Case Study · Global Crypto Exchange Crypto / FinTech · DACH market entry

FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL: BUILDING WINNING STRATEGIES FOR LOCAL MARKETS IN CRYPTO

1.3-star rating root-caused across 9 review platforms, 45+ onboarding friction points flagged, and a full 2026 localization and trust roadmap delivered.

Client
Top 10 global crypto exchange
Sector
Crypto / FinTech
Region
Germany & Austria
Engagement
Market-entry research & strategy

BACKGROUND

A top-10 global crypto exchange with over 100 million users worldwide had built the kind of scale most challengers only dream of. Despite a recognizable brand and years of presence in the DACH region, its German market performance wasn't meeting expectations, and its Trustpilot Germany rating had fallen to 1.3 out of 5.

Top 10
crypto exchange globally
100M+
users worldwide
1.3★
Trustpilot Germany rating
100+
operating countries

THE CHALLENGE

A globally trusted brand that isn't landing locally is not an isolated incident. The exchange had the scale and the brand recognition, but the overall market performance told a different story. The company needed to know why, with evidence, before it could justify where to spend its 2026 marketing budget. That meant confronting an uncomfortable question: was this a marketing problem, a product problem, or a trust problem?

DACH market localisation research

WHAT WE DID

Outrun ran the German experience end to end, then turned what it found into a prioritized plan across four workstreams.

01

The 360° touchpoint audit

Outrun walked the entire German experience like a first-time user: onboarding flow, website, and existing customer comms, screenshotting and benchmarking each touchpoint step by step. The findings were blunt: onboarding emails and ID verification screens were still in English, a redirect flow opened an unbranded domain and triggered a native "trying to open another app" security warning, and a blanket formal "Sie" address ran across marketing, product, and comms while every major DACH competitor (Bitpanda, Trade Republic, Bison, Scalable Capital) had already standardized on informal "Du."

02

Technical SEO and GEO diagnostic

A full site crawl surfaced foundational gaps: 38 pages (24.3%) with duplicate metadata, 11.5% of pages missing an H1 tag, and zero pages carrying structured data, a missed opportunity for rich search results. Looking ahead to generative search, Outrun also flagged the client's readiness for AI-driven discovery, recommending a full llms-full.txt for deep-dive AI reasoning plus entity-level Schema.org markup and fragment anchoring so AI Overviews and chat assistants cite the client instead of a competitor.

03

Reputation and voice-of-customer analysis

Outrun analyzed 285+ negative reviews across nine platforms (Trustpilot, Finanzfluss, BBB, Sitejabber, and others) to quantify what was driving the 1.3-star rating rather than guessing.

04

Strategic roadmap synthesis

All findings rolled into a phased Q1 to Q3 2026 plan: a "Du-first" language mandate, a dedicated German transcreator hire, and a repositioning of the client's recurring-purchase feature around the DACH "savings plan" mentality rather than a technical trading tool. Outrun also delivered a growth marketing strategy built around a core "Prudent Digital Optimizer" audience segment (ages 25 to 45, urban DACH professionals), with three activation pillars: Sports for brand trust, Gaming for cost-efficient acquisition, and Wealth Building & Lifestyle to prove everyday utility.

WHAT WE DELIVERED

The audit turned a vague sense that "Germany isn't working" into a prioritized, evidence-backed action list. Three results stand out:

45+ localization defects found

Walking the German journey as a first-time user surfaced more than 45 distinct onboarding and localization defects, from English-only verification screens to a formal "Sie" tone every local competitor had already dropped.

285+ reviews root-caused

A root-cause breakdown of 285+ negative reviews across nine platforms: 60% cited support response failures and 45% cited withdrawal friction, replacing guesswork with evidence.

A scoped 2026 roadmap

A phased Q1 to Q3 2026 plan: reposition the recurring-purchase feature around the DACH "savings plan" mentality, and a growth strategy for a core "Prudent Digital Optimizer" segment across Sports, Gaming, and Wealth Building.

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR YOUR MARKETING

Whatever the size of your brand, a market that isn't converting the way it should is rarely fixed by spending more. It is fixed by understanding, in detail, where trust is leaking: in the language, the product experience, and the touchpoints local users judge you on. Outrun's job in this phase was to find the real fixes, in the client's own market, in their own language.

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Michael Pötscher

Michael Pötscher

Marketing Leader | CMO | Entrepreneur in Residence

10+ years of CMO experience in e-commerce, Crypto and digital Wallets.