412: From Bots to Real ROI: The KOL Playbook for Web3 Projects with Guest Speaker Evgeny Gourbanov from Disence

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION In this episode, I sit down with Evgeny from Disence, one of the leading KOL and Web3 marketing firms in the space. Evgeny has worked with over 500 campaigns and 1,200+ KOLs, and he pulls back the curtain on what projects are getting badly wrong when it comes to influencer marketing. We get into why impressions are a vanity metric, why macro KOLs are largely a waste of budget, how to actually vet a KOL in today's market, and why the best micro KOLs are paradoxically the hardest ones to reach. Evgeny also shares how his team helped one client close nearly $800,000 in B2B sales, and why building credibility before launching any campaign is non-negotiable. If you run a Web3 project or are thinking about KOL marketing, this one will save you a lot of money. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT Disence Website: https://disence.com/Disence Twitter/X: https://x.com/DisenceOfficialEvgeny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgenii-gorbunov/Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/ KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:00] Sam introduces Evgeny from Disence and the focus on KOL marketing and Web3 branding• [01:36] Evgeny shares his background , from receiving ETH at $400 in 2017 to writing a published academic thesis on crypto perception• [04:30] How a spreadsheet of 500 KOL performance metrics led to the founding of Disence• [07:35] Overview of Disence and C-Leads: from B2C KOL campaigns to closing $800K in B2B sales in three months• [10:26] The story of a KOL who publicly trashed a client's project , and what it reveals about relationships over incentives• [13:13] Why commission-only KOL deals don't work and how referral mechanics should be used as leverage, not payment• [14:45] The full campaign process: auditing a project's foundation, building credibility, selecting KOLs, writing briefs, and tracking results• [18:38] Why impressions are the most misleading metric in crypto and why 95% of channels have botted engagement• [20:25] Clipping and podcast distribution explained , why it's a conversion amplifier, not a user acquisition tool• [22:02] How to vet a real audience from a botted one and why recent results (last two months) are the only data that matters• [25:20] Why the crypto narrative shifts every six to eight months and what that means for KOL longevity• [27:31] What campaigns are dominating right now , the battle for trading volume across CEXs and perp DEXes• [31:49] Why AI has removed the technical moat and made marketing the real differentiator for Web3 projects• [33:12] Contrarian take: why micro KOLs outperform macro ones but are paradoxically harder to reach and convert• [40:51] Evgeny's ask , hiring across marketing, sales, and content, and a call for micro KOLs to reach out