2019 Advertising Monetization Insights Report!

In this article, we will continue to provide you with effective monetization data and experience for audio, education, and sports tool media, to help related media successfully open the "treasure box" of monetization and increased revenue!

1. Audio APP

1) Overall monetization trend

As the mobile Internet enters a period of inventory and the mobile traffic dividend gradually fades, the online audio market maintains a steady and rapid growth trend - the user scale and penetration rate are increasing day by day. As the online audio industry has become a new and important traffic entrance, every company that wants to tap into the traffic dividend will certainly not give up this "gold-digging" opportunity - more and more brand owners have begun to pay attention to the marketing value of digital audio advertising, and are gradually shifting their advertising budgets to this field; followed by many online audio media actively flocking to the digital audio advertising track, using advertising monetization as their main means of commercial profit, which has invisibly driven the entire industry's advertising monetization momentum to be strong and has a promising future.

2) Key monetization forms <br />According to media monetization cases and advertising monetization data: splash screen ads, information flow ads, interstitial ads, and audio playback page sticker ads are common and conventional types of ads in audio apps. In addition, in order to expand their monetization advantages and benefits, some audio platforms are also actively trying more new audio advertising methods: such as audio patch ads, native audio interstitial ads, splash screen video ads, information flow video ads, etc., which greatly enhances the media's competitive advantage and sales capabilities.

The average click-through rate of splash screen ads can reach 2%-6%, and the highest can reach 12%; the click-through rate of video splash screen ads can be increased by 10%-40% compared to graphic and text formats. The click-through rate of text and picture information flow ads can reach 2%-4%; while the click-through rate of video information flow ads can reach up to 4%-6%. The click-through rate of interstitial ads and audio playback page sticker ads is usually around 0.5%-1.5%. In addition, the media is still in the initial trial stage for audio patch ads and native audio interstitial ads. The gameplay and strategies are slightly immature, and the click and exposure performance are also slightly insufficient.

3) Key delivery categories <br />Among the advertising materials of audio media, e-commerce, education, books and publications, automobiles, and games are the top 5 delivery categories; in addition, finance, tourism, smart hardware, application promotion, and event promotion advertising also have a large share.

Advertising monetization advice for 2020

1) Create more new audio advertising methods - support various advertising formats such as graphics, text, video, and audio, so as to meet the diversified marketing demands of brands by covering the two major scenarios of "watching" and "listening", while enhancing the media's competitive advantage and monetization revenue.

2) The integration of AI, voice recognition, big data technology and mobile audio advertising will likely open up more new marketing ideas and possibilities - such as real-time analysis of the sound sent back by users, and then dynamically generating accurate advertising materials and displaying them in appropriate audio content in a timely manner, thereby achieving efficient connection between users and brand advertising. However, related gameplay still requires further exploration and experimentation of audio media.

3) The production cost of audio patches or other audio-based advertisements is relatively high, which may discourage some advertisers and also hinder the media’s advertising revenue. If the media can master relevant technologies in the future, such as synthesizing sounds with the help of intelligent voice technology, they will be able to quickly generate advertising audio materials, helping advertisers to launch campaigns efficiently and at low cost while improving media monetization advantages and revenues.

4) If audio media want to improve their advertising monetization advantages and scale in the future, they must first base themselves on continuously increasing their layout of high-quality audio content. Only by introducing and expanding high-quality content and innovating the form of content presentation can we bring in more and better quality traffic, which in turn will feed back into the smooth development of advertising monetization.

2. Educational apps

Note: This article specifically refers to educational tools for home-school co-education.

1) Overall monetization trend <br />In recent years, online home-school co-education platforms, as an effective collaborative education tool for kindergartens and families, have experienced explosive growth - not only have they received capital injections, but they have also continued to expand their user base. As the leading apps have successively passed the initial stage where scale was the priority, "commercial monetization", especially commercial advertising monetization, has become a top priority for their active attempts and long-term layout. In general, the overall advertising monetization momentum in the education industry was good in 2019, and various APPs continued to expand their monetization ideas and strategies.

2) Key monetization forms <br />Splash screen ads, information flow ads, and banner ads are commonly used advertising monetization methods for educational apps. In addition, in sections such as the personal center and "My", many APPs have also tried to embed interactive advertisements, incentive video advertisements, etc.

