Crypto PR has a measurement problem that makes bad agencies indistinguishable from good ones on paper. Both produce a report full of logos.
Here is how to tell them apart before you sign.
Ask which placements were earned
The single most revealing question.
Earned means a journalist decided your story was worth writing. Paid means you bought the placement, usually marked as sponsored.
Both have uses. Earned carries credibility precisely because you did not control it; paid carries guaranteed timing and message.
An agency that separates them in its reporting without being asked is describing real work. One that blends them into a single count is hiding the ratio — and in crypto PR the ratio is often heavily paid.
Ask about syndication
A press release distributed over a wire gets republished automatically across sites that republish everything. That can produce a hundred “placements” from one release.
It has some search value and close to no readership. Reporting it as coverage is the most common inflation in this business.
Ask directly: how many of these were journalists who chose to write, and how many were automatic republication?
Ask to speak to a journalist
Agencies claim relationships. Relationships are checkable.
Ask whether you can speak to a reporter who has worked with them, or at minimum for specific names of journalists covering your beat that they have placed with recently.
Vagueness here is informative. Real relationships are the product, and an agency with them is usually happy to demonstrate it.
Ask what happened when a story did not land
Every PR programme has pitches that go nowhere. An agency with a real practice has specific answers — what they pitched, why it did not work, what they changed.
Generalities suggest either no practice or no reflection on it.
Expect fewer placements, in better outlets
Media kits list hundreds of publications. Your buyers read a handful.
Two placements where your buyers actually read beat forty syndicated reposts. An agency promising volume is usually promising distribution, which is close to free.
The right question is not how many, but which — and whether the ones they name are read by the people you are trying to reach.
What the agency needs from you
PR cannot manufacture news. What it needs is something checkable:
- A product that shipped.
- A named partner who will confirm it.
- A real number from production.
- An independent review.
- A closed round.
Alongside that: a spokesperson whose time is genuinely available, and the claim constraints from your legal team before anything is drafted rather than after a quote is published.
Agencies that promise coverage without any of this are promising to invent milestones, which is transparent to exactly the readers you wanted.
What good reporting looks like
What was pitched, to whom, what landed, what the piece actually said. Earned and paid separated clearly.
What you should not see is a claim that coverage produced a commercial outcome. Press changes what someone finds when they look you up. What that is worth sits in your numbers, not the agency’s.
Common questions
How do you choose a crypto PR agency?
Ask which placements in their reporting were earned and which were paid, ask to speak to the journalists they claim relationships with, and ask what happened the last time a story did not land. An agency that separates earned from paid without being pushed is describing real work. One that reports hundreds of placements from a single wire distribution is describing syndication.
What is the difference between earned and paid crypto coverage?
Earned coverage was written because a journalist decided the story was worth covering. Paid placement is content you bought and controlled, usually marked as sponsored. Earned carries credibility precisely because you did not control it. Both are legitimate; presenting paid as earned is not, and it is the most common inflation in crypto PR reporting.
How much crypto PR coverage should you expect?
Fewer placements than most agencies promise, in outlets that matter more. Two pieces where your buyers actually read beat forty syndicated reposts. An agency promising volume is usually describing distribution, which is close to free and produces very little readership.
What should a PR agency need from you?
Something checkable to announce, a spokesperson whose time is genuinely available, and the claim constraints from your legal team before anything is drafted. Agencies cannot manufacture news, and the ones that try produce announcements journalists ignore and readers discount.
Does Corum8 run PR programmes?
Yes - relationships with the reporters covering crypto, fintech and AI, announcement calendars built on checkable facts, spokesperson preparation and crisis readiness. Our reporting separates earned coverage from paid placement, always.
