WeChat advertising is unique for marketers, let’s take a look at what it actually looks like and what the different formats and types of WeChat Advertisements there are for marketers to choose from.

 

Type 1 ： WeChat Moments Advertising

Launched in January 2015, Moments Ads are the most classic and well-known WeChat advertising format. As you probably know, WeChat Moments is a page that works similarly to the Facebook Newsfeed, where users post updates, pictures, and links for their friends to like or comment on.

The Advertising format for WeChat Moments Ads is a complete replica of all other user-generated posts, with comments and “Like” functions enabled as well.

There’s a specific place for these ads “camouflaged” as a WeChat Moments – They normally appear as the fifth post with a tiny “Promotion/Advertisement” sign on its upper right corner.

 

A Display of what a typical WeChat Moment Ad looks like

 Once the users click on the WeChat Moments Ad, they will be guided to the landing page the advertiser designated. These landing pages can serve a variety of purposes, as shown below.

 

Business Purposes that WeChat Ads can help fulfillSource: Tencent Social Ads & WeChat Advertising Team

In fact, the end goals detailed above are shared across all WeChat advertising formats we are about to mention. However, one thing that only WeChat Moments Ad specializes in is a physical store promotion where WeChat pushes advertisements or store coupons specifically to those nearby. Meanwhile, with one-touch dial and map functions embedded on landing pages, users can contact the store or directly pay a visit where they can convert into paying customers!

Different from other landing pages, the location tag on the very bottom of the WeChat Moment Ad is linked to a comprehensive physical store overview

There are actually plenty of variations branching out of the basic WeChat Moments Ad format.

The ones shown before are Regular WeChat Moments Ads which look exactly like organic moment posts. Note that Regular WeChat Moments Ads are also the only type of WeChat Advertisement that supports physical store promotion.

 

Component Breakdown for Regular WeChat Moments Ad (with pics)

 

Component Breakdown for Regular WeChat Moments Ad (with video)

The basic card-type WeChat Moments Ad looks largely the same as the regular one but takes up comparatively larger space.

 

Component Breakdown for Basic Card-Type WeChat Moment Ad

On top of the basic card type WeChat Moments Ad, there is also an extended version that incorporates a multiple-choice question. This would trigger further user interactions and allow your target clients to select one of the two versions of the landing page they are more interested to see.

 

Component Breakdown for Card-Type WeChat Moment Ad with a choice

And as the options become more complex, WeChat adds layers of variety in not just landing pages it leads to but the WeChat Moments Ad display itself as well.

Flip-over type WeChat Moments Ads are the newest WeChat advertising variant which delivers even better user interaction experience. 

Let’s take this JD.com WeChat Moments Ad as an example, the original Moments Ad and its landing page promote JD’s new year movie. Once users show their interests in the ad by giving likes or adding comments to the post, the WeChat Moments Ad will flip over to another promotion for a JD mini-game with rewards like JD mall gift cards and gift boxes.

 

Flip-over type of WeChat advertising speaks to target audiences with different engagement levels

 

Type 2 ： WeChat Official Accounts Advertising

Aside from getting the latest updates of their friends’ life on WeChat Moments, another very important source of information for every WeChat user comes from articles pushed from the official accounts they follow. 

The top advantage of choosing WeChat official account advertising is that no effort is needed in screening out who to target

– WeChat users have already made their preferences clear when choosing which official accounts to follow. Once the system determines which official accounts are most relevant for your business’ WeChat advertising post to be planted in, your advertising messages will be accurately displayed only to those truly relevant and interested.

The way that official account advertising works is through placing ad banners into articles published by official accounts with more than 5000 followers. While you might recognize these ads as similar to banners, they are called “stickers” on the WeChat platform. The format for WeChat Official Account advertising boils down to four major categories 

1) End of the Article Ad Sticker 

2) In-text Ad Sticker 

3) KOL Mutual Cooperation 

4) Video Banner. 

 

WeChat Official Account Ads: End of Article Ad Sticker

For the first type, end of an article, your advertising message will be placed in a small section between the WeChat official account article and its comments section below. 

As simple as that, the format of the official account advertising slightly differs slightly depending on the landing pages it leads to.

If you are promoting your brand or activities, here’s what your ad would look like under an article published by an official account.

The full-picture ad banner can also be replaced with a name-card type with buttons too

And here’s the ad prototype for app promotion which has not gone into full circulation as of yet. 

Coupon distribution is also applicable for this type of WeChat advertising.

Interestingly, official accounts can also post an ad under other relevant official accounts to boost their followers count.

WeChat Official Account Ads: In-text Ad Banner

There’s another way to plant WeChat advertising pieces inside an official account article – hiding it in the middle of a published article.

