Understand information flow video ads and their delivery strategies in 3 minutes!

On the one hand, the professionalism of “If you have any questions, go to Zhihu” has been dethroned by the huge influx of users and turned into a joke like “I just got off a plane in the United States”; on the other hand, the popular content has also failed to achieve a good classification and content production model, making it difficult for users to find a unique sense of belonging and increase stickiness. What the circle achieves is perhaps to allow different users to divert and live in peace.

Recently, many in-depth Zhihu users have received private message invitations from Zhihu institutional accounts, inviting them to participate in the internal testing of a new feature called "Zhihu Circles". The official account of Zhihu Circles published a post about the definition of "What is a Zhihu Circle": "In the large Zhihu community, there are many people with the same interests and characteristics. Circles use small groups to provide these users with a more centralized and relaxed communication and interaction environment."

Before inviting users to the internal test, Zhihu had actually quietly launched the circle function in the APP several months ago, but without any public promotion. The large-scale release of the internal test information can be regarded as the prototype of the circle function and the initial user base. Actual use has found that there are already classifications such as celebrities, interests, industries, campus, emotions, and games, and the sections are relatively complete.

Judging from the layout of Zhihu Circle Square, it is basically the same as Weibo's Super Topic Community and similar to Baidu Tieba:

Whether it is the keywords such as "concentration" and "relaxation" mentioned in Zhihu's official positioning of circles, or the actual product logic of experience, circles are a product segment that is relatively independent of Zhihu itself, and has some similarities with content communities such as Weibo Super Topic and Douban Group. This low-threshold content format has a fairly wide audience range, and the “circle” function may carry considerable expectations for the platform . However, there are already more than one content communities of this kind. From Tieba to Weibo super topics, Douban groups, and Hupu forums, each has its own signature community characteristics and user base. Can the newly-entered Zhihu circle establish its own advantages?

01 From Tieba to Chaohu, the opponents in Zhihu circle are quite strong

Baidu Tieba, Weibo Super Topic, Douban Group, Hupu Forum, many of the community platforms we are familiar with have interest-based "circle" style operations. Some of them are confined to a corner and have great influence in one or two fields, some have become the battlefield of celebrity marketing, and some started early but failed to maintain the advantage of getting a head start.

Over the past many years, Baidu Tieba has almost become a "PC Internet Museum" - for almost any category in any field, you can find corresponding high-quality online content in Tieba, based on the Tieba order established by folk masters, including games, novels, culture, regions... From astronomy, geography and national affairs to student forums for junior and high schools, Tieba covers almost everything. But recently, the biggest Tieba event we know about was the announcement in May this year that "posts before 2017 are temporarily inaccessible", which made netizens sigh.

Baidu Tieba has the highest starting point and currently has a huge user scale, but due to various changes and lagging behind in the mobile Internet era, it is now difficult to see new vitality.

Weibo Super Topic may have become the most important place for fan groups on Weibo to interact and communicate. And under the operation of Weibo, almost all related activities such as fans obtaining information about idols, daily interactions and likes, organization and disclosure of key events, interaction between stars and fans, star endorsements and commercial activities, etc. can be concentrated in Weibo super topics. Weibo Super Topic is based on the binding of Weibo and celebrity social accounts, and is a communication platform for celebrities and fan organizations.

In the current Internet environment, Weibo super topics have almost become an irreplaceable existence for fan circles. Just like Jay Chou’s “top ranking incident” a while ago, a star who does not have a Weibo account, his fans gathered together to participate in the super topic ranking. Behind the fan carnival and media communication effect, it is actually the victory of Weibo super topic itself in the fan economy.

Yang Chaoyue's Zhihu circle and Weibo super topic

Douban groups are quite special. On the one hand, the popularity of the "Eight Groups" has made Douban groups a well-known entertainment circle melon field, known as "feeding many entertainment marketing accounts", but from the broader characteristics of other Douban groups, it is still a highly vertical interest discussion community based on books, movies, music and life, and is relatively closed - many influential groups have an "application-review" access mechanism. In the field of film, television and variety shows, groups have become one of the components of Douban's rating page, and have therefore become an important place for entertainment marketing. This may be one of the future development directions of the Zhihu circle.

The current characteristics of Zhihu circles are similar to those of Douban groups, Tieba, and Weibo. As for whether it is competing with other platforms, it is difficult to see any clues from the current small scale of the Zhihu circle. However, the scope of Zhihu's question-and-answer platform itself is all-encompassing, and circles can at least cater to users' more social needs and meet the user needs beyond questions and answers and articles.

02 Zhihu, with 200 million users, needs to find a way to keep users from getting lost

Why does Zhihu need circles?

As we all know, the discussion about the content quality of Zhihu has never been settled in the past few years. In the early days, Zhihu was an invitation-based high-end question-and-answer community. In December 2018, Zhihu announced that its user base had exceeded 220 million, a year-on-year increase of 102%. The number of questions it asked exceeded 30 million, and the number of answers exceeded 130 million. During the 2018 World Cup, Zhihu’s first spokesperson Liu Haoran also kept making his presence felt with his brainwashing ads: “Do you know? Do you really know? Are you sure you know? Are you really sure you know? If you have any questions, go to Zhihu!”

