A complete analysis of the Toutiao search account setup and delivery ideas

As a new search platform launched this year, Toutiao Search has attracted attention from the industry. However, from its launch to now, it seems that there is much ado about nothing.

The search bidding operation of Toutiao is quite different from that of Baidu. Whether you bid or not, whether you are optimistic or pessimistic, I personally think that it is always good to have more exposure to a new channel . This article will show you how to set up, operate and launch a Toutiao search account .

1. Account Building

Promotion Group: First log in to the backend, and the following interface will appear.

The account structure is the same as Baidu promotion, including promotion group, promotion plan, creativity and keywords . Toutiao’s promotion team = Baidu’s promotion plan, Toutiao’s promotion plan = Baidu’s promotion team.

The first step is to create a new promotion group . The system will ask you to select the purpose of the promotion . For general industries, we can just select "sales lead collection".

After selecting the promotion purpose, the next step is to set the budget and promotion group name , which can be set up in the same way as the headlines information flow.

Promotion plan: After setting up the promotion group, the next step is to enter the promotion plan.

The first thing to consider when planning a promotion is the scope of delivery . The system defaults to “default”.

Delivery target : Toutiao search has 2 delivery targets, and the 2 targets correspond to 3 bidding methods. The conversion volume corresponds to ocpm and ocpc, and the click volume corresponds to cpc. For these two goals, we can use different groups to test them separately.

For conversion components , you can choose "landing page only" or "landing page + additional creative components". It is recommended to try both and set up different promotion groups or different promotion plans.

Link address , you can choose to build a website through the system or build your own website. As above, it is recommended to use one group or plan to test and compare to see whether the conversion rate of self-built websites is higher or the conversion rate of system-built websites is higher.

Conversion goals are usually form submissions or phone calls.

Direct links have no practical significance for Toutiao search and can be “disabled”.

After setting the delivery target, the next step is smart traffic . It should be noted that smart traffic is only for O mode bidding, and this function is not available under cpc mode bidding.

Behind the smart selection traffic is user targeting , which is consistent with the headlines information flow. Advertisers can choose according to their own business attributes. Among these targeting, we must pay attention to customized population and interest targeting, which is similar to the headlines information flow. In terms of targeting, you can try to optimize headline searches by optimizing headline information flow.

Budget and bid, seeing this, I believe everyone is very familiar with it. This part is actually the same as the headlines information flow. Let us explain them one by one.

Bidding method , generally choose manual. Of course, you can also try automatic bidding, depending on your familiarity with Toutiao products and your own preferences.

Regarding the delivery method , since the number of headline searches is actually not very large, it is recommended to give priority to volume. Of course, you can also choose the latter two.

Daily budget . A first-level budget is set in the promotion group, so the budget here can be left unset, or a larger value can be set to facilitate the system to allocate more traffic.

For the delivery time , generally select "Long-term delivery starting from today".

The delivery time period is based on the attributes of the search, so the time period setting is relatively flexible. It can also be delivered during the day, or even more frequently.

There is no need to explain the payment method , everyone knows it. Generally, I recommend ocpm first, then ocpc. If it is a CPC model, you need to bid for keywords. If you set a target conversion bid, you do not need to bid for keywords.

Target conversion bidding , based on the overall small volume of headline searches and the increasing competition, the conversion bid can be set to 3-5 times the information flow cost. Search ads are different from information flow ads. A high price in the cold start phase generally does not exceed the cost, so you can bid with confidence. If you are worried about over-cost, you can control the plan and start from 2 times and gradually increase the price (this suggestion comes from the experience of Aiqi author "Fatty Rong").

Filter converted users, usually by advertising account.

Keyword level , after the plan is set up, it reaches the keyword level.

As shown in the picture, you can add words directly in the background, or you can export the words and upload them according to the keyword template of Toutiao search. There are three points to note when searching for keywords on Toutiao:

The first point: the price is higher, the overall price is higher than Baidu;

The second point: the overall word count is small, most of them are short words, and there are very few long-tail words;

The third point: Toutiao search currently only has two types of matches, phrase and broad. Since the platform traffic is not large, you can set it broad first and then narrow the matching according to the situation later.

After uploading the keywords, it’s time to move on to the creative level.

At the creative level , we see that the advertising placements are mainly Toutiao and TikTok.

Advertising creative methods are divided into custom creativity and programmatic creativity . Generally, custom creativity is better.

Creative styles include horizontal video, vertical video, large picture banner, picture gallery, search large picture, and search small picture. Among them, the video style is mainly for Douyin, and the picture style is mainly for Toutiao.

After adding the creative, the following is the supporting information .

For source , just write the abbreviation of the company (brand).

Additional creative type , generally not set.

There are many options for calls to action , and you can choose according to your promotion purpose.

Title rewriting , if enabled, the system can intelligently rewrite your title. Because the system rewrites and you cannot control it, you usually choose "Not Enable".

Advertisement comments and suggestions are closed.

Creative display , usually the best choice.

