Changes in the traffic market in 2019

2019 is almost over. Looking back on this year, there have been many changes in the promotion market. Frontline advertising personnel should have a deep understanding of the changes.

Since the beginning of this year , traffic has become more and more expensive and less and less , which is a daily complaint of many people. The high cost and limited amount of traffic are inevitable results of the development and changes in mobile Internet. The traffic dividend is now getting smaller and smaller, the market growth is turning to stock, and everyone is competing for user time. As for advertising, only by understanding the market, following market changes, actively embracing market changes, and exploring responses can we make steady progress.

Nothing remains unchanged, so the traffic market is changing, and the thinking of every promotion practitioner must also change.

1

Changes and upgrades in advertising market traffic in 2019

1. Search traffic is declining. Even if you hate Baidu, you still have to rely on it.

As a person who has been working in the market for a long time, my feeling this year is that the search traffic is getting less and less . Especially the second half of the year, it is incomparable with the first half of the year, and the most obvious is from November to now.

Compared with the decline in Baidu's traffic, the decline in traffic from small channels is more serious. Although Baidu's traffic has declined, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and it is still the largest search engine. The small channels are in an awkward situation, as the second half of the year is simply incomparable to the first half.

From the perspective of personal delivery, although 360pc has volume, the matching is poor and the volume in the second half of the year is not large; Sogou upgraded its matching in the middle of the year, and the effect on the mobile terminal was poor after the upgrade. There were many clicks, but the number of consultations was much lower, and it is not ruled out that many of these clicks were fake; Shenma did not change much this year, but the second half of the year, which had obvious effects, could not be compared with the first half of the year; the new Toutiao search also has very small volume, and the smart delivery mode (ocpm/ocpc) is not yet popular.

Personally, the effect of Baidu promotion is quite good. Although it is not very stable, it has the advantage of large quantity. The above are only the situations of mainstream industries in the market. It is not ruled out that a few industries will have more traffic in the second half of the year. As far as search placement is concerned, even if you hate Baidu, you still have to rely on it.

2. Channel upgrade and internal reform

The search market traffic has declined, so each company has carried out reforms of one kind or another.

Baidu has undergone many changes this year. First, there was the backend upgrade in the first half of the year. Second, traffic shifted toward ocpc. In addition, at the end of the year, the matching mode was upgraded and some industry landing pages switched to Jimuyu. It can be seen from this that Baidu is also anxious internally. Upgrading is both an active response to the market and a forced move.

Sogou has encountered many problems this year. It upgraded its matching mode in the middle of the year and launched input streams, apparently in an attempt to regulate more traffic.

Toutiao Search was officially launched this year, and bidding promotion is also on the right track. Regarding Toutiao Search, it has been mentioned in the previous article "A Complete Analysis of Toutiao Search Account Construction and Distribution Ideas", so I will not repeat it in this article.

From the upgrades of these platforms, we can find two points. First, the market traffic is declining, and each company is reforming its products and releasing more volume. Second, smart delivery is becoming more and more mature in 2019. Baidu's big search has significantly increased its traffic inclination towards ocpc since this year, and Shenma has also launched ocpc. Some industries have switched to Jimuyu for landing pages, and semi-hosting has become the norm...

Search channels have changed a lot in 2019, and we don’t know what will happen in 2020. It is expected that the delivery will be more intelligent...

3. Changes in the search market: ATT re-enters the search market

The search engine market is also changing in 2019. Toutiao Search has officially been launched, impacting Baidu's market. In addition to Toutiao, WeChat Search will soon be upgraded to "WeChat Search", which will also inevitably have an impact on Baidu. In addition, Alibaba has been promoting the Quark Browser in recent times, and the search market is in 2019, and the smoke of war is rising again. Competition in 2020 will inevitably be more intense.

In terms of commercialization, Toutiao Search is now on the right track and advertising monetization has begun. WeChat search has the best experience, no ads, and a lot of search results. Quark Search claims to be ad-free and has a promising future.

4. The internal resources of each information flow channel are integrated, the market is becoming mature, and the dividends are gradually decreasing.

Information flow has matured in 2019 , and the basic pattern has been established, with three super powers and many strong ones. Toutiao, Baidu and Tencent are the three major players, and other players each occupy their own piece of land.

I won’t say much about the three major companies. They have all made various adjustments to their products since this year. Because information flow is developing very quickly, only giants who seize more market share can go further, so various platforms are basically upgrading their products and integrating their own resources. The direction is similar, but the approach is different.

The directions are similar, for example, Toutiao launched Pangolin, Baidu launched Baiqingteng, and Tencent launched Youlianghui. At present, the three major players are the main resource groups with their own signature brands. Toutiao is Douyin + Toutiao, Baidu is Sohu, and Tencent is Q-series resources (in addition, Tencent also has Moments ads, which is another branch of its information flow ads.