After a year of rapid expansion with the number of users doubling, Zhihu is facing at least one problem in terms of content and user operations: whether for content producers or content consumers, the existing Zhihu cannot meet the needs of every user for content and platform experience.

For users who prefer to see professional, high-threshold content, the large influx of new user groups will inevitably bring content that does not meet the needs of traditional Zhihu users, such as the targeted content production of entertainment marketing accounts. However, answers based on the number of likes, article sections and intelligent recommendation distribution are difficult to truly complete the screening of content quality.

From another perspective, many users who come to Zhihu to follow celebrities and entertainment topics may not necessarily have a good experience on Zhihu. Although Zhihu has long been criticized for its watered-down content, objectively speaking it is still one of the largest high-quality information content platforms on the Chinese Internet, gathering a large amount of content with certain requirements and high-level users. Many discussions on entertainment topics are actually quite complex.

Excluding circles, Zhihu's content sections can currently be divided into several categories, including questions and answers, articles, ideas, Yanxuan columns, live, e-books, etc. The Yanxuan column, live, and e-books based on the membership payment system are one of the commercialization directions of Zhihu. The idea function has been almost shelved, and ordinary content output still mainly comes from questions and answers and articles. There is still a content production threshold for both to gain popularity.

In other words, what at least some new users need is a Zhihu where everyone can participate in discussions and can accommodate more "watery" content than the current one.

So the problem is that on the one hand, the professionalism of "If you have any questions, go to Zhihu" has been deified by the huge influx of users and turned into a joke like "I just got off a plane in the United States". On the other hand, the popular content has also failed to achieve a good classification and content production model, making it difficult for users to find a unique sense of belonging and improve stickiness.

Looking back at the "semi-closed interest circle" feature of the "Circle" function, I think it is indeed very valuable for Zhihu. Simply put, it is to allow different users to find their own user experience, guide and divert them, and reduce the cost of users getting "lost" in the ocean of content - consolidate and rebuild the once truly "high-end" Zhihu, and regain the relatively serious and knowledge-based characteristics of the brand platform; at the same time, enhance the stickiness of the large number of users who have poured in in the past few years, so that users who are interested in social needs also have a place to belong.

Just like the mutual connection and peaceful coexistence of Douban groups and the book, movie and music sections, in the face of the problem of declining content quality brought about by the expansion of user scale, this kind of content operation in niche areas is something that almost all platforms have to do - after all, whether it is the algorithm-recommended distribution model or the circle function based on interests and hobbies, it is all to provide every user with an experience that feels comfortable.

Commercial considerations may also have a certain impact. Zhihu's commercialization can be roughly divided into paid membership and information flow advertising. Users who frequently use Zhihu should be able to discover the changes in Zhihu's advertising: now more and more advertisements are hidden in the recommended information flow in the form of questions and answers. Duyoujun believes that this model of combining traffic monetization with platform characteristics may be the most important component of Zhihu's commercialization. If the "Circle" function can consolidate existing user traffic, it will also have a positive effect on information flow advertising.

In 2012, Zhihu CEO Zhou Yuan wrote in response to a question about Zhihu’s original intention:

Now, many years later, these words seem to have given rise to more definitional puzzles - how do we define "experts", "high quality" and "valuable information"? Perhaps one thing that remains unchanged is that when a platform is large enough and has enough users, the characteristics of the platform will become a microcosm of the characteristics of society as a whole, and Zhihu is probably no exception.

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The value of information flow advertising is increasingly valued by advertisers and media. As various types of media are embedded in this form of advertising in combination with their own interactive characteristics, the extension of information flow advertising has been continuously enriched. After pictures and texts, information flow video advertising has emerged as a new force and has become the new favorite of brand marketing...

In the end, what are the outstanding advantages and values ​​of information flow video advertising? How can we make the delivery of information flow video ads more efficient? Next, Meishujun will analyze it for you~

What are in-feed video ads?

Refers to information flow ads in the form of videos that are interspersed with the content that users browse and read. Its characteristics are: the form and content are highly integrated and naturally coordinated with the form and content of the media platform itself.

Why are information flow video ads so popular?

The delivery of graphic and text information flow advertising has entered the second half, and video information flow advertising has become a new growth point in the current advertising market and is developing at a relatively rapid pace. The reason for this is closely related to its own unique advantages!

1

A product that adapts to market development

The "China Mobile Video Advertising Research Report 2019" released by InMobi shows that Chinese adults spend an average of 3 hours and 45 minutes on their mobile phones every day. Among them, video consumption on mobile phones has shown exponential growth. The surge in mobile video consumption has also directly led to the rapid development of brand mobile video advertising: in 2017 and 2018, brand advertisers' spending on mobile video advertising in apps soared, with year-on-year spending growth reaching 348% in 2017, and the proportion increased from 6% to 12% in 2018, doubling...

