3 Marketing vs Web2 Marketing: Everything You Need to Know

Introduction

Web2 marketing was built on centralization. Platforms owned the data, dictated the algorithms, and extracted the value. Brands bought reach, drove users through polished landing pages, and converted them into clicks or sales. The user was a customer inside someone else's funnel.

Web3 marketing on the other hand is fundamentally different. Here, the user becomes part of the product itself, minting, staking, earning, and sharing in ways that fuel the ecosystem's growth. The difference is simple: Web2 treats attention as something to be bought, Web3 turns participation into the engine of growth.

And this runs deeper than strategies. Web3's entire structure is rooted in ideology. Here's what I mean: Ethereum's whitepaper and Bitcoin's whitepaper may differ in vision, technology, infrastructure yet they share one principle: the internet should not be ruled by a central control. That ideology of decentralisation and ownership bleeds directly into how products are built, consumed and marketed.

Which brings us to the real question you're probably asking. Yes, Web3 and Web2 marketing are different, but how should marketers navigate this divide? Is it a zero-sum choice between Web2 and Web3? Or is the reality more hybrid, where email, socials, and funnels still matter? In this article we explore all that and more starting with why How Web3 Marketing differ from Web2 Marketing?.

How Web3 Marketing Differs from Web2 Marketing

Web3 is the decentralized internet, built on blockchain technology. Unlike Web2, where companies own your data and keep it gated, blockchain makes data transparent while giving people true ownership of their assets and identities.

For marketers, this is a paradigm shift. Campaigns are no longer confined to off-chain platforms like Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or Google. Many of the most effective campaigns are executed on-chain with actions like minting, staking, or claiming rewards acting as both engagement and distribution.

These differences aren't surface-level — they cut across every marketing category. More importantly, It re-emphasises the initial point that Web3's entire structure is rooted in the ideology of decentralisation and ownership and this directly affects how products are built, consumed and marketed … across different categories.

Category	Web2 Marketing	Web3 Marketing
Ownership	Platforms control data & algorithms.	Users own wallets, tokens, and identities.
Funnel	Click → Signup → Email nurture.	Mint → Share → Earn XP → Unlock roles.
Narrative	Brand-led ads & influencers.	Founder storytelling + community speculation + Influencers.
Incentives	Discounts, loyalty points.	Tokens, SBTs (soulbound tokens), XP leaderboards, Airdrops.
Community Role	Audience = passive viewers.	Audience = co-creators, meme engines, referral drivers.
KPIs	CTRs, email signups, MQLs.	Unique wallets, TVL (Total Value Locked), on on-chain governance participation.

These differences aren't surface-level — they cut across every marketing category.

More importantly, It re-emphasises the initial point that Web3's entire structure is rooted in the ideology of decentralisation and ownership and this directly affects how products are built, consumed and marketed … across different categories.

But here's the nuance: this divide isn't absolute. Many of the most successful Web3 brands in 2025 employ hybrid strategies where they run lead generation campaigns, email drips, X campaigns, Influencer campaigns, Quest campaigns etc to funnel users to stake, mint, or claim XP.

They understand that it's not a Zero Sum game, it's about syncing both perfectly in a way that works. Which leads us to another question: what does Web3 marketing actually look like in practice in 2025?

How Web3 Marketing Works in 2025

At its core, all marketing is executed within a funnel. It doesn't matter if you're selling shoes, SaaS, or a Perp DEX, the job is always to move people from awareness into action, and then into retention.

The difference in Web3 is that the funnel is not just a growth model, every stage of the funnel is most times on-chain; from when a users mint, stake what they minted into a Vault, and then generate yield to reloop all over again for retention … it is all part of the funnel.

And to understand how it works, like every funnel, understanding AAARRR is key: Awareness, Acquisition, Activation, Revenue, Referral, Retention. Let's talk about each of them:

•Awareness:
In Web2, awareness is usually bought with ads. In Web3, it is earned through narratives. Founder threads, community pushes, and influencers, huge token speculation, all of these are some are the sparks that creates awareness. What matters is not just reach but mindshare, the sense that people are seeing something early and that being early has value.
•Acquisition:
Once the spark is lit, users cross the threshold into your ecosystem. Instead of "join a newsletter," they connect a wallet, join Discord, or claim a badge. Acquisition here is about securing identity commitments very early on.
•Activation:
This stage is where curiosity turns into participation. In Web3, activation almost always means an on-chain action: minting, staking, or swapping. An example would be trying to activate targeted users to mint an SBT that grants OG status, or depositing into a vault, testing swaps on a DEX during a testnet. This is a major sales touchpoint within the funnel.
•Revenue:
Well, revenue is as the name implies and this is really dependent on how successful your sales while activating is from either NFT purchases, staking deposits, swap fees, in-app purchases. To understand revenue most times, marketers pay close attention to metrics like TVL, trading volume, etc.
•Referral:
For Web3 brands referral is usually built in especially with how well gamification is designed. Users climb leaderboards, earn XP, or boost queue positions by inviting others. Every participant becomes a distribution channel. So the more users you invite, the more thrust you get on the leaderboard.
•Retention:
Retention is anchored in ownership. When users hold tokens, NFTs, or governance rights, they are literally invested in coming back. Like the example shared earlier. The activation could start from when a users mint, to when they stake what they minted into a Vault, and then generate yield, but retention happens when they decide to reloop the yields gotten back into the vault all over again.

The Systems That Drive Web3 Marketing

By now the funnel shows us how users move, but what actually drives those movements? That's where systems of participation come in.