In addition to upgrades, the information flow market in 2019 also became more mature. The growth of each channel is slow, and some channels are even decreasing. The amount of traffic also means the strength of monetization ability. From this perspective, the basic structure of the information flow market will not change much in the future. It is difficult to increase growth in small channels, and the cost of main channels is rising. In 2020, the information flow dividend will definitely become smaller and smaller, and the cost and volume will inevitably be more difficult than in 2019. This is also a normal trend in the development of things.

Therefore, in 2020, we should make precise investments and deepen our efforts in the main channels. It is impossible for information flow channels with large quantities and low costs to exist.

5. It is better to enter the small channel market early than late

In addition to the three major ones, let me talk about a few platforms that I am familiar with.

Kuaishou's information flow is developing rapidly. As the second player in video information flow, it can be paid special attention to in 2020.

360 Information Flow , the leader in PC information flow, also developed rapidly in 2019. From my personal experience, the effect of 360 PC information flow is quite good, but the volume in the second half of the year is much smaller than that in the first half of the year, and the effect is unstable. The reason why 360pc information flow is mentioned here is that it is the representative of pc information flow and is very suitable for some industries. If you want to invest in PC information flow, you can use it as a reference.

Similar to the 360 ​​information flow is the UC information flow , which had a large volume in the first half of the year, but after an upgrade in the middle of the year, the volume has obviously decreased a lot. The cost was very low before, but then it started to rise gradually and the benefits gradually disappeared. Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility of increased market competition, but the decline in channel growth is a fact that cannot be ignored.

As for information flow platforms such as vivo, OPPO, NetEase, Phoenix, Sohu, and Qutoutiao , based on their one-year deployment, their traffic has been on a downward trend from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year to the end of the year (this is only the general situation, and it does not rule out the fact that traffic in a few industries is on an upward trend). In 2020, if you want to increase your promotion, it is better to enter early than late for small channels. Dividends cannot exist forever, and the market always belongs to those who try it first.

The author once said in an article that for new channels, the value of our trial and error is far greater than the value of our investment . The purpose here is not to encourage trial and error. Rather, only when you have tried and tested it, can you know the situation of this channel. Even if your test is not effective and the cost of trial and error is high, it can provide you with a reference for understanding this channel and channels of this type, which will provide more reference and reference significance for your subsequent delivery.

People who are willing to try new things and have the courage to innovate will not be greatly affected even if the promotion market changes greatly. Because people who are good at grasping the direction have already prepared for the future. This is why some people who work for two years are better than those who work for five years, because they are good at innovation and thinking.

6. The formation of the pattern and the growth cycle of information flow

In 2019, on the one hand, the traffic in each channel has basically taken shape, and the traffic difference between giants and small channels is getting bigger and bigger. On the other hand, the entire market is moving towards saturation and traffic has peaked. Although the information flow market has a clear growth trend, after reaching a peak, it will inevitably go downhill like search. This is an inevitable law. In my personal opinion, the information flow market will have a period of rapid development of three to four years, after which the growth will inevitably slow down or even decline.

At present, information flow has passed its wild growth period and is reaching a mature and saturation period. It will then move towards a stable and bottleneck period (the same as the current situation of search). The current information flow cost is rising slightly, getting higher every year. Judging from the changes and developments in the market, these are all normal. Some people like to compare the present with the past, but the present certainly cannot be compared with the past. After all, the situation of mobile Internet is different every year. The future is also unknown. What we can do is embrace change and respond positively.

2

The market is always changing. Understand the market and embrace the changes.

Overall, the market has changed a lot this year, much more than last year. From manual to intelligent advertising; from traffic growth to stock; from policy tightening to market structure finalization; from resource integration of various platforms to diversified and refined advertising; from video information flow to short video sales... These changes just prove the saying that the only constant is change itself...

For advertising in 2020, only by understanding the market, following market changes, actively embracing market changes, and exploring responses can we make steady progress . Nothing remains unchanged, so the traffic market is changing, and the thinking of every promotion practitioner must also change. The good days of low cost and high volume are unlikely to return, and blue ocean channels will almost no longer exist unless new forms of advertising emerge.

19 years has come to an end. For the promotion market in 2020, it is expected that search promotion will show a downward trend on the one hand, and will become more intelligent on the other . In addition to these major market trends, I believe that search platforms represented by Baidu will launch new promotional products in 2020. From the fact that Baidu is currently focusing on promoting knowledge marketing, we can see that in 2020, search promotion products will be more diversified, including knowledge marketing, input flow...

In terms of intelligent delivery, it is expected that Baidu Search will be more inclined towards ocpc in 2020, or in the targeting link, it will also shift to the information flow model, launching basic targeting + interest targeting, etc. Keyword genes are added to the population-targeted genes. Of course, these are just personal predictions and do not represent official statements.

As for the information flow market, I believe that competition will become even more intense. It all depends on how you play it.

3

"It's so hard for me" How to place in 2020

How to deploy in 2020? How to deal with the “It’s too hard for me” aspect of promotion?

1. Multi-channel farming is not as good as intensive farming

Adapt to changes, respond proactively, and there will be no shortage of solutions. As for the 2020 launch, I would like to share my personal thoughts.

