Raid Arena Slashed Influencer Costs by 95.8% and Got 100k views in 24 hours - Here's the Playbook

Raid Arena is a Competition Market for Solana communities. It blends predictions + social collaboration + coordinated raids. Think: Whale Games, but for retail degens. A place where even shrimps can play like whales.

Challenge

Raid Arena needed to amplify awareness about their competition markets on Solana and drive participation in their 24hr token battles. But they faced the same expensive nightmare every web3 project knows too well:

• Inflated KOL pricing: influencers demanding $500-$2,000+ for tweets that barely crack 1,000 views. We watched web3 gaming projects burn $10,000/month for less engagement than a single organic post…
• Getting scammed with fake followers: Paying upfront only to discover those "100K community followers" were fake and those promised users never showed up to compete.
• Manual outreach hell: Spending 20+ hours/week DMing crypto influencers, negotiating rates, chasing responses, and managing campaigns instead of building the platform.

Approach

Instead of paying upfront for promised reach, Raid Arena used Zealy's performance-based KOL campaigns.

How it worked:

We created a campaign with clear requirements:

• Minmum 6.5k+ followers + 1,500+ average impressions on your last 5 posts + X Premium account
• No comment pods / artificial engagement / bot replies - this all will be rejected
• Proof of engagement BEFORE submission (x likes, x reposts, x comments, x numbers of views)
• $100 USDT reward automatically distributed via Zealy's platform once the content is marked as successful

The genius? Creators only got paid AFTER delivering real results

Results

• Total spend: $500 (5 posts × $100)
• Total reach: 100,000+ views
• Cost per 1,000 views: $5 (vs. $50-$200 industry average)
• Savings: 95.8% reduction vs. traditional gaming KOL rates
• Content velocity: 5 high-quality posts in <24 hours

Why this changes everything

Traditional influencer marketing is broken. You pay thousands upfront, hope for results, and usually get disappointed.

Performance-based KOL campaigns eliminate every pain point:

• Instead of paying $500-2,000 for empty promises → Pay $15 only AFTER creators deliver real engagement
• Instead of getting scammed by bot followers → Verified performance metrics and participation before any payment is released
• Instead of wasting 20 hours/week on outreach and payment → Creators come to you, submit proof, get paid automatically – zero manual work
• Instead of hoping creators understand your project → Natural selection – only creators who genuinely understand your project can create engaging content
• Instead of managing influencers manually → Same automated system handles 100, 1,000, or 10,000 posts with zero additional overhead

Sample campaign posts

The content creators produced was authentic, educational, and engaging. Here's an example: