Building the Creative Engine That Drives Phantom Wallet Installs at Scale
Phantom is a self-custodial multichain crypto wallet competing against MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet for active users across Solana, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Base. The challenge is converting installs into funded, active wallets at efficient cost. We operate as Phantom's always-on performance creative studio, producing all paid acquisition creative across motion, UGC, static, and product UX formats.
A Multichain Wallet From the Solana Ecosystem With 15 Million Users
Phantom is a self-custodial crypto wallet founded in January 2021 by Brandon Millman, Chris Kalani, and Francesco Agosti, all former engineers at 0x, the decentralised exchange protocol. Originally built for Solana, the wallet has expanded to support Ethereum, Polygon, Bitcoin, and Base, offering built-in token swaps, staking, NFT management, and a transaction simulator that previews outcomes before users sign. Available on iOS, Android, and as a Chrome extension, Phantom has reached over 15 million users and secured a $150 million Series C in January 2025 at a $3 billion valuation, with backing from Sequoia, a16z, and Paradigm.
Competing against MetaMask's 30 million monthly active users, Trust Wallet's mobile-first approach, Coinbase Wallet's exchange integration, and Backpack's emerging xNFT model, Phantom's growth challenge is acquiring wallet installs that convert into funded, active wallets rather than dormant downloads. They engaged us as their always-on performance creative studio, responsible for producing all paid acquisition creative across motion, UGC, static, and product UX formats with unlimited variant output and selective live-action production to sustain testing velocity across every channel.
Thirty to Forty Net-New Variants Per Week Across Four Format Pillars
We produce 30 to 40 net-new ad variants per week for Phantom across motion, static, UGC, and product UX formats. A dedicated producer manages the pipeline from weekly strategy sessions through to final delivery, while our artist roster handles design, animation, and video editing. Each variant maps to a hook taxonomy organised by user motivation: portfolio tracking, in-app token swaps, multichain access, and staking yield.
Static and motion assets run in parallel A/B tests on Meta and TikTok with a 48-hour minimum confidence window. Winning hooks scale; underperformers recycle into new variant combinations rather than being discarded outright.
Three Platforms Optimised Toward Funded Wallets Not Downloads
Phantom's paid social runs across Meta, TikTok, and X with campaign structures split by funnel stage and platform behaviour. Prospecting campaigns on Meta use Advantage+ app install objectives optimised toward the funded wallet event, not the install. TikTok campaigns target crypto-adjacent interest categories including DeFi, NFT collecting, and Solana ecosystem content. X campaigns capture high-intent users during token launch events and network upgrade announcements when wallet search demand spikes.
Budget shifts daily between platforms based on cost per funded wallet, with Meta typically anchoring volume and TikTok delivering the lowest CPI on motion-first creative.
Crypto Native Creators Briefed on Swaps Staking and Screen Capture Walkthroughs
UGC is the highest-performing format category in Phantom's creative mix. We source and brief crypto-native creators who use Phantom daily for swaps, staking, and NFT activity, producing authentic screen-capture walkthroughs and reaction-style content rather than scripted endorsements. Each creator receives a modular brief specifying the hook, the feature demonstration, and the call to action, allowing us to generate three to five variants from a single shoot session.
Performance tracking ties each creator's content to install and funded wallet events via UTM-parameterised links, so we can attribute downstream conversions to individual creators and scale the best performers.
A Hook Taxonomy and Variant Recycling Loop That Compounds Creative Learning
The creative engine we run for Phantom produces between 30 and 40 net-new variants per week across four format pillars: motion graphics, UGC creator content, static design, and product UX screen recordings. Every variant maps to a hook taxonomy built around Phantom's core user motivations, which we categorise as portfolio visibility, in-app swap convenience, multichain flexibility, and staking yield. The taxonomy dictates the opening frame of every motion asset, the headline of every static, and the script anchor for every UGC piece.
Testing runs on a 48-hour minimum confidence window across Meta, TikTok, and X. Variants that clear a cost per funded wallet threshold scale immediately with budget reallocated from underperformers. Variants that fail on one platform but show promise on a specific hook get remixed into new combinations rather than killed. This recycling loop means creative learning compounds weekly. A hook that underperforms as a 15-second TikTok motion piece may outperform as a static carousel on Meta, and we capture that signal systematically rather than losing it to a binary pass-fail framework.
Seven Thousand Funded Wallets and the Creative Shifts Bitcoin L2s Will Demand
The engagement has delivered a 19% lift in wallet installs, a 32% reduction in cost per install, and over 7,000 additional funded wallets. These numbers matter because the funded wallet, not the download, is the event that determines Phantom's unit economics. Anyone can drive cheap app installs in crypto by targeting airdrop hunters and speculative traders. We optimise every variant and campaign toward users who deposit, swap, or stake within the first seven days, filtering out volume that inflates vanity metrics.
The self-custodial wallet category is approaching an inflection point. Bitcoin L2 networks like Lightning and Stacks are creating new use cases that will pull mainstream users toward non-custodial solutions for the first time. Regulatory clarity from the EU's MiCA framework and emerging US stablecoin legislation is legitimising self-custody as the default for compliance-conscious users. Phantom's recent expansion to Bitcoin and Base positions it to capture these shifts. We are already building creative frameworks around Bitcoin wallet functionality and cross-chain bridging, themes that barely existed in our hook taxonomy six months ago but now represent our fastest-growing test categories.
