In-depth analysis of information flow, splash screen, and incentive video advertising!

Mobile advertising comes in many forms. For mobile media with advertising monetization needs, which one should be embedded in their own APP?

Today, Meishujun will combine industry data and its own advertising and monetization experience to analyze the delivery performance, monetization effects, etc. of various advertising formats for media partners from a third-party perspective, so that the media can be more targeted in designing advertising formats and maximize traffic monetization benefits!

Information flow advertising

Refers to advertisements inserted when users are browsing or reading content. The main display forms include text + small picture, text + large picture, text + three pictures, text + multiple pictures, text + video/short video, etc.; CPC billing is mainly based, and CPM, CPA, etc. can also be used.

Advertising performance analysis

1) Click on the performance

eMarketer data shows that the click-through rate of native ads is very impressive, among which the click-through rate of pet, food, beverage, and transportation ads is relatively leading, reaching about 1%; in addition, the "White Paper on Advertising Value Assessment under Fine-grained Population Targeting" released by ByteDance also shows that the click-through rate of information flow ads varies greatly depending on the nature of the industry. The click-through rates of advertisements in the construction and real estate, IT product, travel and tourism, and food and beverage categories are relatively high, generally around 2%; due to their strong vertical attributes, the click-through rates of information flow advertisements in the education and culture, and maternal and child products categories are relatively low, at around 1%; in addition, looking at the data analysis of Meishu's daily 1.6 billion ad requests, the click-through rate of its information flow advertisements is generally maintained at around 1-3%.

In general, if the audience is targeted accurately and the creative materials are high-quality and original, the click performance of information flow advertising will be considerable and better than other forms of advertising. For example, data shows that the click-through rate of information flow ads is usually nearly 50% higher than that of banner ads. In addition, it is worth noting that according to Meishu’s experience in advertising, the click-through rate of video information flow ads can be increased by 30%-60% compared to text and image information flow ads.

2) Other delivery performance

IPG & Sharethrough research shows that compared with banner ads, news feed native ads have 9% higher brand affinity and increase purchase intention by 18%; in addition, the main findings of the study include: consumers watch native ads 53% more frequently than display ads; the number of consumers who watch news feed ads is 25% higher than the number of consumers who watch ordinary ads. It can be seen that information flow advertising has higher user attention and favorability; at the same time, it can also bring better advertising conversion effects to a certain extent.

Meishujun said: With the advantages of native display, low interference, diverse forms, and low threshold (suitable for advertisers of all sizes), information flow advertising has become the most popular advertising form among advertisers (CTR data); and its click and conversion effects are also relatively outstanding. Therefore, if the media platform environment and content environment permit, information flow can be used as a necessary option for advertising monetization.

Delivery suggestions:

1) Information flow advertising is suitable for delivering performance-based advertising;

2) Information flow advertising is suitable for advertisers of any size and in various industries. However, when the media places information flow ads, they must strictly review the advertiser's creative ideas and material formats to ensure that they are coordinated and integrated with the media's tone, interface style, contextual content, etc. Only in this way can the ads be more native without damaging the user experience, and the advertising effect will be more significant.

Splash screen ads

Splash screen ads refer to full-screen or half-screen ads that appear when an APP starts loading; they can be static images, dynamic videos, Flash, etc.; they are usually charged on a CPD/CPT or CPM basis and are relatively expensive.

Advertising performance analysis

1) Exposure/reach performance

Generally, as long as the APP covers and uses the population, mandatory splash screen advertising can be pushed, so the exposure rate of splash screen advertising can be said to be the highest among all mobile advertising forms; in addition, the advantage of forced exposure can also ensure a 100% reach rate for splash screen advertising.

2) Click on the performance

Judging from industry data and Meishu’s monetization effect data, the average click-through rate of splash screen ads can reach around 5%. Among them, the click-through rates of the splash screen ads of Meisu’s partner celebrity media such as Lazy Listening to Books and Caiyun Weather were even higher, reaching up to 12% and 8% respectively. Compared with other forms of advertising, the click-through rate of splash screen ads is significantly better.

3) Other delivery performance

a) Strong eye-catching ability. According to the "2018 China Mobile Internet User Behavior Insight Report" released by InMobi, APP splash screen ads are the most eye-catching and users pay the most attention to them, reaching as high as 61.1%. Therefore, compared with other forms of advertising, splash screen ads can greatly enhance brand exposure and publicity effects. b) Strong brand memory. The "first impression effect" in psychology proves that people tend to have a deep psychological imprint and impression of the things they see for the first time; in addition, according to the research conclusions of the well-known market research company Neuro-Insight: when users first browse information, their brain reaction and memory are at their best. The splash screen ad is the "first entrance" after entering the APP, so it can seize the best communication opportunity, allowing the brand to effectively capture the user's mind and deepen the audience's brand impression.