Shuffling the location where your ad piece is placed might seem to be a trivial matter, but it can actually elevate the click-through rate of your WeChat ad significantly. When the advertising message is closely knitted into the flow of the article it naturally yields a higher chance to be noticed or even clicked on accidentally while one is skimming through an article. However, it is up to the owner of the official account if they will offer this ad positioning. 

Official Account with In-text Ad Sticker Component Breakdown

 

WeChat Official Account Ads: KOL Mutual Cooperation

When it comes to WeChat official account advertising, the collaboration between KOLs who run official accounts and advertisers is usually an “arranged marriage” by WeChat’s system algorithm where neither party gets to choose who to collaborate with. But KOL Mutual Cooperation gives both sides the right to select their business partner. This means advertisers get their advertising messages better customized and weaved into articles written by KOLs they know and trust. At the same time, WeChat acts as a middleman for transaction and content screening to minimize the risks for scamming or poor content quality.

Under this form of collaboration, advertisers are also free to choose how “customized” they want their WeChat advertising piece to be. And right now there are two main options – Recommendation Mode and Full Customization Mode

KOL Mutual Cooperation: Recommendation Mode

Recommendation Mode essentially means adding a business tagline or an ad copy provided by advertisers on top of the regular ad sticker we previously see. But this is as far as it goes, as KOLs are only obliged to add the tagline to their content and don’t even have to make the theme of their article related to the ad message itself. It’s also up to the KOL’s own discretion whether they want to create any extra content to make the article flow better with the ad. 

Fashion KOLs can insert Skincare Products Recommendation Ads under an article on handbags

In this case, advertisers hand over most of the content autonomy to KOLs under this form. But the only purpose of doing so is to maximize the read counts. For contracts under Recommendation Mode, KOLs have to guarantee advertisers a preset impressions target before they are paid and the extra impressions achieved beyond the target won’t cause any extra charge. If you want as your ad message to be seen by as many viewers as possible, Recommendation Mode is a good choice among the two.

 

KOL Mutual Cooperation: Full Customization Mode

On the other hand, Full Customization mode would fit better if you want to reinforce your brand image and make your messages memorable to anyone who sees it. For this type of contract, besides the basic ad sticker, the theme and content of the article will be entirely customized for your business. Contact details of the KOLs will also be given to advertisers so the two parties can thoroughly communicate the business needs and negotiate how exactly would the ad messages be conveyed in the article. 

Customized Content is normally marked with “AD” but the message conveyed is more thorough and convincing

As compared to the Recommendation Mode, advertisers are way more heavily involved in the production of the content and they also need to do the final proofread before anything gets published. But the downside of having so much authority is that KOLs are not responsible for how many impressions the articles would finally achieve as the payment would be settled once the content goes public.

 

4) WeChat Official Account Ads: Video Sticker

As you might have probably noticed, the one essential element for all types of WeChat official account advertising is an ad sticker. By default, the ad sticker would be a static, card-type image user can click on. But it if you want your ad sticker to be a short video instead, that also works. Such short ad clips will be placed right before video content (less than 5 minutes) that have been inserted into official account articles which works pretty much the same as ads you’re familiar with on YouTube.

The clickable video clip leads users to the H5 landing page with the full-page ad message

 

Type3 ： WeChat Mini Program Advertising

Mini Programs are another key feature which basically incorporates other web-Apps as “sub-applications” inside WeChat so users can access the services they want, without actually leaving the WeChat client. For instance, you can place orders on e-commerce platforms like JD.com or call a cab with Didi via WeChat mini-programs. Recently WeChat even has its own gaming platform, called WeChat minigames, integrated into its mini program portfolio too. The convenience of mini-program has led to over 600 million total users of mini-programs and a DAU (Daily Active User) of 230 million. Each user on average uses Mini-Programs 4 times a day, making it another ideal place for your WeChat advertising message to be frequently seen.

There are three main types of WeChat mini program advertising, namely Banner Ads, Mini-Game Ads, and Pop-up Ads.

 

1) WeChat Mini-Program Ad: Banner Ad

Inserted within Mini Programs, the layout for Banner Ads is basically the same as those ad stickers we have seen in WeChat Official Account Advertising. Similarly, multiple formats and business purposes are also available to choose under this category.

To better incorporate banner ads in Mini Programs, the location where these ad stickers appear are decided by the owner of the Mini Program. And again, advertisers cannot choose which mini-program their ads will be planted in. The WeChat system will help with the matching based on user-profiles and the target audience set by advertisers.