Among them, splash screen ads have the most prominent monetization advantage, with a click-through rate as high as 8-12%. Especially for splash screen ads in video format, exposure and click effects are more advantageous; information flow ads have the advantages of being highly integrated with content flows and having high user acceptance, with an average click-through rate of 1-3%. Interactive ads and incentivized video ads can help media fully tap the commercial value of existing users, increase media revenue, and enhance the activity and engagement of platform users.

3) Key categories of advertising <br />Among education APP channels, education (infant and early childhood education) and e-commerce advertisements are the most popular, accounting for more than 50% of the total advertising; secondly, maternal and child, online radio (early childhood education), travel, real estate, home furnishing, charity, insurance, and entertainment and leisure brands also often use education media to attract consumers and expand brand exposure.

Advertising monetization advice for 2020

1) It is recommended that educational apps develop more new video formats of advertisements: such as splash screen video ads, information flow video ads, focus image video ads, vertical screen video ads, banner video ads, etc., so as to more effectively cultivate the existing market and tap into new profit growth points.

2) Integrate AI and big data analysis technology to achieve accurate advertising recommendations - that is, the advertisements are consistent with the children's learning and life scenarios, so as to arouse the emotional resonance and interest of the audience (parents), and ultimately improve advertising exposure and conversion effects.

3) While carrying out advertising monetization on a large scale, the media must be able to strictly control the quality of online advertisements - that is, based on the particularity of the APP's positioning, generally, industry advertisements that are contrary to learning and education or do not match the tone should be restricted. This ensures that the media's image is protected in all dimensions while making the advertisements more targeted and effective. (Click here to learn about Meishu’s advertising review mechanism)

3. Sports Tools APP

1) Overall monetization trend

National fitness and sports check-ins are becoming more and more popular among highly educated and high-net-worth urban people, and the marketing value of sports scenes is becoming increasingly important. Subsequently, sports tool apps covering multiple scenarios such as sports, life and social interaction are also committed to achieving effective connection between brands and users by focusing on advertising monetization, and thereby quickly reaping traffic dividends. In general, with the two core advantages of covering vertical circles of high-quality and highly active users + providing high-quality and highly professional sports content, the advertising monetization power and potential contained in the sports tools industry cannot be underestimated.

2) Key monetization forms <br />Splash screen, information flow, and banner are common advertising styles for sports tool media. In addition, based on user usage scenarios and habits, some of Meishu's partner media have also launched pre-course patch ads (video) and audio patch ads, in order to attract more advertisers' budgets and enhance media's competitive advantage through more diversified brand marketing methods.

Splash screen ads are suitable for brand promotion. They have more significant exposure effects and a click-through rate of 4-6%. Information flow ads are naturally integrated into the content flow. While users have higher acceptance, the click-through rate is also significantly better - up to 2%-4% on average, and up to 5% at the highest. Pre-course patch ads appear at the beginning of fitness videos. With the advantages of strong accompaniment and strong eye-catching, they not only have a high exposure rate, but also a click-through rate that is not inferior to splash screen ads and information flow ads, reaching an average of 3%-5%.

3) Key investment categories <br />Sports tool apps are mainly targeted at e-commerce, fast-moving consumer goods, food and beverages, sports equipment, beauty and skin care, health and wellness, automobiles, 3C digital, smart hardware, etc.

Advertising monetization advice for 2020

1) With the help of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, we can achieve scenario-based and immersive advertising placement - that is, based on the user's sports training content, training trajectory, etc., we can place highly relevant brand advertisements to make the brand advertisements deeply rooted in people's hearts and memorable, while enhancing the media's placement advantages and service capabilities.

2) The media needs to be cautious in its attitude towards commercialization. For embedded advertising, it is recommended to adopt a strict review and filtering mechanism to avoid damaging the media's image and goodwill due to poor user experience, thereby causing user loss. 2020 is coming. We hope that this report can give you a better insight into market changes and development trends, and help you find new opportunities in the changes, so that you can formulate advertising monetization strategies more intelligently and win in the future! If you want to have a deeper understanding of the advertising monetization market, or if you have any questions about advertising monetization technology and strategies, we hope you can contact Meishujun at any time. Meishujun will provide you with the most practical solutions with mature and sophisticated advertising monetization technology and services, and become your best partner for commercialization!

Author: Meishu Technology

Source: Meishu Technology