Insights into e-commerce information flow advertising in 2019!

The transaction volume of the Double Eleven battle continues to break records. Major e-commerce platforms have not only done their homework on products and prices, but also high-quality information flow advertising positions have become a must-fight place. Double 12 is coming, and a new round of information flow advertising will further compete for user attention.

E-commerce advertisers are one of the earliest categories of advertisers to explore information flow. After years of trial and error, they have become more and more compatible with information flow advertising and have gradually become one of the most important categories of advertisers in the information flow advertising market. During peak periods, they account for nearly 60% of the number of days for delivery and nearly 30% of the delivery index.

With the successful exploration of e-commerce advertisers, other physical advertisers such as fast-moving consumer goods, daily chemicals, clothing and other categories have also gradually begun to try information flow delivery.

▶ Core Summary

The overall background of e-commerce information flow advertising:

The share of information flow advertising continued to rise, accounting for 22.5% of the overall online advertising market in 2018

The online retail market maintains stable development, and advertisers' demand for advertising will further increase

Information flow advertising has been cooperating with e-commerce advertisers for a long time and is favored by e-commerce advertisers. It accounts for a high proportion of the overall information flow delivery, with the peak delivery days accounting for nearly 60% and the delivery index accounting for nearly 30%.

E-commerce information flow advertising data insights:

In cooperation with e-commerce operation activities, the delivery index increased significantly during the "6.18" and Double Eleven warm-up period

Advertisers: The comprehensive top e-commerce companies have a clear leading position in the advertising index

Media: Mobile apps take the main position, and information-related comprehensive media become the mainstream choice

Analysis of the development dynamics of e-commerce information flow advertising:

· Information flow advertising is constantly empowering: 1) The platform's ability to achieve win-win cooperation is improved, connecting the delivery platform and the data platform to comprehensively improve delivery efficiency; 2) The proportion of video is increased, expanding the comprehensiveness of product information display and improving advertising delivery effects

Advertisers: There is a large selection of display elements, and multi-dimensional information linkage keeps users active.

Media: The requirements for delivery accuracy are constantly increasing, and media with a rich user base have become the must-have partners for e-commerce advertisers.

Overall advertising background of e-commerce advertisers

1. The scale of information flow advertising in China’s online advertising market

Information flow ads are highly native and match the needs of e-commerce advertisers to achieve high conversion rates.

In 2018, the information flow advertising market size reached 109.04 billion yuan, and is expected to exceed 250 billion yuan in 2020. The market share of information flow advertising in China's online advertising segment has also continued to rise, accounting for 22.5% in 2018 and is expected to reach 35.8% in 2021.

According to iResearch, e-commerce advertisers are more focused on the traffic diversion effect of advertising, and the advertising entities are diverse, with a large demand for advertising space. This is a perfect combination with the native characteristics of information flow and rich advertising inventory. E-commerce advertisers are one of the earliest categories of advertisers to explore information flow. After years of trial and error, their cooperation with information flow advertising has become increasingly tacit, and their importance in the information flow advertising market has become increasingly prominent. With the successful exploration of e-commerce advertisers, other physical advertisers such as fast-moving consumer goods, daily chemicals, clothing and other categories have also gradually begun to try information flow delivery.

2. Analysis of information flow delivery data of advertisers in the whole industry

The second half of the year is generally the peak period for information flow delivery, and top advertisers are more concentrated in their delivery

Under the influence of the macroeconomic environment, the advantages of information flow advertising based on settlement results have been further recognized by advertisers. During the monitoring period, the information flow delivery index showed a fluctuating increase, and the upward trend was obvious during the peak period of advertising delivery in the second half of the year.

Especially during the warm-up period of Double Eleven in October, it became a peak period for advertising not only for e-commerce but also for major brands, online services and other advertisers. E-commerce advertising drove the overall industry advertising index to increase, soaring to 819,285.8 million, but at the same time the number of advertisers declined. It can be seen that in October, the delivery of information flow advertisements was more concentrated among the top advertisers, and the average amount of investment per advertiser increased.

3. Analysis of overall advertising demand of e-commerce advertisers

The online retail market is developing steadily, and advertisers' demand for advertising will further increase

In 2018, the transaction volume of the online retail market reached 7.90 trillion yuan, of which the mobile online retail market volume reached 665 million yuan, accounting for nearly 85%. As user shopping behaviors further shift online, especially to mobile devices, advertisers’ choices of delivery terminals also change with user behaviors. Mobile advertising can achieve direct conversion from “exposure-jump-purchase”, lowering the threshold for user operations and making it easier to encourage user purchases.

This year is affected by the macro-economy. The proportion of brand advertising has decreased, and advertising forms that can achieve direct conversions and have visible and controllable effects are more valued by advertisers, such as information flow advertising.

Overall advertising trends of e-commerce information flow advertisers

1. The core role of e-commerce advertising

Advertisers and media parties each have multiple roles

E-commerce advertisers can be divided into three categories:

1) Platform promotion: improve the recognition and usage of e-commerce brands, and promote user downloads and purchase conversions. This usually occurs in the early stages of the platform or when vertical e-commerce platforms are used to improve their brands.

2) Platform operation activity publicity: on the one hand, it can attract users' attention to the overall operation activities; on the other hand, it can enhance the overall image in the minds of merchants through continuous operation brand publicity, and encourage more merchants to participate in the overall operation activities;

3) Single brand/product promotion: Brand or single product promotion is directly connected with the purchasing method of the e-commerce platform to promote purchase conversion as a direct goal.

The media used by e-commerce advertisers are basically the same as those used by other types of advertisers. In addition to comprehensive information media and entertainment social media, platforms that evaluate individual products and publish product information to directly direct traffic to e-commerce have also become an important way of advertising.