In the past, we talked about expanding channels and increasing sales. However, as giants BATT occupy the majority of market traffic, expanding channels is no longer a good method. The more channels you open, the higher the operating costs will be. If there are not enough staff and the pace of promotion is not well controlled, it is easy to overtake on multiple fronts. Moreover, for many channels, as you keep investing, you will eventually find that the budget will be cut more and more until you give up the channel. This was the conventional thinking in the past.

The strategy for 2020 may be to focus on the main channels instead of cultivating multiple channels . It is impossible for a channel with high volume and low cost to exist. This is a more pragmatic approach because traffic is mainly concentrated in the giants. Of course, small channels can also be tried, but it is more important to grasp the main channels. It is possible to transform from the previous multi-channel single-household to single-channel multi-household. This approach is worth trying in 2020.

2. Actively respond to smart delivery and dare to innovate

In 2019, in the traffic market, on the one hand, intelligent delivery (ocpc/ocpm/cpa/ocpa, etc.) is becoming more and more popular, and on the other hand, with the tightening of policies, page hosting will cover more industries (such as Baidu Jimuyu's hosting). These market changes are objective and avoiding them is not a solution. Therefore, in 2020, it is necessary to actively respond to smart delivery and dare to innovate.

As far as search is concerned, Baidu OCPC and Shenma OCPC are both worth in-depth research. Baidu's OCPC has been launched for more than a year and is relatively mature. Currently, many large industries are using ocpc. Small industries or some optimizers are still waiting and watching, so it is recommended that you give it a try. In addition to trying, it is necessary to do in-depth research.

At present, Baidu ocpc is suitable for many industries, but it is also not suitable for many industries. You need to choose according to your actual situation. Here I am more of a call to try it, rather than necessarily saying how good it is. When placing advertisements, we should adapt to the situation rather than avoid or resist it. Increase intelligent delivery and build your own system of intelligent delivery for the platform in your mind. Then, no matter which platform you encounter, you will be able to deal with it calmly.

For both Jimuyu and Orange Website Builder, semi-hosting of pages will become the norm in 2020 . In terms of intelligent delivery, it is necessary to master these system website building tools because it is directly related to your results.

3. Improve conversion rates in 2020

Recently, I read the new book "Super Conversion Rate" by the well-known marketing expert Chen Yong, and benefited a lot from it.

The book provides a comprehensive overview of the significance of conversion rate, and discusses the advantages and practices of improving conversion rate through a variety of materials such as cases, data, and the author's summary. It has to be said that Teacher Chen Yong’s new book is in line with the current promotion market situation. That is, improving conversion rate has become the core weapon of advertising. At a time when promotion is becoming increasingly difficult, improving conversion rates is more urgent and necessary than ever.

From the perspective of the advertising delivery process, the conversion rate mainly comes from three aspects: the first is the front-end promotion link, which is mainly the web page conversion rate ; the second is the customer service conversion rate in the mid-end link (only for online consultation and fan-adding, form-based services do not require reception); and the third is the sales conversion rate in the promotion back-end. I won’t talk much about the mid-end and back-end here, but will focus on the promotion conversion rate of the front-end.

Nowadays, in the advertising delivery process, operations have begun to be intelligent, and many things have begun to be semi-hosted. The differences between advertisers will begin to narrow. Among these, pages can make a difference. Moreover, making the page exquisite and good is a long-term task in the promotion process, and it is also a very important thing.

Advertising in 2020, whether it is search terms or big data population portraits in information flow, they all carry a variety of needs, and a single page certainly cannot fully carry them. Therefore, we need to use self-built websites and platform-built tools to classify and summarize according to current traffic demands, create multiple pages to meet different demands, and improve conversion rates. Making a page is just a process, and the ideas behind making the page and the planning of the page are the key points.

In terms of page planning, in addition to having more pages, you also need to combine visitor needs and write and create texts and pictures that address pain points. In this regard, optimizers are also required to improve their planning capabilities. As the joke goes, an editor who is not a graphic designer is not a good bidder. In 2020, we still need to learn more and work harder on pages and conversion rates.

4

Summarize

Shifting from extensive thinking to refined delivery, from adjusting words and prices to page planning, from multi-channel cultivation to deep cultivation of the main channels, and from cost control to improving conversion rate, this is a very important thing in 2020. It concerns your results, your conversion, and more importantly, personal improvement and company performance.

I have read this far and thank you for your browsing. It took me about two and a half hours to write this article, and it may only take you three minutes to read it, but these insights into industry developments required the author to observe for a year. I hope the above summary will be useful to everyone. Some of my personal opinions may not be correct. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Finally, I’d like to give you a piece of advice: no matter how the promotion situation changes, learn more, improve more, and you will be invincible. Although the market is indeed difficult now, there will always be 20% of people who do well, and your goal should be to be one of those 20%. The promotion pattern is changing, but our original intention cannot change. To establish ourselves in the promotion field, we must burn our boats and cross the river. The 120 Qin passes will eventually belong to Chu.

Author: Mubibai

Source: Aichisem