Whatever your industry, segment and audience, a considerable chunk of your customers are on social media. In order to boost your sales and increase your online awareness in China, marketing on WeChat is a great place to start. With so many active daily users, there is an almost endless supply of consumers to target and turn into paying customers. Even though it’s often recommended to naturally build trust with your audience via content and other engagement, WeChat advertising is a solid way to cast a net for new consumers. To help you save both money and time, we crafted a WeChat advertising crash course, so you can determine the best advertising methods for your business.
Contact Sekkei Studio to start advertising on WeChat.
3 reasons why WeChat Advertising matters
One of the most effective tactics to accomplish your brand goals is to dive right into the region’s most popular platform. Basically, here are 3 reasons why you should consider WeChat ads:
- Lifestyle platform with a massive reach: With over a billion monthly active users and the massive amount of user data on the platform, your advertisements can straightaway reach the right people at exactly the right time. This allows marketers and brands to insights on rich consumer data, understand the different consumer life stages, and send personalized messages. This is one of the biggest advantages that you get with advertising on WeChat.
- Business versality for advertising engagement: It’s possible to learn everything you need to know about a person’s life only through WeChat data. Eventually, with this type of segmented data, you really strategize how you want the user to interact with your business. No matter if you want the user to go your mini program, WeChat store, or official account, WeChat advertising offers a seamless experience to make those goals happen exactly how you planned for it.
- WeChat brings app stickiness to the user: One thing that really sticks out about WeChat advertising is the entire strategy behind how it works. It limits advertisements in such a way that the ads don’t interrupt the user experience. Additionally, WeChat allows ads to appear in a controlled way where each user only receives two WeChat advertisements per day. Users can even opt to get an ad removed by clicking the “not interested’ button, which would result in user getting WeChat advertising that is more tailored to their personal interests.
WeChat Advertising 101
In 2015, WeChat opened the doors for any business to advertise on the platform, creating a huge opportunity for brands to get closer to consumers subsequently. Since then, WeChat advertising has become a marketing trend with a 47% increase in advertising revenues in Q3 2018. WeChat has made an aggressive push into monetizing its huge social network and has now expanded its advertisement capabilities for marketing to Chinese tourist, especially in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Europe and parts of Asia.
Brands can now market to WeChat users in different places around the world with the added ability of using customer segmentation to target consumers more specifically. WeChat Ads are positioned to be a big opportunity to engage and develop exposure in China especially for new and established brands, B2C operations and finalizing the customer journey.
3 Main Types of WeChat Advertising
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WeChat Moments Advertising
WeChat Moments Ads is a form of native ads and look very similar to getting an update from a friend, but with a small sponsored button in the top corner. They are probably the most familiar form of WeChat advertising and can be considered the Facebook ad equivalent. Tencent has put a lot of thought of how ads impact the user experience and designed ads to appear with that in mind. An ad only appears after a user has received at least 4 moment updates and will automatically disappear after 6 hours if it doesn’t receive any likes or comments.
Regular WeChat Moments Ads are the only form of WeChat Advertisement that supports physical store promotion. There are a few variations of how brands can use moment ads, such as image & text ads, video ads, basic card ads, card ads with options and advertiser interactive ads. In the meantime, you can target users based on their location, age, gender, interest, device type and phone network. To learn more about Moment Ads please visit The Ultimate Guide to WeChat Moments Ads.
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WeChat Official Account Advertising
In short, WeChat official accounts are media and services platforms within WeChat that are made for gathering followers, sending push notifications and redirecting users to a brand website or product. Official accounts consist of subscription, service, and enterprise. Furthermore, Ads for official accounts are banners that tend to be more suited for established brands, B2C and B2B industries and e-commerce. The biggest advantage for using official account ads is that your target users already follow your account. Your ad will be displayed to users who already have an interest in your product or service. Ads for official accounts explicitly consist of WeChat article banners, in-text article banners, KOL banners and video banners:
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WeChat Article Banner Ads
Firstly, your advertisement will be located in the section between an official account article and the comments section below it. You can also place coupons here and lead customers directly to your e-commerce shop.
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In-text Article Banner Ads
Secondly, this type of advertisement is located in the middle of a published article. In-text ads can even increase your click-through rate.
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KOL Banner Ads
Thirdly, you can partner up with a KOL to promote your ad with a customized message. WeChat ensures KOL and brand trust by screening through any poorly written KOL content.
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Video Banner Ads
Video advertising can come in the form of stickers or short videos. The sticker ad comes in the form of an image users can click on and the video ad appears right before video content of official account articles.
