[Non-constitutional][RFC] ARB Incentives: User Acquisition for dApps & Protocols

[jameskbh]

Hello! It is nice to see how much the initial proposal has evolved, and that you guys feel it is ready to vote. I have a few comments/questions left from my initial interaction:

TL;DR: We should help the protocols to prepare their proposals

You mention this at the beginning of the proposal:

@kamilgorski

Patterns team (f.k.a. Tokenguard) analyzed projects that took part in the LTIPP program and identified multiple reasons of this and similar programs not achieving long-term results that were expected:

• No off-chain marketing - most protocols didn’t communicate rewarding to new users in other ways than using existing SM channels such as Twitter and Telegram.
• Lack of knowledge of on-chain user acquisition funnels - only 37% of protocols have off-chain tracking tools installed for marketing purposes, which makes it impossible to run successful user acquisition campaigns.
• No consideration for ROI and over-expenditure on non-performing projects - as discussed during ARB Liquidity Incentive calls, most teams don’t have any active marketing & growth teams that would take care of CAC & LTV ratios for their marketing campaigns.

And then one of the goals is to:

@kamilgorski

Budget will be spent on helping these projects achieve predefined measurable goals through all the steps of the above user acquisition funnel:

I don’t see explicit actions in the proposal to help the applicants tailor their proposals to achieve the best outcome possible BEFORE being accepted into the program. If they don’t know how to market their campaigns properly and measure their results, what are we doing differently in this program to onboard them? A predefined form won’t be enough IMO.

@kamilgorski

Application process:

1. Arbitrum dApps & Protocols apply to the program by filling out a predefined form, where they specify:
   1.1. KPIs they declare to achieve every 1 month as well as Retention KPIs after the campaign.
   1.2. Requested budget with expected items & costs
   1.3. Tools used for running and off-chain measurement of the campaign * All activities must be measurable and Patterns will receive access to tools used (eg. Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Meta Ads, etc.). If activities include KOLs, paid content creation, SEO - all of these need to be fully measurable.

Assuming that most projects are comprised of builders (dev-oriented), the applications will have the same issues as before.

Team assistance

We have the committee that will evaluate the proposals, but there are other professionals mentioned in the current version that could help the protocols to build their proposals, like happened in the LTIPP, with the “advisors” role. For example:

@kamilgorski

$7.5k * 2 / month will be spent on 2 dedicated data analysts from Patterns to facilitate and help dApps & Protocols achieve their goals. Specialist requirements:

• Min. 5 years of experience in web3 analytics
• Min. 2 years of experience in Solidity & smart contracts

@kamilgorski

$7.5k / month will be spent on 1 external marketing specialist to help set up marketing campaigns.

• Min. 5 years of experience in web2 performance marketing
• Being responsible for ad budgets of at least $1m

The success of this program lies in setting realistic goals based on good data and proper campaign planning. As we assume (or know) that the protocols themselves are not well-equipped to tackle this, why not help them build their proposals?

I hope you guys reconsider this point of the proposal.