What metrics will we use to measure marketing in the metaverse?

Web0 meets Web1 meets Web2 meets Web3? That's a lot of webs.

Oh the tangled webs we marketers weave….

Currently, most brand metaverse activations are novel tests of a new, fun technology. It’s unlikely Dolce and Gabbana expects to measurably impact floral dress sales with their first virtual fashion week. Not when you can try to measure the impact of the entire Kardashian Klan celebrating Kourtney’s nuptials!

Same same but different?

That being said, much like the evolution of social media marketing, as these spaces and platforms innovate, so will measurement metrics. Will Web3 metrics look most like those in Web0, Web1, or Web2?

Metaverse marketing =  Web0 + Web1 + Web2 + Web3 Marketing

Web0: A World Without Data?

Let’s call Web0 pre-internet. Billboards. Store windows. Ads in printed newspapers. In new, decentralized platforms, particularly where advertising technology is nascent, advertisers might, in the short-term future, be headed back to this state of minimal data. 

Advertisers will be forced to create measurement standards and benchmarks from metrics they already use on other channels, like thinking of a brick-and-mortar store as a channel. How do you measure foot traffic in virtual spaces? Sales per square foot/pixel? Gross margins return on investment? For brands that put a lot of time and effort into hosting their own unique spaces across different platforms, these metrics will help clarify what success means. Digital sales will require buyers to hand over the details of their crypto wallet and ideally turn over their credit card info, email, and billing address, leading to some demographic data. 

But these metrics and data points won’t say much about how your customers found your virtual store. In the short term, before the technology meets marketers’ needs, savvy marketers will need to create ways to poll or survey, either individually or in a broad, more data-oriented fashion, who is coming to their store and how they got there. Brands will need to use NFT channels, like wallet drops, to connect with brand fans and find ways to collect their data in a transparent and privacy-thoughtful way.

Web1 Metrics: Channels and Basic Actions

Web1 is the beginning of the internet. Basic websites and email newsletters. In particular, using Web1 activation channels, like email, is a helpful way to create metrics for success and measurement. Metaverse activations and NFT mints/drops/etc… don’t happen in a vacuum; consumers are driven there by other means, like emails and Twitter . The metrics for email are well understood. It’s a reasonable leap to look at using NFT wallets as an extension of your CRM system. Marketers should measure the actions of recipients of NFT drops like they do actions driven by promotional texts or emails. While marketers using NFTs may not have open rates, they will see activities driven by specific communications, particularly with opportunities to link tokens to Discord or other online communities, and be able to value those actions in comparison to the original audience size. Since we’re talking about email, if you like this newsletter, please subscribe .

Web2: Long Live Social Media Metrics

Web2 is the rise of social media, a two-way street for content, with platforms owning and driving traffic to the flow of user-generated content. And, despite the hype around a new type of internet, social media plays a prominent role in many Web3 activations and likely will continue to do so for the near future. NFT communities start and expand on Twitter, creating buzz and finding new potential consumers in the same way as traditional brands. The drip of information on Twitter leading to Discords or other private channels is a key tenet of NFT marketing. In the same vein, digital fashion designers and virtual influencers tout their wares on Instagram, just like IRL brands and influencers do. These top-of-funnel channels lead consumers into the metaverse, and measuring their effectiveness is already a tried and true practice for digital marketers. Extrapolating social media metrics will help marketers measure metaverse activations.

Working with centralized metaverse platforms will also have a distinct Web2 flavor, as platforms or games like Fortnite, Roblox, and any other owned and operated spaces can behave like the social media giants or walled gardens. These platforms are sophisticated, well-funded, and have already hosted many brand activations. Depending on the evolution of the cookie debate, they will have access to robust metrics about their users. This access to data will come at a high cost, given the demand for these metrics.

So Web3?

A brand’s reasons for entering the metaverse will define its measurement needs. The intention will be purely branding for some, like the Miller Lite bar, when the brand can’t sell its “real” product in a digital version. Measuring community via the activity levels of the project’s Discord channel or Twitter activity might be a valuable tool for these marketers. These can be effective indicators of the popularity of the project. For others, metaverse sales of digital goods or NFTs will be the goal, like Dolce and Gabbana and their $300,000 virtual tiaras. These marketers can lean on transactional data, like how many NFTs were sold, how quickly, and what’s the floor price three months on?

One last seismic shift for marketers will come as Web3 gives consumers more power in the transfer of value as data is bought and sold across the internet. Proponents of decentralized internet point to a future where visitors to a website would “sell” their data upon arrival, agreeing on which pieces of information were worth trading for what price. For your favorite website, maybe you’d share your entire demographic profile in exchange for early access to some features. For a more transactional site, perhaps you’d sell a less personal set of attributes for a tiny sliver of bitcoin. These transactions would happen almost instantaneously on the blockchain, changing the dynamics of advertising data but likely leading to more trustworthy information. 

Each new metaverse use case will require tweaking your strategy to take traditional metrics and make them usable for these innovations. The combination of the types of measurement we have mastered for each of the previous scenarios will have to be combined to yield a set of metrics appropriate for Web3 activations.

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