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WeChat Mini Program Advertising
Mini programs run within WeChat and function as sub-applications where users can access pretty much any type of service they’d like. Besides, Mini programs are super convenient and have a captive audience, making them an idea place for ad promotion. Advertising on Mini program comes in the form of mini game ads, banner ads and pop-up ads:
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Mini Game Ads
In 2018, the biggest advertisers on mini programs were e-commerce (21%) and Mini Games (23%). While, mini game ads are about 6-15 second videos that are linked to a landing page and the developer configures the exact location of where the ad will appear in the gaming plot. As a result, users can receive in-game rewards for watching an ad, so it’s worth working with a developer who knows the ins-and-outs of WeChat mini program design if you decide to create your own.
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Banner Ads
Banner ads are pretty much the same as WeChat Official account sticker ads. Your ad placement is ultimately determined by the mini program game owner and WeChat matches your ad with programs based on your target audience.
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Pop-up Ads
Pop-up ads appear when users initiate specific scenarios within a mini program. This could include pausing a mini program video or switching through different features.
How much does WeChat Advertising cost?
WeChat Advertising budget based on number of exposures
Till today there are three WeChat ad locations – the moments news feed, bottom of public account articles, pre-rolls in public account articles support scheduled purchases based on exposure.
- Moments news feed: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a minimum budget of 50,000 RMB
- Bottom of public account articles: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a minimum budget of 1,000 RMB
- Pre-rolls in public account articles: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a minimum budget of 1,000 RMB
Ads bidding based on exposures
Presently, moments news feed, pre-rolls in public account articles, and mini game ads support bidding based on exposure.
- Moments news feed: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a daily ad budget of 1,000 RMB
- Pre-rolls in public account articles: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a daily ad budget of 200 RMB
- WeChat mini game ads: Priced per 1,000 exposures with a minimum daily ad budget of 1,000 RMB
Ads bidding based on clicks
Altogether, the middle of public accounts, the bottom of public accounts, and WeChat mini game ads support bidding based on clicks.
- Middle of public account: Lowest bid per single click is 0.5 RMB with a minimum daily ad budge of 50 RMB
- Bottom of public account articles: Lowest bid per single click is 0.5 RMB with a minimum daily ad budge of 50 RMB
- WeChat mini game ads: Lowest bid per single click is 0.5 RMB with a minimum daily ad budge of 50 RMB
WeChat Advertising price by article
This ad price is specifically for KOL advertising under your WeChat official account. The fee is per article and the price range is around a CPM of 50-100 RMB.
Are Key Opinion Leaders worth it for WeChat Ads?
Advertising on WeChat is a great way to market your product and services, but KOLs would be a good alternative to help out with brand awareness and your sales campaigns. Obviously, Chinese consumers are known to be more acceptable of KOL marketing versus traditional marketing methods. Thus, with KOL WeChat advertising, the collaboration could consist of a full article talking about your brand, or a banner ad at the end of an article. Some advantages of working with KOLs include:
- Build brand exposure no matter how big your brand is or the budget
- With WeChat being a social networking platform, KOLs are seen as a credible source that will help with conversions
- Lastly, WeChat has a vast range of KOLs that could take your brand to new heights with the help of WeChat advertising.
What types of brands should use WeChat Advertisment?
If you are a small company that has a limited marketing budget, then WeChat advertising might not be the best option. WeChat moments ads tend to be the most expensive out of the bunch with costs of at least 50,000 RMB for each ad campaign. Moment ads are generally better for well-known brands that have a lot of visual appeal with their products. They are good for encouraging user engagement. To put it differently, smaller or B2B companies would benefit more from using KOLs. Likewise, for WeChat banner ads or other Tencent advertising channels like Q-zone.
In short, WeChat Official Account ad stickers and mini program ads are the cheaper option in comparison with moment ads. However, the amount of exposure that your ad receives all depends on the popularity of the official account or mini program. Mini programs advertising does have a higher chance of getting viewed considering that you can’t skip in-game ads. As long as WeChat advertising is within your budget range, it can provide significant exposure to your brand and be a gateway for really connecting to Chinese consumers.
Businesses that cannot participate in WeChat Advertising
E-businesses
- Smart phones or smart wristbands
- Power banks
- Heating vests
Gaming industry
- Fishing games
- Games related to certain money transactions
- Card games
Food & Wine
- Health food
- Shark fin/Sea cucumber
- Tobacco
Personal services
- Phone repair
- Pet hospital
- Lottery
- Sauna/Massage center
- E-cigarettes
Entertainment
- Art auctions/Art collections
- Video dating
- Adult products
To see the full list of business industries that cannot apply for WeChat Advertising, contact us directly.
As can be seen, WeChat is continuing to update its advertising functionality for improving the precision of audience targeting. Overall, WeChat is a powerful tool for brands that want to have a strong presence in China and you can utilize WeChat advertising to build a solid connection with a more targeted audience. Similarly, there are plenty of good reasons as to why you should start your marketing journey with WeChat ads. Hence, no matter what social media platform you decide to use or what type of advertising format you want for your brand, Sekkei Studio is here to help you along the way.
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