After filling in the Creative Assist information, go to Brand Settings . This part is consistent with the headlines information flow, so I will not go into details here. Put the logo in the avatar, fill in the brand name, select the business category in the creative category below, and fill in some industry words, business words, etc. in the creative tag. The last third-party monitoring link is optional.

At this point, a Toutiao search account has been set up . Because search and information flow are different and have patterns, naturally there are various different words coming in, some of which we want and some of which we don’t want. Therefore, search promotions require frequent use of negative keywords. Negative keywords for headline searches are included in both the promotion group and the promotion plan.

Like Baidu, Toutiao’s search terms include broad search terms and precise search terms . Usually, the promotion team can just reject it, and the promotion plan can be rejected or not.

For negative words, I suggest taking some high-frequency words from Baidu’s negative word library and putting them in the headlines, so that you can be prepared for a rainy day.

After setting up an account and setting negative words, you can start promoting with one account normally. After launching, you can analyze and adjust based on the data

2. Advantages and Disadvantages

Next, I will talk about the “user experience” of Toutiao search promotion.

Advantages: Relatively speaking, the current competition is not particularly fierce; the quality of leads is higher than that of information flow; the cost is relatively controllable; the delivery method is novel, and other platforms may imitate and extend it in the future...

Disadvantages: small quantity; high price; matching is not particularly mature; creative review is strict; costs are sometimes unstable (slightly higher than Baidu); inconvenient operation; few functions; no premium settings...

Of course, I believe many people know this. But knowing is one thing, and doing it yourself is another. Only by doing it yourself can you know how to play Toutiao search.

3. Summary of the launch

1: The question of whether to place an ad. Some friends may think that it is unnecessary to place an ad on headline search. In fact, placing an ad on headline search is on the one hand to increase a source of leads , and on the other hand, more importantly, to gain more exposure to a new search promotion channel. The more you know, the more competitive you will be. If you learn how to “play” before others, you will have more initiative.

2: What is the appropriate investment proportion? It is not recommended to invest too much . Firstly, the current volume of headline searches is small, and secondly, the operation is inconvenient. If you invest too much, you may not achieve the desired effect. It can be used as a supplementary channel rather than a main channel. Wait until the product matures before investing more.

3: Comparison between Toutiao search materials and Baidu. Although Toutiao’s search is benchmarked against Baidu, there are still many imperfections and gaps in search promotion compared with Baidu. Although Baidu's traffic is declining now, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. If Toutiao wants to grab a piece of Baidu's pie, it needs to optimize its traffic, delivery system (there is no assistant yet) and the richness of its materials.

4: Word selection and bidding. You should invest more in short words and less in long-tail words . The model is set broadly in the early stage and narrowed down in the later stage . If you are bidding based on CPC, it is recommended that the price should not be too high. The system recommended bid is for reference only. Do not copy the system recommended bid.

5: Because the bidding model of Toutiao search covers keyword bidding and conversion bidding, you must grasp which bid to use for which word. For example, brand words and competitor words can use CPC bidding, and industry words can use O mode. This involves the problem of word segmentation. When setting up an account, you need to consider the matching of words and bidding methods. It is important to plan the account structure in advance.

6: Similar to information flow, because Toutiao search has a directional gene, it is not recommended to adjust it too frequently. Every time you make an adjustment, keep records and analyze it diligently. The method of adjusting Toutiao search has some similarities with information flow, so I personally think that you can refer to the method of Toutiao information flow to adjust the search, and you must explore it more on your own.

7: Data reporting issues. There are relatively few reports in the Toutiao search background, so it is best to learn how to integrate the reports yourself and see which ones are helpful to you. For example, targeted reports, time-sharing reports, planned reports, and keyword reports. You can try to use Baidu's data analysis method to analyze headlines searches, which is acceptable. There is no way to add tracking codes to Toutiao search keywords, so you cannot track the words, but you can track the pages.

8: Sharing working methods. Personally, I like to use mind maps to summarize problems, while some people like to use documents, Excel and spreadsheets to summarize problems. For a platform like Toutiao Search that is neither new nor old, if you really want to fully utilize it, you need to observe frequently, test more, and summarize more. Summarizing once a week means improving yourself once.

9: As mentioned before, the number of headlines is small. If you want to expand the number, you can only add materials. Adding more words is a good method. Headline search sometimes encounters a situation where there is little advertising, but both the quantity and cost are reasonable. However, once the scale is expanded, the problem of high costs will arise. Therefore, you need to strike this balance based on your own experience.

10: Because Toutiao Search is currently in the growth and maturity stage. So there is no need to complain about the disadvantages, and you can seize the benefits early. Regarding the account optimization of Toutiao search, it is mentioned in points 6 and 7. In summary, the operational ideas can refer to the Toutiao information flow, and the data analysis can refer to Baidu search promotion . The difficulty of headline search lies in the audience package and interest targeting in the targeted stage. Your settings are related to the quality of your leads. In addition, pay attention to the combination of creativity and landing page in O mode. We will summarize these details for you later.

The above is some organization and summary of the ideas for setting up and launching Toutiao search accounts.