2. E-commerce advertisers’ information flow delivery days and index

It accounts for a large proportion of information flow advertising, with obvious peaks during "Double Eleven" and "6.18"

Although the number of e-commerce advertisers is relatively small, their advertising days account for a relatively high proportion of the entire industry. In 6 of the 12 months from November 2018 to October 2019, the advertising proportion exceeded 50% of the entire industry. In June 2019, the number of advertising days reached 2,011,646, accounting for 58.5%. In October 2019, the investment index reached 2.276 billion, accounting for 27.8% of the entire industry. The peaks of the investment index occurred in June and October respectively.

According to iResearch AdTracker data, there are obvious cyclical fluctuations in the e-commerce industry. Affected by the promotional festivals of e-commerce platforms such as "6.18" and "Double Eleven", e-commerce platforms have been building momentum for promotions in the early stages of the festivals. During this period, consumers are more likely to be attracted by promotional information in advertisements, and advertisers' willingness to place ads also peaks.

Under the premise that the scale of advertisers in the e-commerce industry remains stable, the information flow advertising investment index of the e-commerce industry shows a fluctuating upward trend, indicating that advertisers in the e-commerce industry are increasingly accepting the form of information flow advertising.

3. Analysis of information flow delivery of TOP10 e-commerce advertisers

The e-commerce market structure is clear, and the leading platforms bring higher demand for investment

Due to differences in platform size, e-commerce advertisers have varying demands for information flow advertising. Compared with other e-commerce platforms, the leading e-commerce platforms have more users and a wider variety of products, so they have higher demand for advertising. For relatively niche or more specialized e-commerce platforms, the target users are relatively fixed, resulting in smaller demand for advertising.

4. Preference for media type in e-commerce information flow advertising

Information flow products represented by Toutiao and Baidu have obvious leading advantages

Among the top 5 media, news and information comprehensive media are still the main ones. In the era of mobile Internet, information flow products occupy most of the users' fragmented time. The content integration of information flow advertisements on news and information platforms is the highest. Baidu APP is guided by user intentions and combined with information flow content, so it has advantages in memorability and trust.

E-commerce information flow advertising is similar to other types of information flow advertising, with Toutiao and Baidu APP still being the preferred delivery targets, while other media lag far behind. The number of advertisers decreased in October compared with September, but the investment index of each advertiser increased significantly. Taking Toutiao and Baidu as examples, the investment of each advertiser increased by 79% and 20% respectively.

Creative ideas for e-commerce information flow advertising

1. Analysis of creative situation of e-commerce information flow advertising

Creativity accounts for more than 50% of the industry

E-commerce information flow ads can be roughly divided into three categories: red envelope collection, low-price promotion, and product display. They often hope to quickly capture consumers' attention without pursuing complex designs. They are characterized by simple designs and fast updates. The proportion of creativity has been maintained at more than 60% for a long time, and has increased significantly since May 2019. It is speculated that this is related to the launch of batch generation of creativity by major advertising platforms.

2. Examples of creative materials for e-commerce information flow advertising

The material elements are composed of three parts: the main product image, text, and background.

E-commerce information flow advertising development trends and directions

1. Observation on the empowerment of e-commerce information flow advertising

The data of e-commerce platforms and media platforms are connected, greatly improving the efficiency of information flow advertising

As the current level of media integration continues to improve, leading e-commerce platforms are actively seeking cross-border cooperation with leading media to further lower the operational threshold in terms of backend data and platform jumps to achieve seamless conversion. On the one hand, it improves the precise positioning of advertising targets, increases the exposure effect of information flow advertising, and at the same time reduces disturbance to users. On the other hand, database matching is carried out on the delivery side to implement programmatic delivery methods, facilitate the delivery process, and greatly improve delivery efficiency.

Video delivery comprehensively displays product information and improves conversion effects

When displaying e-commerce products, it is necessary to show users functions and discount information in all aspects. Therefore, simple graphic and text information flow ads are difficult to meet the advertisers' ever-increasing delivery needs. At the same time, with the decline in mobile charges and the increase in mobile network speed under the macro background, the proportion of video information flow ads and content has continued to increase, further creating conditions for e-commerce advertisers to deliver information flow and increasing the attractiveness of e-commerce advertisers' materials to users.

2. Observation on the key points of e-commerce information flow advertising materials

Linking multi-dimensional information such as platforms, products, and activities to improve the overall promotion effect

Compared with advertisers of traditional products, games and other online services, e-commerce advertisers have a wider range of options for advertising entities and information. The overall operational activities of the e-commerce platform, brand product displays, new product launches, single product discount information, etc. can all be used as the main content for promotion. Although the content choices are diverse, the above information all has its appeal to users. A single information category can contribute to the whole, realize multi-dimensional information linkage, attract users' attention to platforms-activities-products, and improve the overall delivery effect.

3. Observation of e-commerce information flow advertising scenarios

Media with a strong user base and superior platform technology capabilities become the core

As users' purchasing habits further shift online, e-commerce advertisers are gradually taking on greater responsibility for promoting products while promoting their platforms. Therefore, advertisers have not relaxed their requirements for cost-effective conversion effects. At the same time, the KPI assessment standards have further shifted towards purchasing behavior, and the focus has shifted from simple exposure evaluation to jump, purchase, repurchase, sharing and other behavioral assessments.

In this context, choosing appropriate high-quality media will become one of the key factors in achieving good delivery results. In addition to covering a large number of high-quality user groups, high-quality media need to have more precise labeling of user groups, purchasing cycles, etc.

Author: Ari

Source: iResearch