Meishujun said: The "2019 China Advertiser Marketing Trend Survey Report" released by CTR shows that APP splash screen ads are the third most popular ads among advertisers after big V/public account soft-text ads and information flow ads, and their performance in all dimensions is relatively good. Therefore, for the media, splash screen ads can be an excellent choice for traffic monetization.

Delivery suggestions:

1) Splash screen ads are generally recommended to advertisers who want to promote products, launch new products, or promote large-scale events;

2) If the advertiser has sufficient budget and is well-known and authoritative, it is generally recommended that they run splash screen ads;

3) Select advertisers and their materials that match the APP’s tone and target audience attributes. For example, for the splash screen ads of office and learning apps such as Kingsoft PowerWord and WPS, it is best to choose advertisers in the education industry; for the splash screen ads of mother and baby apps such as Mayu, Auntie, and WisdomTree, it is best to choose e-commerce advertisers (women's products, baby products, etc.) to improve the effectiveness of advertising (high target audience matching) without damaging the audience's favorability towards the media.

Rewarded video ads

Incentive video ads are ads that trigger users to get corresponding rewards or user rights after watching the video. For example, incentivized video ads in gaming apps mean that after users watch a video ad from an advertiser (such as a financial advertiser), they can get game-related rewards such as resurrection, gold coins, and equipment. Generally, it is charged through CPM, CPC, and CPD (download).

Advertising performance analysis

1) Click & Conversion Performance

According to data from Pangolin, the click-through rate of rewarded video ads is about 4 times higher than other forms of advertising, and the conversion rate is about 3.6 times higher. According to data from Tapjoy, the world's leading mobile advertising platform: the video viewing completion rate of rewarded video ads can be as high as 90%, so the probability of deep conversion of ads is also improved - the average CTR can reach 4%.

2) Other delivery performance

a) Higher monetization efficiency. Adcolony data shows that compared with other advertising forms such as banners and static interstitials, incentivized video ads can achieve higher eCPMs. In addition, iResearch data also shows that 73% and 81% of the overall advertising revenue of gaming apps on iOS and Android, respectively, comes from incentivized video ads. b) Higher product satisfaction. Incentive video ads can give users the right to choose (to watch or not watch ads), and if users choose to watch ads, they can also get some useful equity rewards. Therefore, the user intuitive experience of incentivized video ads is better than other forms of advertising. According to Unity Technologies data: 78% of users have a positive response to incentivized video ads on mobile devices (games); using incentivized video ads, APP retention can be increased by at least 4 times.

Meishujun said: Video is the general trend, including advertising. However, the prices of conventional video ads (patches, etc.) and short video ads are "unaffordable". In comparison, incentivized video ads are more "cost-effective" and therefore are favored by more advertisers. At the same time, incentivized video ads can bring a win-win effect - the incentive mechanism can invisibly bring advertisers higher advertising conversion rates, in-app purchase rates, etc.; for the media, incentivized video ads have higher eCPM and can bring more substantial monetization benefits. Therefore, if the media scenario is suitable, such as game scenarios or payment scenarios ("watch ads to get membership", "watch ads to get points", "watch ads to get space", etc.), many types of apps such as games, videos (such as iQiyi), music (such as NetEase Cloud Music), audio (such as Qingting FM, Lazy Listening), reading (such as Kuaikan Comics, Palm Reader), tools (such as Baidu Cloud, WPS, etc.), knowledge communities (such as Douban, etc.), etc., can use incentive video ads as an incremental expansion entry.

Delivery suggestions:

1) As an advertising distribution platform, before publishing incentive ads, the media must first accurately locate and profile the target users, and then deliver targeted ads to them; thereby making the brand and the audience more efficiently aligned, while not compromising the user experience and improving the conversion efficiency of advertisers;

2) Advertisers and their materials that are seriously inconsistent with the media’s tone should be strictly restricted from advertising;

3) Both developers and advertisers hope that users will not just be interested in the rewards, but will actually be interested in the advertising content. Therefore, it is even more necessary to release high-quality video materials;

4) According to Meishu’s advertising data, more and more brand owners are beginning to try out incentive video advertising, and have achieved good results. Among them, e-commerce, app downloads, travel, and automobile advertisers are typical. On the other hand, if it is a non-gaming app, the incentive video ad space can also be recommended to gaming advertisers.

So far, we have roughly introduced the performance and placement recommendations of information flow, splash screen, and incentive video ads. If you are a media company that has an urgent need to monetize advertising but don’t know where to start, Meishujun believes that splash screen advertising can be the initial starting point for your commercialization layout; and if you are a content streaming media company, embedding information flow advertising may be your only choice to improve monetization efficiency; in addition, if your APP can meet the rigid needs of users (who may also need to pay), then rewarded video advertising may provide you with a new opportunity for profit growth...

Author: Meishu Technology

Source: AdxData