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WeChat Advertising in China: The Ultimate Guide

WeChat is the most popular social media platform in China, with over a billion active monthly users. With its extensive reach and engagement, WeChat has become an attractive platform for businesses to advertise their products and services in China. In this article, we'll explore WeChat advertising and provide you with a comprehensive guide on how to advertise on WeChat in China.

  1. Types of WeChat Advertising

WeChat Introduction

WeChat offers a variety of advertising options for businesses to choose from, including:

  • WeChat Moments Ads: These are ads that appear in users' Moments feeds, which are similar to Facebook's News Feed. Moments Ads can be in the form of images, videos, or text.

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  • WeChat Official Account Ads: These are ads that appear in the content feed of Official Accounts. They can be in the form of images, videos, or text.

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  • WeChat Mini Program Ads: These are ads that appear in Mini Programs, which are lightweight applications that run within WeChat. Mini Program Ads can be in the form of banners, interstitials, or native ads.

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  • WeChat Account Promotion Ads: In the subscription section, brands can now push their official account and promote one of their articles.

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  • WeChat Private Traffic: For each WeChat public account, WeChat group, and WeChat personal account, fans and friends are "Private traffic", as these can be independently operated and maintained by the account owners who have WeChat public group, and personal account.

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  • WeChat Video Channel: WeChat Video Channels is a section on WeChat accessed through the Discover part of the app, right underneath Moments. Channels is a public feed of video and photo content, which can be searched using keywords and hashtags.

2. Targeting Options

WeChat offers several targeting options to help businesses reach their desired audience. These options include:

 

  • Demographic targeting: You can target users based on their age, gender, location, education level, occupation, and other demographic information.
     

  • Interest targeting: You can target users based on their interests, such as travel, sports, fashion, and more.
     

  • Behaviour targeting: You can target users based on their behaviour on WeChat, such as their interactions with Official Accounts, Mini Programs, and Moments.

WeChat Targeting options

3. Ad Formats

WeChat offers various ad formats for businesses to choose from. These formats include:

  • Image Ads: These ads consist of a single image with a headline and a description.

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  • Video Ads: These ads consist of a short video with a headline and a description.

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  • Text Ads: These ads consist of a short text with a headline and a description.

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  • Carousel Ads: These ads consist of multiple images or videos that users can swipe through.

4. Ad Placement

WeChat offers several ad placement options to businesses, including:

  • Top of Moments: This is the most prominent ad placement option, as the ad appears at the top of users' Moments feeds.

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  • Bottom of Moments: This ad placement option is less intrusive, as the ad appears at the bottom of users' Moments feeds.

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  • Content Feed: This ad placement option allows businesses to advertise in the content feed of Official Accounts.

5. Ad Bidding and Budget

WeChat advertising uses a bidding system, where businesses bid for ad placement based on their desired target audience and ad placement options. The bidding system is based on various cost models, depending on the objective and strategy. WeChat also offers a daily budget option, which allows businesses to set a maximum daily spend for their ads.

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oCPM or 'Optimised CPM' - advertisers set a bid on how much they are willing to pay for every 1,000 impressions of their ad. The bidding system then uses machine learning algorithms to optimize the delivery of the advertisement to users who are more likely to take the desired action, such as clicking on the ad, engaging with it, or converting into a customer. oCPM can help advertisers achieve a higher return on ad spend by minimizing ad waste and improving ad delivery efficiency.

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oCPC or 'Optimised CPC' - advertisers set a bid on how much they are willing to pay for each click on their ad. The bidding system then uses machine learning algorithms to optimize the delivery of the advertisement to users who are more likely to click on it and take the desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

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oCPA - provides advertisers with automatic optimization based on delivery goals and bids, continuously improving the efficiency and input-output ratio of advertisers' advertisements.

 

CPM - cost per thousand impression

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CPC - cost per click

6. Ad Creative

To create an effective WeChat ad, businesses should consider the following:

  • Ad content should be relevant to the target audience.

  • The ad should be visually appealing.

  • The ad copy should be clear and concise.

  • The ad should have a clear call-to-action (CTA).

  • Follow China advertising guidelines and ensure ads are compliant

7. Conclusion

WeChat advertising is a powerful tool for businesses looking to reach their target audience in China. By understanding the various ad types, targeting options, ad formats, ad placement options, ad bidding and budget, and ad creative best practices, businesses can create effective WeChat ads that engage and convert their target audience.

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