TikTok vs X. What Does Crypto Marketing Actually Cost?

One of the most common questions we get from crypto projects is "where should we spend our marketing budget?" And it almost always comes down to the same two platforms. TikTok or X.

Both can work. But they cost very different amounts, they perform in very different ways, and most projects waste money because they don't understand the real numbers before they commit. After running 105+ campaigns across both platforms, here's an honest breakdown of what each one actually costs and where your budget goes the furthest.

The Real Costs, Broken Down

Let's start with the numbers everyone asks about but nobody wants to publish. These are real ranges based on what we see in the market right now, not theoretical pricing.

A few things jump out immediately. TikTok UGC is the cheapest way to get content into the market at $100 to $160 per video. On X, even a micro creator tweet costs $200 to $300, and you're getting a single post with a much shorter shelf life than a TikTok video that the algorithm can keep pushing for days or even weeks.

The CPM Gap Nobody Talks About

Here's the part that really changes the equation. CPMs on X and YouTube for crypto content are far higher than most people expect. We're talking $70 and above. And that's not even the ceiling. We've seen crypto CPMs on X go as high as $300 depending on the campaign, the audience, and the KOL. YouTube integrations sit in a similar range. These platforms are expensive because the crypto audience on them is concentrated and competitive, and everyone is fighting for the same eyeballs.

TikTok and Instagram are a completely different story. CPMs for crypto content on these platforms are far lower, especially with organic creator and UGC strategies. We regularly see CPMs in the $2 to $5 range on TikTok, and that number drops even further as your accounts mature and you learn what content the algorithm pushes. Even at the higher end, you're nowhere near the $70+ you're paying on X.

$5,000 on TikTok UGC gets you massively more reach, more impressions, and more opportunities to convert than $5,000 on X or YouTube. It's not even close.

What this means in practice is that $5,000 on TikTok UGC gets you massively more reach, more impressions, and more opportunities to convert than $5,000 on X or YouTube. The cost per eyeball on TikTok is a fraction of what you'd pay on X, and for most projects that are still figuring out their messaging, that difference is everything.

What About Clipping?

Clipping is when you take a longer piece of content, usually from a podcast interview or YouTube feature, and cut it into short clips for distribution across TikTok, Instagram Reels, and X. We wrote a full breakdown of how this works in our Crypto Clipping Guide if you want to go deeper. The production cost per clip is low, usually $50 to $150.

The problem is what it takes to get there. You're typically spending $5,000 or more just to get featured on a podcast or get that interview in the first place. And while clipping is great for building authority and social proof, it's not great for direct conversions. The content tends to be more educational and brand building rather than action driving.

There's another issue that most projects don't think about. The content that crypto projects typically have available for clipping is very native to Crypto Twitter. It's built for that audience. The language, the references, the inside jokes, the way people talk on spaces and podcasts. It's all CT. And when you clip that and drop it on TikTok, it doesn't land. The TikTok audience doesn't speak CT. They need content that feels native to their platform, not a repurposed Twitter space with captions slapped on it. That's a big reason why we recommend starting with UGC over clipping. UGC is built for TikTok from the ground up.

Clipping absolutely has its place, but it's not where you start.

Where to Start and How to Scale

After running campaigns across both platforms for years, our recommendation is always the same. Start with UGC on TikTok and Instagram. Then scale into clipping and influencers.

Phase One: UGC

This is your foundation. At $100 to $160 per video, you can produce a high volume of content, test what works, and start building momentum on the platforms with the lowest CPMs. This is where you learn what hooks resonate, what formats your audience responds to, and what CTAs actually drive action. You're building your playbook while spending the least amount of money.

Phase Two: Clipping

Once you have traction and some budget to invest in positioning, you start getting your founders or team on podcasts and YouTube features. The clips you pull from those appearances give you authority content that reinforces everything your UGC is doing. People see your UGC, then they see your founder on a respected podcast, and suddenly you're not just another project. You're established.

Phase Three: KOL and Influencer Campaigns

This is where you bring in the bigger names. By this point you already know what messaging works, what your audience responds to, and what your conversion funnel looks like. So when you're paying $800+ for a TikTok KOL or $1,000 to $10,000+ for X and YouTube integrations, you're spending that money with confidence because you've already proven the playbook with UGC.

Most projects do this backwards. They blow their budget on expensive KOLs before they even know what messaging converts, and then wonder why it didn't work. Starting with UGC means you never have that problem.

The Bottom Line

TikTok is cheaper to launch on, delivers lower CPMs, and gives you more content and data per dollar spent. X is more expensive across the board, but it's where the crypto conversation lives and it has its place in the mix, especially for KOL campaigns once you've proven what works.

The smart play is to start cheap, learn fast, and scale with confidence. UGC first. Clipping second. KOLs third.