The owner of the Mini Program will determine where exactly the ad sticker is placed

 

2) WeChat Mini-Program Ad: Mini-Game Ad

Different from other users who might just skim through their WeChat Moments or official account articles absentmindedly, users on Mini Games are far more engaged when they are on it.

The Mini-Game Ad comes out in the form of a 6-15 second video linked to the landing page. Mini-Game developers plant the very act of viewing the WeChat advertising page as part of the game plot and tie it with incentives given inside the game. Only when users find the trigger of the ad, click on it, complete watching the ad, and close the window can they receive rewards like in-game items or unlocking a new level. 

Incentives of complete watching an Ad Video includes bringing your character back to life

In this way, the Click-Through rate of your WeChat advertising page is significantly enhanced and whoever clicked on it hears the full story of your ad message as it cannot be paused or closed. 

 

3) WeChat Mini-Program Ads: Pop-up Ad

As its name suggests, A Pop-up ad is a card-type image ad that pops up when users trigger certain scenarios within the Mini Program. Common scenarios being chosen includes after the switching of tabs, at the end of an App process, or the pausing of an embedded video. 

Pop-up Ad Components

 

Find the Right WeChat Advertising Strategy for Your Unique Business Goal

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the complicated, layer-over-layer WeChat advertising rules and layouts now? Don’t worry, we have prepared here a list for you to check the advertising formats that best suits your promotion goals.

How to Budget For WeChat Advertising

You might now be wondering, these WeChat advertising plans all sound good but how much do they cost? There are four WeChat Advertising placement strategies with their own pricing plans that are open to advertisers. In the next section, we will go over each of them by pricing schemes and by advertising format.

 

Budgeting For WeChat Advertising: By Pricing Schemes

1) WeChat Advertising Pricing Schemes: Scheduled Ads

With Scheduled Ads, your WeChat advertising piece will be launched on a particular date with a guaranteed amount of impressions and charged by a fixed CPM (Cost per 1000 Views) rate. However, do note that with Scheduled Ads you cannot select when exactly over the course of the day that the ad will be launched.

 

2) Bid by Impression & Bid by Clicks

Compared with Scheduled Ads, Bidding Ads are more flexible and result-driven. Both the targeted audience and launched date are determined with the goal of maximizing your WeChat Advertising’s competitiveness against your peers. The downside, however, is that there is no guarantee on the impressions or clicks once the final price is settled. This is likely the most similar to advertising methods you are most familiar with. 

 

3) Charged by Articles

This one is only applicable to KOL Mutual Cooperation under WeChat Official Account Advertising. And similar to the content creation process itself, the fee is also set by the KOLs your business chooses to collaborate with. It is charged by each article written and the approximate price range is around a CPM of ¥50-100.

The table below is prepared for comparison across all pricing schemes quoted by The WeChat Advertising official website.

Budgeting for WeChat Advertising: By Advertising Format

Here’s a brief summary table on the detailed pricing schemes sorted by WeChat advertising formats –

Who Can & Who Can’t Make Use Of WeChat Ads

The answer is straightforward – Verified Official Accounts. It doesn’t matter whether or not the entity is an individual user, a household private business, an enterprise, media or even a government, you are able to register for your own WeChat Official Account and get started with WeChat Advertising. If you need help on how to set up your own verified official accounts on WeChat, check out the link below for a step-by-step guide that is FREE for browsing and download! 

After being verified as an official account, the last thing you need to do is to register yourself as a WeChat Advertiser on the Official Account backend. Verification at this stage will normally take 2 working days. And do expect around 7 working days before your WeChat Official Account receives its verified advertiser status.

But before all these, do notice that the following business industries are NOT allowed on the WeChat Advertising platform!

Cosmetics or Skincare Product for special purposes:

• OK: Hair Dye/Perm Product, Skin Whitening Product, Sunscreen
• NOT OK: Products with claims such as acne treatment, hair restoring, depilatory, breast enhancement, body shaping, deodorization, dark spot removal, scar removal, etc.

E-businesses

• Power Banks
• Smartphones or Smart Wristbands
• Water toothpicks
• Heating Vests
• Fine Jewelry

Financial Industry

• Debit Card, MPOS sales, Crowd-funding platform, Cryptocurrency, Bonds, Stock Options, Credit Assignment, Commodities, Student Loan, P2P Online Lending Platform, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Security Investment Training, Stock Allotment, Foreign Exchange, Down Payment and Loan Products, Leveraged Transactions, Overseas Insurance / Investment Management

Gaming Industry

• Chess/Card Game
• Fishing Game
• Aggregate Game Platform
• Plug-in / Private Server
• Games related to offline money transaction

Car Industry

• Parallel-imported Car
• Car Loans
• Anti-radar speedometer, roller blind license plate frame, radar jammer, etc.

