Flexe.io, an IDO marketing agency with 800+ campaigns since 2018, works with token teams preparing a launchpad sale: we build the PR, KOL and community plan that gets a project accepted, fills the allowlist with real wallets and keeps holders after listing. We start with what the launchpad itself asks for.
The market is thin, which changes the job. By 10 June 2026, CryptoRank had counted only 37 public token sales in Q2 2026, raising $58M, against 429 sales and $849M in Q1 2025 (CryptoRank, 10 June 2026). Fewer sales mean launchpads pick harder and buyers compare more, so a campaign has to prove demand before the application, not after it.
Checked on 23 October 2026: launchpad requirements come from each platform’s own forms and docs.
What’s included in an IDO campaign
The work covers the full sale cycle, from the application to the first month of trading. As an IDO marketing services company, we price each item below separately, so a team that already has a strong community does not pay for it twice, and a team without one sees early where the money has to go.
- Launch readiness review: tokenomics story, white paper consistency, site, deck and the numbers a launchpad form asks for
- Launchpad application support, plus a short list from our launchpad comparison when the platform is not chosen yet
- Crypto PR across 790+ outlets, timed to the application, the allowlist opening and listing day
- KOL campaign drawn from a database of 11,859 crypto KOLs on X and 11,695 YouTube creators, checked for bought followers before booking
- Community setup and moderation on Telegram, X and Discord, with sybil filters on any quest or allowlist task
- Post-listing plan for the first 30 days: AMAs, holder updates, vesting communication and a weekly report
What launchpads ask for before they accept you
Launchpads ask for proof of an existing audience and a sale plan, and none of the four we checked publishes a minimum community size. The table lists what each platform’s own pages request from a project, read on 23 October 2026.
| Launchpad | What it asks from the project | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Polkastarter | Pitch deck, tokenomics, “Size of Existing Users”, current community, top 3 investors and ticket sizes, planned FDV at launch, and whether you work with CEXs, market makers or marketing agencies | IDO application form |
| Seedify (Vibecoins) | X account, Telegram group, white paper, GitHub and landing page; daily progress posts, a published growth plan and 12-month roadmap, a pinned 60 to 90 second demo video, a 5 to 10 minute pitch on its X stream | The Playbook |
| Fjord Foundry | Partnered sales are vetted with external partners described as “KOLs, Web3 agencies, or other industry experts”; unvetted sales leave promotion to the project | Fjord partnered sales docs |
| ChainGPT Pad | Screening and due diligence, a per-project refund grace period, and Buzz campaigns that use bot filtering, VPN and proxy de-weighting, wallet scoring and hold-time checks | Buzz campaigns docs |
Two patterns matter for planning. Seedify writes the marketing duties into its playbook, so a team without a content rhythm fails the process before any agency spend. Polkastarter asks whether you already use a marketing agency, which means the launchpad reads your plan as part of due diligence.
Set the raise target against what the platform has delivered before. Polkastarter’s own launch page lists 108 projects launched, $48.5M raised, a $472k average raise and 35,214 unique investors, a useful ceiling for a first sale there. The best IDO launchpad for a project is the one whose audience matches its buyers.
How an IDO marketing strategy runs, week by week
A launch plan needs 10 to 12 weeks when the launchpad is not yet confirmed and 6 to 8 weeks when it is. The slow channels, community trust and search presence, set the start date; paid reach can be added late. Our token launch timeline explains why. The weeks below count back from the sale date.
Weeks 12 to 8: readiness and application
We audit the token page, deck and white paper against the launchpad form, then fix the gaps the form exposes: a vague FDV, no named investors, no user number. Polkastarter’s research team reviews every application before its DAO council sees it, so we cut any user count that no wallet list or app analytics can back before the deck goes in.