When you look back at the multiple successful and not successful campaigns within the space, you can be sure that web3 marketing isn't a guessing game anymore, infact the playbook has matured more in 2025

The projects that break through don't just run ads or splash money on influencers, they engineer layered systems of participation. And at the heart of this systems of participation are three forces that drives everything

Narrative Building: In Web2, a polished brand campaign could carry the story. In Web3, that doesn't fly. People back founders first, products second. Users want to see the human faces behind the project, the raw conviction, the unfiltered updates, the story that makes the whole thing feel inevitable.This is where narrative building comes in. Threads on X, AMAs in Discord, and founder-driven storytelling don't just "build awareness," they light the cultural spark within the community. This is usually the first step to building a strong narration for any brand, the founder needs to be active and talk about their story and why this is important.

Viral Product Loops: Here's where it gets different. In Web2, you capture attention with content. In Web3, you capture attention by giving people something to do on-chain.

•Mint a badge:
Suddenly you've unlocked referral power and OG status.
•Share your progress:
You climb a public leaderboard.
•Complete a quest:
You don't just get XP — you gain status, roles, multipliers, and a reason to keep going. These aren't gimmicks. They're flywheels. Each action is both product usage and marketing, each share on social media fuels more speculation, and each referral grows the ecosystem. A campaign isn't a one-off blast, at least not within a Web3 marketing campaign, it's a loop that compounds with every user who joins. **Conversion Systems**: Now, let's talk about where the funnel actually flips. Web2 had "add to cart." Web3 has claim flows.
•Pre-reg page:
You hit a pre-reg page, connect your wallet, sync socials.
•Queue positioning:
You see your place in the queue, boosted if you bring in friends.
•Mint or claim:
The reward doesn't finalize until you share it publicly.
•Retention channels:
Your inbox, Discord, and Telegram keep pulling you back until launch day. Conversion here isn't about landing a sale. It's about pulling someone deeper into the ecosystem until they don't just sign up, they identify as part of it. Together, narrative building, viral loops, and conversion systems turn campaigns from single events into living ecosystems. Once designed and built, they don't just sell a product, they sustain participation, speculation, and culture. However to do all these you need tools, especially the ones that work with Web3 usecases.

Web3 Marketing: The Tools That Are the Ecosystem

In Web2, marketing tools your go-to partners. They track clicks and manage everything in the background. In Web3, the tools slightly different, they are part of the user environment.

They don't just facilitate the campaign; they construct the very playground where community interaction, reward, and growth happen. A marketer's stack is now a public-facing layer of the product experience. To navigate this, your toolkit should be organized around the user journey:

Acquisition & Onboarding: The Gateway. These tools turn curiosity into a connected wallet.

•Questing Platforms (Galxe, Layer3, Zealy):
The modern landing page. Instead of just collecting an email, they prompt an on-chain action or social task, rewarding users with verifiable credentials (NFTs, POAPs, XP) that prove their early status.
•Gating & Access Tools (Guild.xyz, Collab.Land):
Automate community membership based on token holdings or quest completions. They turn a Discord server into a tiered ecosystem of exclusivity.

Engagement & Retention: The Nervous System. Once users are in, these tools keep the flywheel spinning • Community Hubs (Discord, Telegram)**: The central nervous system. Bots like MEE6 or others manage roles, track activity, and distribute rewards, transforming chat channels into dynamic engagement engines. • **Social & Content (Lens, Farcaster)**: Decentralized social networks where community-generated content drives organic distribution.

Rewards & Incentives: The Engine. This is how you translate activity into value, creating a tangible feedback loop

•Loyalty & Status Systems (Soulbound Tokens / SBTs, Kaito, Cookie3, Pulse):
The next evolution of loyalty programs. Non-transferrable badges and on-chain points track contributions, granting permanent status and future rewards. **Analytics & Intelligence: The Compass**. You can't manage what you can't measure. On-chain analytics provide an unparalleled, transparent view of user behavior.
•On-Chain Analytics (Dune, Nansen, Arkham Intelligence):
Decode the metric the blockchain is telling. Track cohort retention, identify your most valuable users (whales), and see exactly how incentives are driving behavior. This is your ground truth.
•Cross-Channel Analytics (Google Analytics 4, Mixpanel):
Still crucial for understanding the top-of-funnel journey before a user connects a wallet, providing a complete picture. The Strategic Shift: In Web2, you choose tools for your strategy. In Web3, you choose a strategy enabled by your tools. The platform you build on (e.g., an L2 like Base or Arbitrum) and the incentives you design (e.g., a points system on EigenLayer) are not just technical decisions, they are your core marketing decisions. The right tools allows you execute the campaign properly.

Final Take

Web3's entire structure is rooted in ideology that's why it optimizes ownership in a way that is not existent in web2. This means the rules of engagement when it comes to marketing is completely different.

However, this is not a zero sum game, it isn't about choosing one over the other, Web2 or Web3 Marketing. It's about knowing when to use Web2 channels for amplification and when to let Web3 systems take over.

FAQs

Common questions about Web3 marketing answered

Here are the most frequently asked questions about Web3 marketing, covering key differences, implementation strategies, and success metrics.

•What is the difference between Web2 and Web3?:
Web2 is centralized, where platforms control the rails. Web3 is decentralized, where users own assets, identities, and communities.
•How does Web3 marketing work in 2025?:
Through funnels that live on-chain: narrative building, viral loops, and claim systems that turn participation into growth.
•What are the KPIs for a Web3 campaign?:
Unique wallets, transaction volume, referral multipliers, and governance participation.
•Which industries are leading Web3 adoption?:
DeFi, gaming, infrastructure, and cultural IP brands.

Ready to Transform Your Web3 Marketing?

If you're launching a project in 2025, don't just buy hype. Engineer it.

And if you want help doing that? Surgence Labs is your Web3 growth partner.

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