However, as more and more advertisers flock to video ads, we will find that consumer habits are quietly changing: British advertising agency Mirriad found that advertisers are very keen on pre-roll video ads, but 90% of consumers will choose to skip the pre-roll... It can be seen that if advertisers want to continue to use video ads to attract users, they must rely on other forms - and information flow video ads are the product of current market development and brand marketing demands. Not only is it not as "expensive" as regular video patch ads, it can also be quietly integrated into consumers' browsing of content, making it more acceptable to users and more effective for brand placement.

2

Better convey brand message

Compared with text and picture information streams, video information stream ads can carry richer and more substantial brand content, which can better convey brand messages and communicate with users more efficiently (according to Meishu’s experience in advertising, compared with text and picture information streams, the click-through rate of video information stream ads can be increased by 30%-60%). In addition, video materials have both sound and color, which can stimulate user senses in all directions. While the advertising impact and attention are stronger, brand awareness and memory are also higher.

3

The user scale is large enough

Previously, brands focused on placing video ads on video and short video APP channels. Information flow video ads can be embedded in various types of apps, including social (such as WeChat and Momo), information (such as Toutiao and Dongqiudi), video and audio (such as iQiyi and Qingting FM), reading (such as Kuaikan Comics), educational tools (such as Zhihuishu), and sports and fitness tools (such as Keep). These app channels have a large enough user scale and can cover user groups at all levels. Therefore, in an era of fragmented attention, they can help brands more efficiently and accurately target a large number of high-quality target groups and achieve strong brand exposure.

How to make information flow video ads more efficient?

Some advertisers have already reaped the first wave of dividends from information flow video ads; while others are still struggling and can’t find a way out... So, how can we make the delivery of information flow video ads more efficient?

Based on my own experience, I have the following suggestions:

1

Grasp the “golden 6 seconds” of video communication

In-feed video ads are usually 15-30 seconds long. The first 6 seconds are the key to whether an ad is effective and can generate conversions. Statistics from a large amount of video advertising data show that more than 90% of users scroll past the video ad after watching it for 6 seconds. So, what can brands do to make good use of these “golden 6 seconds”?

The following three points are very important: First, the first 1-3 seconds of the picture must be eye-catching. For example, you can use a popular star/a visually impactful and cool picture as the beginning, or use a big-character poster to ask questions to stimulate thinking and attract attention, etc.; second, the text should be concise and prominent, and the subtitles that were previously narrated must be condensed into the most core keywords and sentences to directly hit the user's eyes and heart; third, use core interest points (which can be brand selling points that are superior to competitors; or brand selling points that can meet the audience's needs or solve their pain points, etc.) or demand scenarios that can resonate with users to quickly get to the point, so as to effectively attract the interest of the target population and strengthen user memory.

2

The characters in the video should be consistent with the audience

It is recommended that video ads use real people who are consistent with the target audience of the brand/product, and narrate with real scenes (preferably in the first person). For example, in video ads with adult language, the characters should preferably be college students or young professionals, which makes it easier for users to feel real and involved, thereby improving the advertising effect.

3

Emphasis on the role of text

Many advertisers may view video ads as a format that relies solely on sound and images, while downplaying the role of text. In fact, both the text in the video and the title copy have a huge impact on the entire information flow video advertising - because consumers may watch the advertisement with the sound turned off. Although dynamic images may attract their attention, since they cannot hear the sound, they cannot fully understand the brand information and concept that the video wants to convey. At this time, the text elements in the title copy or video can better convey the advertised products or services to consumers, and even quickly attract users to click. Therefore, in the later stage of delivery optimization, the copy title is also a very important testing indicator for marketers (after all, the same video content, with different titles, may have very different conversion effects in the end).

4

More original content and format

Information flow video ads are essentially still ads. In order to maximize the effect of advertising without disrupting the user's normal experience, in addition to providing users with valuable information, it is also necessary for the advertising to be displayed close to the original and not be a disturbance to the user.

Content native. That is, before delivery, analyze the channel category or page content theme, and then place the brand information flow ads around highly relevant channel types and content to ensure that the ads accurately target the interested groups while increasing the attractiveness and click-through rate of the ads.

Scene native. That is, the displayed advertising content has a certain relevance to the user's current usage scenario. For example, based on the user's current time period, geographical location, weather conditions, life status (at work, exercising, eating), etc., outputting advertising information that is highly integrated with the scene will make the advertising more humane and warm, and the conversion effect will be significantly improved.

5

Technology support deployment

What is explained above are mostly some suggestions for making creative information flow video ads. In addition, in the actual advertising process, the support of some technical means is indispensable, such as using big data analysis technology and algorithms to accurately know who the user is, user preferences, behavioral habits, real scenarios, etc., and then generate the most suitable advertising creative for TA based on this; for example, using A/B Test technology, using actual data performance to select the creative material with the best conversion rate, etc. Only by combining "content + technology" can you create information flow video ads that suit your customers' needs and inspire them to learn more about you, thereby ultimately leading to sales conversions!

The above is the content of this article. We hope to provide some ideas and inspiration for marketers to better master the production and delivery of information flow video ads, and make information flow video ads quickly become a new potential and driving force for brand marketing growth!

Author: Meishu Technology

Source: Meishu Technology