In the EU, MiCA Article 7(2) bars marketing communications before the crypto-asset white paper is published (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), so the publication date sets the earliest public push. UK promotion follows the FCA crypto financial promotion rules in force since 8 October 2023, with a cooling-off period for first-time investors and a ban on refer-a-friend bonuses.
Weeks 8 to 3: audience before allowlist
PR and the first KOL wave go out once the launchpad is confirmed, because a named platform gives buyers a reason to act. Community growth runs in parallel with filters on, and we report wallet quality alongside member counts. A Telegram group that grows 10x in a fortnight without matching wallet activity is a warning we flag, not a result we sell.
Weeks 3 to 0: allowlist, KYC and sale week
Allowlist and KYC windows are short on most platforms, often days rather than weeks, so reminders, explainer posts and AMA timing are scheduled to the hour. ChainGPT Pad runs a guaranteed round and then first-come-first-served, and its docs say registration timing matters and that KYC approval alone does not guarantee an allocation. Persons from the United States and Canada cannot join any ChainGPT IDO, so US-facing KOLs are wasted spend there.
Days 1 to 30 after listing
The first month decides whether buyers stay. We plan holder updates, vesting notices and a second PR wave around product news rather than price, because a feed that only posts charts loses holders when the chart turns. The standard post-listing package runs for 30 days and adds one AMA and a weekly report.
What determines the price of an IDO campaign
Our IDO campaigns start from $4,000, and the final figure depends on how much audience the project already has. We quote a channel plan with a total, never a price per post, per view or per KOL. The factors below move the quote most.
- Starting point: an existing community of real holders cuts the community budget
- Launchpad confirmed or not: an unconfirmed platform adds application work and a longer runway
- Number of markets and languages: each region needs its own outlets and KOLs
- Tier of PR outlets and how many waves are planned
- KOL mix between X and YouTube, and whether video reviews are included
- Length of post-listing support after the sale
Teams that want the cost of every lever across a full launch can read how many token launches can buy marketing.
Launchpad fees sit outside our quote and belong in the budget from day one. Fjord’s creator FAQ states a 5% fee on the total amount raised, taken automatically when the sale ends. On a KYC-only Fjord sale the project hires the KYC provider and uploads the approved wallets itself.
Who this is for and who it isn’t
An IDO marketing agency fits a team with a working product or testnet, a token model it can defend, and a launchpad shortlist or confirmed slot. It also fits projects moving from a private round to a public sale who need buyers outside their investor circle. These teams already have the substance; the gap is reach and timing.
Paid reach will not help a project with no product, unclear token utility or a team that will not show its face to a launchpad’s due diligence. It cannot fix a valuation that is too high for the market, and no campaign makes up for a vesting schedule that floods supply in the first weeks. In those cases we say so in the first call and suggest what to fix before spending on reach.
A permissionless sale needs more marketing, not less. Fjord’s docs say unvetted sales “are not reviewed or endorsed by the Fjord team”, so the project carries the whole promotion load without a launch partner’s audience. Teams choosing that route should budget for a longer community phase and treat the first sale as a test of demand rather than the main raise.
What we measure and when results land
We measure unique KYC-passed wallets in the allowlist, sybil share, sale fill, holders on day 30 and referral sources by channel. Allowlist numbers appear within two to three weeks of the first wave; holder retention needs 30 days after listing to read. Each week you receive our standard report with live links, reach and engagement per channel and community growth, with wallet counts next to member counts so growth that does not reach a wallet is visible.
The inconvenient fact is that a filled sale says nothing about price after listing. CryptoRank counted 533 public token sales in 2025 and found only 63, or 11.82%, still trading above their sale price on 6 January 2026. We report sale fill and day-30 holders as separate numbers for that reason.
Our own benchmark covers 150 campaigns run between January 2024 and February 2026: median net return 2.8x within 90 days, range 1.4x to 7.0x, with a 12% failure rate included in the median (Flexe.io research). The same sample shows why the sale date matters: campaigns with a firm launch date reached a 3.1x median, against 1.4x without one.
