faq’s Wechat Advertising

WeChat is a Chinese app that has over 1 billion users and is owned by Tencent.

The primary purpose of WeChat is messaging, and in fact, that’s how the app got its start. In time, it came to offer everything from payments to mini programs like games, payment options, public services, movie tickets, and more.

Over the last few years, Tencent’s WeChat became the top mobile messaging app in China and globally. As well as being a messaging app, WeChat has become much more than that. In fact, WeChat is currently the third most used messaging app worldwide–only Facebook and WhatsApp are more popular. The app can be used to book flights and taxis, make appointments with doctors, order food, and more. With this wide array of features available on WeChat, it is no surprise that it is so popular.

Although WeChat is similar to other social media platforms in that it allows users to create accounts, send messages, and use digital wallets for payment transactions, there are more intricacies involved with promoting a brand on WeChat. The application provides marketers with several features for targeting customers, including tags for age, gender, education level, income level, profession and several other factors that a company should research before selecting. Consequently, advertising a brand on WeChat is an excellent way to connect with Chinese consumers.

When you think about advertising your products and services, you likely have a few main goals.

First and foremost, you want to sell more of your products and services. After all, that’s the main goal of advertising.

This means that a sub-goal of selling your products is probably to get your ads in front of as many people as humanly possible in order to build brand awareness and spark interest in your products.

If these two goals sound familiar, WeChat is a great place to advertise your business. Studies show that more than half of the app’s users spend a minimum of 90 minutes on the app each and every day.

When it comes to placing product ads in the app, it’s highly likely that they’ll get a ton of eye traffic as well as increasing visits to your website.

Due to its multiple functionalities and large community, WeChat has managed to accumulate a large amount of user data. In marketing that means very valuable information for Paid Media campaigns. In fact, in China, many companies start their digital presence on WeChat before launching a website or app of their own.

In order to use the business functionalities on WeChat, you must first create an official account with a company in China or an overseas business license.

WeChat banner advertising
WeChat moments advertising (video ads/ picture ads/ interactive ads..)
Wechat Kols Advertising through WeChat article with ad banner and products reviews
WeChat Subscription Advertising

WeChat mini programs were officially launched by Tencent in early 2017. This was a turning point for the platform and the whole industry. Some think that in the future WeChat may even rival iOS and Android to be another mobile operating system. The big advantage of WeChat mini programs are that they can be used without installing them separately on your phone.

Let’s first look at 4 reasons why WeChat is “so special” to marketers:

The amazing purchasing power of WeChat users
Ability to attract suitable target consumer
Form a closed loop for your business goals
Bring the experience of sticky participation

1.WeChat Banner Ads

This type of ad is placed at the bottom of articles and messages published by an official WeChat account. Banner ads usually contain a logo, the account name, and a headline. Clicking on banner ads will direct you to another page which will provide more information about the brand or product.
The banners are great to drive consumer action, for example, to purchase a product, download an app or claim a coupon. Advertisers use this type of ad to measure the effectiveness of advertising. How many people downloaded the app? How many purchased the product or claimed a coupon? Banner ads are somewhat pricey.
But beyond that, marketers love them because they can convert prospects who follow the banner ads into paying customers.

2.Moments ads:

WeChat launched new ad formats called Moments ads and News Feed ads in 2016. The former resembles the newsfeed on Facebook and the latter compares to a banner ad. Moments ads come in many formats, including photos, texts, short videos (both embedded and full screen), and 360 panoramas.

Unlike banner ads which can disrupt the content of a page, moment ads blend in with the page to appear just like regular user-generated posts. If a user shares a moment ad with another user, WeChat automatically places the ad on the Moments of users with similar interests. Both formats are very effective; however, they are more expensive than banner ads because they are more engaging and interactive.

3. Influencer Marketing

Advertisers collaborate with social media influencers to post ads on their official accounts. Influencers typically have a large network of followers, so any ad posted on their timeline can reach millions of consumers. This can make your business go viral.

When choosing an influencer, it is important to go with someone authentic. Their values and interests must be in line with your brand and the product/service you want to advertise. The pricing for promotions varies by agency and influencer; however, authenticity is key. The influencer and the business directly discuss the content, timeline, and other details of the advertising campaign. In fact, influencer marketing is one of the best ways for promoting your products and services in China due to WeChat ads being rather expensive compared to influencer-related promotions.

1.Schedule an advertisement: Scheduled advertising allows you to launch WeChat advertising campaigns without having to wait for a real-time ad placement. When you schedule an ad, you will receive a fixed CPM based on the number of impressions guaranteed. However, with scheduled ads, you cannot choose the exact time of day to run your ads.

2.Bidding ads: bid by impression and bid by click: Bidding ads are more flexible and result-oriented than scheduled WeChat ads. When you create a bidding ad, set the target audience and launch date to maximize the competitiveness of your WeChat advertising. The downside is that once the final price is determined, there is no guarantee of performance or clicks, which may be the most similar to the advertising method you are most familiar with.

3. Charge by article
Only applicable to WeChat official account advertisements set up by KOLs. In setting the costs for a post with a Key Opinion Leaders (KOL), you will negotiate directly with the relevant individual. The average price for a single article is 50-100 RMB per day.

WeChat advertising is not a cost-effective option for every company, especially for those who wish to advertise in the Moments section. While it is the most advanced form of LBS advertising, companies need to spend at least 50,000 RMB per campaign. Such a budget can only last from 12 hours to 5 days.

The sticker attached to an official account or Mini Program is cheaper and can be used for longer periods of time, but it depends largely on how popular the official account or Mini Program is among users and how quickly they change their behavior.

One of the most effective and fastest ways to increase user engagement is to launch a creative campaign. Users are constantly searching for emotionally appealing, useful content. Brands can provide useful content such as tool kits, learning materials, white papers, reports and more. What’s important is to provide this content only to followers of your account. In some cases, readers can receive materials only if they share an article on their Moments page or share certain content with their friends. Another way to encourage followers to mention your brand is to use Q&A campaigns or lucky draw campaigns.

One of the most important steps to define your WeChat Ads strategy is to define clear objectives for your ads. This is the list of all the objectives that exist in WeChat, not all of them are available for all formats!

Brand event promotion: To increase brand awareness and participation.
Official account promotion: To attract subscribers to your official WeChat account.
Store promotion: To get sales and offline traffic.
Collecting sales leads: Find potential customers.
Coupon distribution: Entice users to buy online or offline.
Products promotion: Promote products to get consumers.
Application promotion: Drive users to the App/Android Store and increase downloads.
Games promotion: Attract users to play games.

While WeChat ads can be incredibly powerful, they’re not for everyone. WeChat ads outside of China have limited targeting options, particularly in regard to location targeting. For businesses that want to advertise within the United States, more refined location filtering options are not available. In addition to this challenge, the platform only allows businesses with a broader U.S. market appeal to advertise with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL). This means that local restaurants or services businesses won’t be able to ensure interest generated from their ads can be converted into real business leads.

To advertise on WeChat, you will first need to create an official WeChat account. This is the equivalent of an official business page on Facebook as opposed to a personal user account. Unfortunately, setting up an official account can be very complicated if your business is not based in China. Businesses seeking to advertise on WeChat should seek the assistance of an officially certified advertising service provider.

WeChat ads are a booming trend to break through and win over the audience in China. WeChat offers a variety of utilities, including the ability to target customers based on location, age, gender and interests. Brands can also purchase ads that appear on users’ Moments and in their friend’s feeds.

If you consider integrating WeChat into your marketing strategy, please contact us for more information.