Real Estate Industry

• Overseas property sales, investment, leasing
• Real estate projects that do not have or do not have a pre-sale/sale permit
• Financing or disguised financing

Industry & Agriculture

• Flammable, explosive and raw materials
• Toxic, corrosive chemicals and raw materials
• Fireworks and fireworks and firecrackers
• Books, video materials, etc. for the manufacture of explosives
• Veterinary drugs, pesticides

Food & Wine

• Bird’s Nest, Sea Cucumber, Shark’s Fin, Fish Maw
• Live Poultry
• Tobacco
• Health Food

Clothing

• Wild animal fur
• Lingerie: including pregnant women/kid’s underwear
• Masks (in the field of medical equipment)

 Education

• Success Theory Training Institution
• Training institutions that are unable to issue academic credentials do not support the placement of MBA (Master of Business Administration), IMBA (International Master of Business Administration), MSF (Master of Finance) and other master’s degree education advertisements.
• Memory, intelligence, emotional intelligence, and other psychological training classes

Daily Necessities

• Adult Product
• Female Care Products (Including Pads & Tampon)
• Tobacco
• Funeral Supplies

APP

• IM social communication software
• VoIP phone type, including but not limited to VoIP in any way such as pure voice or video + voice
• Promote products with free call features

Personal Care & Services

• Horoscope or Religion
• Overseas Maternity Hotel
• E-cigarette
• Medical Cosmetology
• Lottery
• Phone Repair
• Sauna/Massage Center, Health Club, Video Game Center
• Tattoo Services
• Nursing Home
• Funeral Services
• Pet Hospital

Culture & Entertainment

• Art management, collection, auction
• Video dating live broadcast platform

Medical & Health

• Institutional categories: including but not limited to medical institutions, medical departments, mental health, medical beauty, weight loss, etc.
• Psychology: including but not limited to mental illness (anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and schizophrenia), treatment of bad hobbies (such as drug addiction, craving, gambling addiction, internet addiction), counseling on marital emotional problems
• Pharmaceuticals: including but not limited to pharmaceutical sales, pharmaceutical production research and development, pharmaceutical information and other related industries
• Health care: health products, health foods, health care equipment, and other related products
• Medical equipment: such as prosthetic production assembly and other related industries
• Medical health platform: including but not limited to medical information consultation, registration and reservation platform, drug sales platform
• Safe & Security
• Location Tracking Products such as GPS

On top of industry restriction, there’s another thing for foreign businesses to keep in mind before launching their WeChat Advertising plan – the majority of your ad copy content has to be in Mandarin. Since WeChat is still a highly localized social app, it is highly recommended for your business to have someone sufficiently familiar with the local language and culture for ad execution. 

What Kind of Businesses Should Use WeChat Ads

But among all the companies eligible to adopt WeChat Advertising, who are the ones that can benefit the most from this advertising channel.

First, WeChat Advertising is definitely not affordable for every company, particularly WeChat Moments Ads. Though being the most impactful advertising format equipped with advanced LBS technology, WeChat Moments Ads costs a company at least 50,000 RMB for each campaign launched. A budget like this will only last for between 12 hours to 5 days depending on your targeting before that budget runs out. 

Ad stickers attached in WeChat Official Accounts or Mini Program are a significantly more affordable choice and the ad can be kept for a longer period of time as well. However, the reach your WeChat Ad gets heavily depends on the popularity of the official account or mini-program itself. And the rapidly-changing user behavior would be a factor out of prediction or control.

Given that Mini-Game ads are not skippable and thus have a greater chance of being fully viewed, the ad cost is also relatively higher than WeChat advertising on Official Account. For one particular Mini Game Jump, businesses need to pay an astonishing CPD (Cost per Day) of 5 million RMB just for putting their brand logos on the game!

The WeChat Game Jump where businesses can buy their own boxes for brand exposure. Looks like McDonald’s didn’t mind paying 5 million RMB to get featured in the game!

As conclusion, the ultimate all-in-one app that has become essential to almost every China people both at home and abroad, WeChat has the indisputable power for businesses to establish awareness in the China market. With WeChat Moments Ads, your brand message could potentially be seen by over 1 Billion MAU up to 10 times a day. If you place it on any of the 1 million Mini Programs out there, your ad could leave a memorable mark on any of its highly engaged users. It may also appear on some of the most popular and relevant articles out of those created by the over 20 million WeChat Official Accounts. No matter which channel or format you choose, the marketing effects are limitless.

Resource from : https://www.dragonsocial.net/blog/wechat-advertising/