How to spot a bot-farm IDO marketing agency
A bot-farm agency sells counts it cannot connect to wallets. The clearest 2025 case was the HumidiFi WET presale on Jupiter: it sold out in about two seconds, and Bubblemaps traced at least 1,100 of 1,530 participating wallets to one actor, each funded with 1,000 USDC shortly before the sale (Cointelegraph, 5 December 2025). The team cancelled the token and relaunched.
Refunds hide weak demand too. CHIPS reported that its four launchpad sales on Spores, Eesee, Polkastarter and CoinTerminal showed about $1,000,217 committed, yet only $37,765 stayed after refunds and unclaimed allocations, while launchpad fees passed $90K (CHIPS IDO recap, 2025). These are the warning signs we check before a team signs with any IDO marketing company, including us:
- Telegram members quoted without active posters or wallet links
- KOL lists with follower counts but no past post links or audience geography
- Price per post or per thousand members instead of a channel plan with a total
- Allowlist tasks with no sybil filter, captcha or wallet age check
- A “sold-out guarantee”, which no agency controls once allocations are on-chain
- Case studies with raise totals but no refund rate or day-30 holder count
Paid KOLs can also become sellers. CoinDesk reported on 9 May 2024 that Stacy Muur estimated 75% of well-known TGEs that year had KOL rounds, often with tokens released on launch day. FXF founder James Gillingham wrote on 16 April 2026 that every influencer allocation was fully liquid at listing: “I had created the conditions for a coordinated dump without realising I had done so.” We book KOLs for paid posts, not token allocations.
If you want a second view on an existing proposal, send it with the launchpad, sale date and raise target to Flexe.io on Telegram. Within 24 hours we return a free IDO launch plan with the channel split, a week-by-week timeline and the risks we see, with no obligation to buy.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does IDO marketing cost?
Cost depends on your existing audience, the number of markets and the length of post-listing support. Ours starts from $4,000, quoted as one channel plan with a total. Budget separately for launchpad fees and check buyer-side fees too: CHIPS reported launchpad fees of 15% to 25% charged to buyers, which left many of them with no reason to claim.
How long before the IDO should marketing start?
Start 10 to 12 weeks out if the launchpad is not confirmed and 6 to 8 weeks out if it is. The application, due diligence and white paper publication take most of the early weeks. Starting two weeks before the sale leaves only paid reach, which rents attention for a day and rarely brings holders who stay.
Which IDO platform should we choose?
Choose the ido platform whose stakers look like your buyers, then compare tiers, refund rules and fees. Polkastarter tiers run from 1,000 POLS to 50,000 POLS for guaranteed access, while Legion ranks applicants by a Legion Score built from on-chain and social activity. We do not keep a ranked list of every ido launchpad; our launchpad comparison covers what four major platforms publish about themselves.
Do you guarantee a sold-out sale?
No. Allocation sizes, the platform’s own stakers and market conditions on sale day decide fill, and none of them is controlled by an agency. A sold-out sale can also be a sybil sale. We commit to the channel plan, the timeline and transparent reporting of wallets, refunds and holders, and we tell you early if the numbers point to a shortfall.
How do you keep bots and sybil wallets out of the allowlist?
We combine wallet age and funding checks, captcha and hold-time rules on quest tasks (the same filters we use in airdrop promotion), and manual review of clustered wallets before the snapshot. KYC on the launchpad side removes most duplicates but not paid real people. Wallets funded from the same exchange within minutes, with identical amounts and no earlier history, are the pattern we flag before any allocation.
What happens after the token lists?
Most 2025 launches lost value after listing. Memento Research tracked 118 token launches and found 84.7% below their TGE valuation by 20 December 2025, with a median FDV change of minus 71.1%. Plan holder updates, vesting notices and product news for the first 30 days, because a campaign that stops at TGE leaves buyers with only the price to watch.